The insanely boring life…

The past week, various schools’ One Act Plays have been competing in the Cape Regional Semi-Finals for the ATKV. Every night this past week, four to five productions were shown every night. Our One Act Play performed on Thursday.

Friday night, four schools were picked to perform on Saturday, which were the Regional Finals. Those four productions were:

• Brackenfell High School with “Die Spinner”  (Translation: The Spinner)
• Tygerberg High School with “Afskeid” (Translation: Farewell)
• Jan van Riebeeck High School with “Janblom Dans ‘n Masurka” (Translation: Janblom dances a Mazurka)
• Durbanville High School (my school) with “En Toe Dans Die Poppe” (Translation: And Then The Puppets Danced”)

The school who won Saturday would go to the national competition. The competition was very strict, that I have to admit.

“Die Spinner” is about this army-soldier-person who has a split personality and was at the border. It is a difficult piece to follow, because there is very little actual story line. I also don’t think they had cast the right guy for the role. It is a one man play.

“Afskeid” is about a boy who is in his final year of school and he has to ask a girl to the Matric Farewell. He eventually does this, but when it is time for them to have some fun by the river, it is discovered that he only used the girl so that he can wear her dress. It is a nice story, but a little messy and there is no real emotion.

“Janblom Dans ‘n Masurka” is the classic story of the frog who turned into a prince and then back into a frog. It was given a little twist, though. It incorporated a sub-plot of a beauty pageant being held and the winner would get the prince. It was a beautiful piece to watch - every single detail was precisely planned out. It is painstakingly perfect, but because it is so perfect, it doesn’t have any heart. It is as cold as ice.

“En Toe Dans Die Poppe” is about two groups of puppets who live in a storage room: The Crash Test Dummies and the Shop Manikins. The two groups hate each other, however, Vincent and Dolla fall in love. The only problem is that Vincent is a manikin and Dolla is a Crash Test Dummy. Their love is forbidden by both groups, but they eventually find a way to love each other by Vincent’s death at the end. The whole play is a metaphor of Apartheid in South Africa a few years ago. I play a Crash Test Dummy - number four.

Anyway, so we all performed again on Saturday and the judges announced the piece that won the regional finals. I have to say that it was very surprising: Our piece won!

Of course, we are all overblown with joy and elation, but now the hard work lies ahead. We have to make our piece even better so that we can do our best at the nationals!