Melvyn Minnaar reviews Meet Market
How interred history reawakens to haunt the present is vividly (and spookily) visualised in the famous opening sequence of Lars von Trier’s 1994 TV soap series Riget (The Kingdom). Something of that charged ambience, mysterious and engaging, wretched and comical, is evoked by the wilted lawn that temporarily carpets Church Square (recently repaved and gentrified, again) and the happenings on that grass during this flagship Infecting the City performance.
Underneath, there is much to be unearthed at this historic site, where once the rituals of slave trade and colonial imperialism were performed. Surrounded by the edifices of, and about, the past (an important church, grand buildings of bureaucracy, a slave memorial and museum), it’s a civic space that has a tight grip on what anyone attempts there as public spectacle.
The end question then about this collaborative production, involving artists from various backgrounds and a large group of performers, is how far it succeeds in unlocking that hold of history. And, remember, this has to be done on a buzzing street corner, which requires high performance values to pull in and hold the attention of the passer-by.
A number of strategies are employed in Meet Market; many, following this year’s theme, trace ritual: the sharpening of knives, coordinated group movements (gumboot dancing), buckets of water passed on, and the cleansing of the memorial blocks (one of the gripping moments), and singing.
Interruption of the status quo is another stratagem: a man shouts from the roof of a neighbouring building, a woman scrubs the church steps (another ‘cleansing’), a blind troupe of musicians march, a couple with silly dogs walk among the performers. These flashes of Fellini-like absurdity is meant to tease and disorientate, and it does.
Then there are the performers. Skilled Andrew Buckland takes centre stage, as it were. His presence (demonic butcher, comic poltroon), all body language, is highly physical. It drives the half hour along, starting with the knife-sharpening over a slaughter table, and ending with him pulling the metal slab along in burdened atonement.
A large, widely ‘representative cast’ perform various actions along the way, including ‘finding’ objects in the grass, and, finally, breaking away into the crowd, telling individual stories. The latter is quite effective, suggesting that many ghosts are given voice; then they disappear into the street crowd.
Whether they – and all the previous ‘actions’ of Meet Market – have succeeded in cracking the square’s history, unearthed and activated some of those darker Cape truths, is probably best asked of the wide-eyed youngsters on the corner and the couple of tourists who wandered in on the show. For those of us, somewhat prompted and prepared for a thrill, the whole thing felt a little too loose. Rituals need a certain inevitable pulse, dramatic street gestures a bolder, clearer stance, and, who knows, a deft hand at Von Trier-style intrigue.
– Melvyn Minnaar is an art critic
