“I found out we really like somebody else to dress up as us so we can see ourselves from the outside,” he says. “Not when it’s for the purpose of mocking or being mocked, but for the purpose of trying to do our very best in becoming the other person. And then it’s ‘Oh, do I actually speak like this?’ And it becomes a conversation, and I find it very powerful. But when it comes to mocking or using your power over others by telling their story, I think that is problematic.”
Humour, nonetheless, is a big part of Biering’s process – “having fun and playing with things” – and of the end production.
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“At the same time, I’m always aiming for the spot where it hurts,” he says. “In this production, my co-director, Nhlanhla Mahlangu, was always pushing the actors to relate personally to everything they were doing. So when you see this production, it’s not just a western about European migration. It’s also a production about these people’s experiences living in townships where killing and shooting was the daily life, and where the sheriff was not necessarily at work every day. Also, the set design is kind of in between a western setting and what the actors recall of a township setting in Jo’burg.”
Biering doesn’t believe theatre holds a mirror up to life so much as it provides insights, and he encourages the actors to bring their own personalities to bear in their performances. He believes this deepens the theatrical experience, and gives audiences a sense of getting to know other people in a different way from reading about them or watching a documentary.
The show was devised via workshops held firstly in Johannesburg and then in Copenhagen, and from these a script emerged, in which the audience plays a part in populating the town that’s constructed in the course of the show. As part of the immersive experience, audience members might become anything from saloon patrons to builders. So, should anyone who’s terrified of audience participation shy away?
“No. Absolutely not,” Biering insists. “Now I’ve been doing this for the last 25 years, I’m very confident in saying that you don’t have to be afraid, because I’ve had audiences who are super afraid of this and really hate it from the bottom of their hearts. And they have said, ‘Oh, that’s interesting because I didn’t have that feeling.’
“It’s very much about how you’re doing it … I am pretty sure that nobody has been walking out saying that this was uncomfortable, because I think I’ve been very observant about what works and what doesn’t work. I really hate it myself, so I’m the best one to test it on!”
Dark Noon: Sydney Town Hall, January 9-23.
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