★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
This play is about identity in South Africa and to give you an idea of how complicated it is, it has a total of four names. There’s the English one, the Zulu (Ngiyakubona), the Afrikaans (Ek Sien Jou) and the Xhosa (Ndiyakubona). Our heads are spinning and nothing has happened yet.
It is very clever the way this play confuses us, only to untangle it a bit later. I See You, written by the South African Mongiwekhaya, is part thriller, part identity crisis, the story of a Friday night gone wrong for a guy named Ben, a law student who is black but doesn’t use his African name.
He hooks up with an Afrikaans girl who says her name is Skinn. They drive off, flirting in a South African way, fighting about their names and why he doesn’t speak Afrikaans, to do what young people do (“Shall we smoke, it’s Swazi gold?”).
We, they, are blinded by headlights as the car is stopped by the police. One of the cops, Buthelezi, is fuelled by anger, at his estranged wife as well as the world, for he is a violent man, a disenchanted former freedom fighter. He is furious at Ben for not using his Xhosa name. “Speak to me in your mother-tongue and I will let you go,” he shouts, circling, incredibly intense.
All the ingredients are there for a seriously bad Friday night. Angry cop, confused student, bonkers semi-girlfriend. And it all gets even worse when Ben refuses to sign a consent form for a drink-driving blood test (well, he is a law student). Soon Buthelezi displays a talent for torture while Skinn rushes around (most unconvincingly) trying to save him.
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Mongiwekhaya’s play is an ambitious undertaking, particularly successful in how it intermingles all the languages. It is also the directorial debut of Noma Dumezweni, who is normally on stage acting (and will be playing Hermione in the upcoming Harry Potter play).
I See You, however, is trying to do an awful lot in 80 minutes (without an interval). Some of the action seems contrived and the characters a little sketchy, particularly Buthelezi, who comes across as a thug more than anything else. The set by Soutra Gilmour is almost too sparse. Jordan Baker is outstanding as Skinn and so is Desmond Dube as Buthelezi.
What really works here, and is most refreshing, is how modern the story feels, not mired in myth or political correctness. It’s a post-apartheid play, exploring identity and power, Africa and the West, white and black. And, by the way, Ben’s other name is Somandla.
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