Review: Witty and Goofy, WHISTLE STOP a Playful Riff on the Meet-Cute

WHISTLE STOP, Ameera Patel's play about a brief encounter between a man and a woman in a park, is being revived at the National Arts Festival by Dark Laugh Theatre Company and Hijinks Theatre this year. Having won a Standard Bank Ovation Award at the National Arts Festival in 2014, the play is an absurd take on the meet-cute trope that is a staple of romantic comedies. What sets WHISTLE STOP apart from a typical meet-cute is that the audience is privy not only to the conversation between the characters on stage but also to their thoughts. Adding further dimension to the piece is its highly physical staging, allowing an essentially text-driven play access more complicated modes of expression.

The play begins with a woman sitting on a park bench. She is whistling. A man walks past her. He cannot stand whistling. It appears that they have noticed each other before, but they have never spoken until the day on which WHISTLE STOP takes place. The two talk themselves into awkward and embarrassing situations, sometimes by lying and sometimes by telling the truth. There are times when the conversation takes a hostile bent as each character battles his or her own demons as well as a few awakened by the other, all leading towards a sudden, ambiguous and violently comic resolution.

Patel's writing in WHISTLE STOP embraces the full extent of the absurd situation she has chosen to explore. By turns witty and goofy, her text milks the scenario for humour, a self-aware poignancy and even a little social commentary. The piece acknowledges that people who share public spaces notice each other, that they project feelings onto one another and imagine the intended response that they might receive were they to establish a connection. In a climate where isolation is prized as much as connection, and where many people attempt to claim the mantle of the introvert as defined by behavioural memes on social media, this admission has resonance. WHISTLE STOP is a reminder of the power of the gendered gaze as a tool for both constructing and deconstructing social narratives, although the play avoids any heavy-handedness in its observations and presents these in a mostly playful manner.

Patel herself performs the piece with Jaques de Silva. Although De Silva is a more nuanced physical performer than Patel, the pair works well together, deftly negotiating the shifting chemistry between the two characters. Both tackle the text with dexterous vocal work that serves the characters as well as the text itself.

Frances Slabolepszy's direction of WHISTLE STOP serves the distinct rhythms in Patel's writing well. Using the actors' bodies and a single bench on stage, Slabolepszy builds the production around a series of images, often whimsical and always clever. As the realities of the characters shift further and further into the absurd, so does the staging of the production. The bench becomes a symbol for the emotional states experienced by the characters, while the choreography becomes less casual, with the imagery becoming more and more formally composed.

With the bench comprising the scenic design in its entirety, the other elements of design - which are uncredited in the Festival programme - draw the audience's eye. The design of the costume pieced together for Da Silva is particularly effective as an enhancement of story and character. His neat shirt, tie and trousers become untidier as the play progresses, an ingenious reflection of the character's development. Patel's dress does not function quite as well, the costume she wore in the 2014 run of the show, seen in the photographs that illustrate this review, being much more suitable. The lighting design, as in many presentations at the Festival, is serviceable.

With the Mail and Guardian having named Patel as one of their 200 Young South Africans of 2016, it is interesting to see WHISTLE STOP as evidence of the cache of work that earned her this accolade. Calling herself a storyteller, Patel explores her diverse interests, such family, womanhood and feminism through a wide range of written, spoken and performed media. If WHISTLE STOP is but a harbinger of her potential, it will be interesting to see what she creates when she turns her hand to playwriting once more.

WHISTLE STOP runs at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, with performances taking place at the Drill Hall on 2 July at 16:00, 5 July at 20:30, 6 July at 18:00, 8 July at 12:00 and 9 July at 14:00. Bookings are through the National Arts Festival website.

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