ArtSpoken & Reviews
Raiders attains its Festival majorityBob Eveleigh06/18/2010 10:58:04 
Bob Eveleigh: It was back in 1989, when first visiting the National Arts Festival as an Arts Editor, that I encountered Raiders of the Lost Aardvark. That was when Nicholas Ellenbogen, previously manager of the old Napac Drama Company, initially visited Grahamstown with his Theatre for Africa group in a programme of ethnic African/ environmental shows that also included a little something called Raiders of the Lost Aardvark. The minimal booking kit information indicated it was on the "Comedy" Fringe, created and performed by Nicholas Ellenbogen and Ellis Pearson . So it was that, on a rainy, cold winter's day in early July, my ex-Grahamstonian wife and I found ourselves at DSG Hall at the premiere of what was to become what moviemakers would call the "Raiders" franchise. As part of a capacity audience, we entered and saw, lined up on-stage, an array of ordinary household object props - bottles, empty cans, whisk, string, matches etc. And, oh yes, a Dinky Toy-sized model yellow Tiger Moth and two spaces on the floor with cross-pieces of wood representing wings and fuselage of a bigger version of the aircraft - the titular "Aardvark". Enter Messrs Pearson, playing intrepid flier Salty Hepburn, and Ellenbogen, playing most of the host of other male and female characters. Most? Yes, because the further supporting cast was soon provided via much hilarious audience participation. As to the content of the one-hour production, I cannot recall the actual plot and I use the word "production" loosely since no two performances ever turned out to be exactly alike as the verbal puns, sight gags and one-liners in the "script" flew fast and furiously after Ellenbogen's introduction of what was going to happen in this very first edition of what I called "home-made theatre". But a legend was born that rainy, dreary morning as the message about the hilarity prevailing in every Raiders minute quickly did the rounds. My Saturday review was an absolute rave and boomeranged back to me the following year when, after Theatre for Africa wowed the Edinburgh Festival, a selection of their shows toured South Africa - including a Barn run, preceded by a media kit that Ellenbogen had the temerity to send me with my own critique, as the first ever to be published about Raiders, as its front page! Ensuing years saw annual variations on the Raiders theme, often with environmental themes underlying the laugh-raising, created by Ellenbogen and a succession of partners in crime, whose large number included the likes of Andrew Buckland, James Ngcobo, David Kramer, Stephen Jennings, Jody Abrahams and Rob van Vuuren. No one was safe in a Raiders audience given the creators' penchant for drawing onlookers into the action. Usually critics are exempt from such involvement but on one memorable occasion Nicholas and his then co-star, Andrew Brent, plucked me on-stage, in an American-set tale, to portray US President Abraham Lincoln, stove pipe hat and all - and be "assassinated", accompanied by a typical Ellenbogen ad lib that that's what we should do to all the critics. On another occasion, having neglected to book in advance, pitching up at showtime found us sitting side-stage, whereafter Nicholas kept chatting to me and seeking advice, which must have seemed rather odd to at least 95% of the audience who probably had no idea who I was! Ellis Pearson went on to become the foremost purveyor of physical theatre and mime in this country and has another of his fun environmental message street theatre presentations, Man Up a Tree, on the Drostdy lawns in the Festival programme this year. By 2007, Luke Ellenbogen, following in the footsteps of brother Matthew, joined his Dad on-stage in Raiders - Rasputin's Rectangle, when the Festival perennial moved from DSG to a new home, PJ's. Luke takes over the Salty Hepburn role in 2010's extra-long revival (it runs 90 minutes) of the original "story", with Chris Weare doing his best to "direct" father and son in this zany romp. There can be no doubt that Raiders has become the Festival institution - it would have celebrated its 21st anniversary last year but that Nicholas (who, incidentally, is the man who exclaims "Give that man a Bells!" in a current TV commercial) opted not to do a Raiders once in the 1990s. But a genuine backlash and audience demand saw it back on the Fringe 12 months later. So happy birthday, Raiders - who knows what mayhem you have in store for patrons this 21st year? Raiders of the Lost Aardvark will be at PJ's daily at 10am from June 20 to July 4, excluding June 28, with a special extra 21st birthday performance on July 2 at 7.30pm. Bob Eveleigh beveleigh@centrestage.co.za |
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