February 4, 2011. One of Durban’s favourite writer / actors / directors, Greig Coetzee – now based in London – has returned to KZN for a short season of two of his best loved one-handers: White Men With Weapons and Johnny Boskak is Feeling Funny staged at the Catalina for a short season in February.
The Ridge Online attended the press evening on Thursday night in which Coetzee performed Johnny Boskak is Feeling Funny accompanied by Durban guitar maestro and staunch Umbilonian Syd Kitchen.
Coetzee took the audience on a highly personal, rampaging journey across the South African landscape . . . bringing his intense, personal brand of storytelling to an appreciative audience. All this in perfect sync with Kitchen’s delicate and soulful accompaniment.
It’s always a privilege to see one person dominate the stage with such energy, professionalism and, let’s face it, talent.
White Men with Weapons won a fleet of national and international awards including two awards at the Edinburgh Fringe, and responds to Coetzee’s time as a military conscript in the old South African Defence Force. It became an iconic production voicing the challenges, frustrations and absurdities of serving in the SADF.
This show alternates with Johnny Boskak Is Feeling Funny, which tells of a hard hitting road trip from hell, performed in rhyming couplets. Combine Shakespearean verse and American Rap to write a South African Natural Born Killers using Johannesburg slang, and you might come up with Greig Coetzee’s Johnny Boskak Is Feeling Funny – a love story, a quest for faith and a car chase that takes the audience across South Africa, from Durban to Secunda to Hillbrow to Hell and back again.
Also described as “A tragicomedy about a whitey and his bubblegum, lip-gloss, kick-arse, troublesome cherry”.
Fri, Feb 4 at 6pm: Johnny Boskak Is Feeling Funny
Fri, Feb 4 at 8pm: White Men with Weapons
Sat, Feb 5 at 6pm: White Men with Weapons
Sat, Feb 5 at 8pm: Johnny Boskak Is Feeling Funny
Sun, Feb 6 at 6pm: Johnny Boskak Is Feeling Funny (final)
For more info or to book tickets contact the Catalina Theatre at 031 305 6889.