Woordfees: Mike en Mavis

Die sjarmante Mike oorrompel die agterdogtige Mavis in hierdie vars, optimistiese komedie uit die pen van Wessel Pretorius. Daar is nog op 5 en 6 Maart vertonings by die US Woordfees.

Mavis (Elize Cawood) has tackled her autumn years with all the level-headedness and good sense one would expect from a proper Dopper lady to whom leaving the house without an umbrella seems like a woefully reckless act. All propriety seems to fly out the window, however, when Mavis meets Mike (Wilson Dunster) at the opening of a new bioscope. When Mavis isn’t out tentatively falling for Mike, she’s home composing emails to her travelling daughter. These letters are emotive and restrained all at once, and reveal some of the older woman’s inner struggle between practicality and heartfelt abandon.

Good chemistry comes easily to Cawood and Dunster, of course, and they waltz their way through Wessel Pretorius’s superb text with a kind of spiritual light-footedness that many other actors could only dream of. Cawood’s more laconic moments are —each and every one of them— perfectly timed and executed comedic masterstrokes, and Dunster makes for a devilishly charming rogue.

The production, directed by Gerrit Schoonhoven, makes excellent use of lighting, set design, and music to shade the edges around the two characters.

Pretorius’s writing asks some daring questions and allows the central character to interrogate her own preconceptions and prejudices (even though Mavis vows to have the agnostic Mike make braaibroodjies for the church bazaar one day). Mike and Mavis’s quiet adventure is sure to soften even the hardest of hearts.

Mike en Mavis can be seen at Hoërskool Lückhoff on the 5th and 6th of March as part of the US Woordfees. Tickets are available through Computicket or at the door.