coronation

Last night we went to go see Nataniёl's new production, Coronation. If you're living in South Africa, and you've not been to see Nataniёl yet, you're missing out on a large piece of our culture and colour. He's brilliant, fabulous, fantastic, amazing. I've waxed lyrical about him before, when we went to go see Men Who Fly, but he really is that good.

Last night's story - he creates all his songs, stories, anecdotes around a central theme for each production - was about finding your place in the world, and how many people confuse this with the pursuit of power. Filled with stories of people in cities, people in small towns, people with small minds, people with big hearts, he paints a wonderful picture of South Africa-and in fact history - with all its good and bad, but mostly, all the humour there is to be seen and experienced if you'll only look at things slightly differently. The word that best fits him is "poignant".

He carries himself like a prince from a long-forgotten royal court. Hand gestures are precise and considered, there's no excess in gesture, but plenty in costume.

As a performer in South Africa, Nataniёl is singular in his craft.

"A king too shy to appear in public, a dictator eating his subjects, a pregnant beauty queen, a commander in love with the enemy, through the ages history has provided us with countless examples of the unbelievable and the royally insane.

Coronation takes a look at the madness and absurdity of power and those whose lives are ruled by it, those who will die in pursuit of it, those who will die being oppressed by it, those who will die defying it and those not realizing they are in possession of it." - mambaonline.com