ATHOL Fugard’s most recent play, The Blue Iris, might not be as loaded as many of his other works, particularly his political plays, but it’s no less moving. Part love story, part tragedy and all drama, the play is set in Fugard’s beloved Karoo, which is brought to (dismal) life by the bleak and charred set design of Dicky Longhurst. Here we meet farmer Robert Hannay (Graham Weir) and his housekeeper, Rieta Plaasman (Lee-Ann van Rooi), eking out an existence in and around the burned ruins of the farmhouse.
Rieta, impatient with Robert as he sifts through the debris, urges him to load whatever he can salvage onto his bakkie and “just leave”. The farmer, however, wracked with grief and guilt following the death of his wife, Sally (Claire Berlein), shortly after the fire, argues he cannot go until he’s convinced she will rest in peace: he and Rieta have heard her calling his name night after night. Robert, in turn, urges Rieta to leave him and “move on” with her life. She won’t hear of it, evidence of her attachment to the older man.
The Blue Iris is a poignant tale of remorse, jealousy, adoration and revelation. Fugard’s characters are at once conflicted, layered and credible.
We learn that Sally — an English woman whose experience of Africa was limited to the genteel Cape Town suburb of Rondebosch before she married Robert and moved into the house he built for her in the Karoo — was at odds with life as a farmer’s wife in the semidesert. Rieta, solid, supportive and pragmatic, reveals a sinister side. And Robert, agitated and miserable, is troubled by his relationship with his late wife and is unaware of the depth of Rieta’s devotion.
Robert finds a painting of a blue iris by Sally. It was her favourite, he tells Rieta. They reminisce about the piece but Rieta is not convinced Sally was satisfied with it, having heard her say repeatedly she “didn’t get it right”. The painting becomes the catalyst that changes everything.
The Blue Iris is utterly absorbing and shows that, at 80, Fugard’s energy and aptitude for creating characters of depth and complexity are not waning.
Weir is a convincingly grieving widower. Berlein is powerful in her role of the tormented ghost of Sally. The performance of the night for me, though, was Van Rooi, whose depiction of the devoted Rieta is both tender and commanding. She’s stoic, practical and capable of humour, even in desperate times. But Rieta has a dark secret, which is eventually revealed with passion but no excessive melodrama.
• The Blue Iris is on at The Fugard in Cape Town until August 5 and at the Market Theatre in Joburg from August 20 to September 5. www.thefugard.com, www.markettheatre.co.za
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