Teevee and High Fivers

MY mother used to say that amid the immense complexity of her existence, she was able to truly love only one of the men in her life. I went in search of five songs that remind me of my mother's understanding of love and that are not entirely foreign to my own life experiences on the highways of the world.

1. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face — Roberta Flack

The song was written by Ewan MacColl for his wife Peggy Seeger. She recorded it for the first time in 1957 with the title The First Time. Various folk singers made various arrangements before Flack recorded it in 1972. For some reason, her soulful version reminds me of the birth of my daughter, especially the first few verses.

2. Ne me quitte pas — Jacques Brel

Brel wrote the song after his lover, Zizou (Suzanne Gabriello), left him. Zizou was pregnant with Brel's child but he initially disputed paternity. The cruelty of an abortion was the only outcome. Been there, done that. Learnt to live with its morbid nostalgia.

3. Both Sides Now — Dave van Ronk

I must have listened a million times to this performance by Dave van Ronk of Joni Mitchell's song. For its poetic value but even more for the special way in which Van Ronk makes the song his own. Mitchell's comparative metaphors in the first stanza are beautiful poetry. As a poem, this adaptation reminds me of the fragility in the words of Ingrid Jonker.

“Rows and flows of angel hair and ice cream castles in the air and feather canyons everywhere I've looked at clouds that way…”

4. House of the Risin' Sun — Bob Dylan

Everyone knows The Animals' version of House of the Risin' Sun. Even before Dylan recorded it for his first album in 1962, the song was part of the Greenwich Village repertoire. It tells the story of a life in New Orleans finally falling apart under the pressure of temptation. The first written version dates from the 1930s but the song's history probably goes back much further. However, Dylan stole this lyrical arrangement by Van Ronk. The matter is discussed quite extensively in the legendary 2005 Dylan documentary No Direction Home. I played it for my Dear Ex in the years when we were still together; her reaction of astonishment to something so raw and brilliant was one of the reasons for my love for her.

5. Drive All Night — Glen Hansard

Hansard does a good cover of a song written by Bruce Springsteen for his album The River. Depending on your interpretation, most verses repeat his suffering over the loss of a loved one. The chorus is brilliant in its simplicity; so much effort for the privilege of a little more time with her: “I swear I'll drive all night just to buy you some shoes / And to taste your tender charms." Clarence Clemons on sax also played in Springsteen's E-Street Band. Hansard's adaptation reminds me of my mother's insistence that she and humanity are only capable of truly loving once.

What to watch

Poor Things (Disney+)
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
With: Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, Christoper Abbott, Jerrod Carmichael

Bohemians around the world were disappointed when Lanthimos's fantasy film version of Alasdair Gray's satirical feminist novel failed to win the best film Oscar this year. It could just as well have, because it has all the elements that make a film extraordinary and universally striking. It has probably already achieved cult status.

The script is razor-sharp and bitterly funny, the styling is almost unbelievable, and the acting … well, you can't really expect better. It's hard not to breathlessly unspool a string of adjectives about the film.

Several reviewers have noted that Lanthimos softens the novel's satirical and feminist themes by about two clicks to the left and gives the dark comic elements a turbo kick, but it works, it works, it works.

The premise is that an eccentric and bizarre surgeon, Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), transplants the living brain of the unborn baby of a deceased woman, Bella (Emma Stone), who has committed suicide, into the mother and thus raises her from the dead. Baxter encourages his naive and mild-mannered assistant, Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef), to marry the childlike Bella, but Bella turns out to be a delightful person and sails into the world with a wanton lawyer, Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo).

Fans of Dafoe, Youssef and Ruffalo will curl up with delight but it's Stone who hots up the silver screen. She won the Oscar for best female actor in a leading role, and almost every other top award in the world.

Documentary mini series

Tracking Thabo Bester (Showmax)
Director: Nikki Comninos

A weak documentary about a weak subject is unwatchable, but a weak documentary about an irresistible subject can still be compelling. This four-part series tells the story of the rapist, murderer and flamboyant swindler Thabo Bester's daring and audacious escape in May 2022. It was from a maximum security prison in Bloemfontein with the active support of a Johannesburg cosmetic doctor who had a glamorous profile on social media, Nandipha Magudumana. We are talking here about probably the most keenly followed news story outside of politics in the last five years.

It is a shame that the director, Nikki Comninos, only uses information that has already been covered in the media — but they remain some of the most sensational facts in the history of South African media. If you haven't been able to follow the story day after day, this is your chance. Unfortunately, the producers chose to build up the tension and the sinister elements in the documentary with disturbing and intrusive background music. Probably in an attempt to engage a younger audience, we also hear the frivolous and inappropriate opinions of a bunch of spastic influencers and TikTokkers.

Fortunately, this is counterbalanced by the engaging personalities of Marecia Damons and Daniel Steyn, the journalists who initially broke the story for their publication, GroundUp. However, the central question that such a documentary should at least attempt to investigate remains unanswered: how did a sleazeball like Bester gain complete control over an educated and sophisticated woman like Magudumana from a prison cell? Despite the shortcomings, it remains an amazing story.

KKNK round-up

Celeste Theron, a writer and artist from Pretoria, chooses her five favourite productions.

#1 Die vegetariër

It's very disturbing, but the play I enjoyed the most. It is a stage adaptation of the Korean author Han Kang's novel The Vegetarian, winner of the 2016 Man Booker International Prize. They were still a married couple when one day she stopped eating meat…

Text: Willem Anker Production: Jaco BouwerWith: Tinarie van Wyk Loots, Wilhelm van der Walt, Eben Genis and Melissa Myburgh

#2 Veelhoek

Jana Cilliers' first play as a writer has just been honoured with the Kunste Onbeperk prize for acting — with Cilliers and Ludwig Binge. The play is about a conversation between Jana and her cousin, Barnard Gilliland, a promising poet who died at 24. Veelhoek is the name of his debut collection.

#3 Patmos

A small town is hit by a meteorite. Three people, floating in the cosmos, try to find each other. What happens when you step over that final threshold of the event horizon and slide into a gravitational vortex?

Text: Willem Anker Production: Jaco BouwerWith: Tinarie van Wyk Loots, Marlo Minnaar, Eben Genis, René Cloete and Marelize Viljoen

#4 Die Swartmerrie

Touching and unforgettable. The Karoo Kaarte theatre team creates a site-specific production around the old railway station.

Text and production: Tiffany Saterdaght and Neil CoppenWith: Chantell Phillipus, Theo Witbooi, Janion Kennedy, Jermaine Bruintjies and Melikhaya Blou

#5 Braam en die engel

The beloved children's book has been adapted into a magical multidisciplinary theatre experience.

Production: Nico ScheepersWith: Joanie Combrink, De Klerk Oelofse, Rehane Abrahams, Marelize Viljoen, Timothy Isaacs and Shaun Oelf

♦ VWB ♦

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