By Marie Straub

When I step into a theatre to watch a production from director Lara Foot, I expect to be moved. Time and again, Foot has shown herself to be the most exciting playwright working in South Africa today. Whether being splashed with watermelon in the front row of The Well Being or overwhelmed with the weight that a loaf of bread can have when loaded with meaning, as only Foot can, in Tshepang, Foot has yet to disappoint. She won the Rolex Mentorship Award which saw her working under Sir Peter Hall in London; will take over as Artistic Director of the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town from the end of this year; and her plays stand as the reasons for why she has climbed so high. The latest in her impressive list of original works is Karoo Moose, which is currently showing at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival.

Karoo Moose tells the story of young Thozama (Chuma Sopotela), and the community she finds herself growing up in, in the Eastern Cape. This is a story about a place where children don’t stay children for very long, set in a village where nobody ever goes and where few people ever live. Thozama, who at just fifteen years of age lives with her grandmother and siblings, with her alcoholic father around as more of a burden than a blessing, is still busy with the business of childhood – even if she must help her grandmother with chores and tending to the younger children. However, when this innocence is interrupted - around the same time that Thozama and those in her village encounter a strange, wild and terrible beast - her life is changed forever. The beast is a moose that escaped on its way to the zoo. Or is it? As this story struggles to find words for the unimaginable, whether an animal that belongs ‘overseas with Santa Claus’ or the harrowing realities that are birthed from a community with no fathers, so Thozama struggles towards something better, even if she has no idea what that is exactly.

Foot embraces elements of traditional African story-telling, including oral story-telling and song, paired with physical theatre, and riding on the back of a good dose of magical realism, in a story that will head straight for your heart, moose and all. It is not just the story itself which cuts to the bone, but the way that is presented that feels as much like home as a good boerewors roll does. The six actors of the cast, all brilliant in their own rights, weave together a whole in which they are both story-tellers engaging with the story’s various elements and fully-embodied characters (from Mrs Jacobs the teacher, who once won a pineapple pageant, to Brian van Wyk, a young policeman whose family has been ripped apart by something unspeakable). It is so often in the story-teller’s engagement with the characters’ realities that the play truly comes alive. Stories, as Foot notes in the play, are funny things. Sopotela particularly, gives a tour de force performance, which only soars so high because that is where her fellow players carry her to. This was without question one of the strongest ensemble casts I have had the privilege to see perform.

Stories are, after all, one of the only ways to confront the elephant (or rather moose) in the room. They can show what happens to girls who get in trouble for playing boys’ games, or can begin to paint how quickly said girl can become a woman, whether she is ready or not. And amidst all the darkness that this inevitably raises, it is quite possibly the only way to begin to imagine a way for society to rise above the wild, terrifying monsters that may be their realities – if there is somewhere better for us to head to, perhaps stories will begin to show us the way there. More specifically, perhaps this story will.

Tears will roll, and your heart will soar. Tickets sold incredibly well in Grahamstown and Capetonians will be able to catch the show at the Baxter Theatre from 27 July 2010, where a number of shows are already sold out, so make sure to book soon.