By Darlene Donloe
Contributing Writer
Lara Foot is a multi-award-winning South African playwright, director and producer whose passion is works by new young writers and directors.
The method of her madness is quite clear. She only works on projects where there is an interesting story to tell that “Speaks to the place we live in today,” she says.
“Often as a theater maker, I ask myself, ‘How do we excavate humanity out of this world which has never been more insane, with war conflict and corruption and greed?” Foot asked. “Through which lens do we search for the essence of being human?”
Foot soon found her answer in Nobel Laureate John Coetzee’s Booker-Prize winning novel “Life and Times of Michael K,” set to open in the Bram Goldsmith Theater at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts for five performances only, Nov. 21-24.
The show, which uses the mastery of puppetry in collaboration with Handspring Puppet Company from Cape Town’s Baxter Theatre, is adapted for the stage by Foot, who also directs.
“It is difficult to speak philosophy on stage, to make it verbal,” said Foot, who has wanted to work with the Handspring Puppet Company since the beginning of her career. “But through the imaginations of the beautifully and delicately carved puppets, brought to life with all the efforts and empathy of three highly trained and charismatic puppeteers, ‘Michael K’ breathes life into life. This brilliantly evocative, gut-wrenching theatrical masterpiece in 4D infuses and animates wooden puppets with the human spirit, emotions and rhythms in a seamless, ground-breaking, multi-media collaboration of profound creativity, complexity and invention.”
Foot agreed to answer a series of questions about her upcoming show.
DD: Tell me in your own words about the “Life & Times of Michael K.”
LF: The novel is set in a dystopian South Africa in the late 70s — characterized by war, detention without trial and suppression of basic individual liberties, which of course rings true for many people in the world today.
Michael K is born with a harelip. His mother, a domestic worker, cannot take care of him and is forced to put her son into an orphanage. From a small child, he is ostracised by all, and throughout his life, he searches for a purpose and a small semblance of freedom.
DD: Why did you want to adapt this for the stage?
LF: The story of Michael K stays with you for years and etches itself into your subconscious. Coetzee’s work tends to do that.
DD: Why is J.M. Coetzee’s work important?
LF: Coetzee pushes the reader into uncomfortable places. There is nothing safe about his writing. He is a profound philosopher and has an acute insight into the apartheid history of South Africa and the complex nature of humanity. This story was written in 1983 and yet it resonates globally now more than ever.
DD: What does this show mean to you personally?
LF: I have come to feel that the company, the actors, and the creatives have become a family in telling this story and I feel like I am part of something unique. I feel blessed.
DD: Did you have a chance to talk to Coetzee before writing and directing this adaptation? If so, what did he tell you that you ultimately used?
LF: I had to pass the first draft through Coetzee and I was very nervous about this. But luckily he liked the adaptation. He gave me two notes, both of which I kept.
DD: In adapting and directing this work, what was of the utmost importance that you felt you had to get right?
LF: I had to get the relationship between Coetzee’s narration and the action of the play to concur. I needed to be true to the story whilst finding ways to make it theatrical and I had to make the puppets alive and exciting throughout.
DD: How do you approach each project?
LF: I approach each project quietly at first. I think on it and dream on it. The pre-text and pretext are a combination of dreams, sounds, research, news articles, images and imaginations.
When I am certain, that I have the essence of what I want to explore and share, I begin to write.
Then as a director, I cast the play, and always choose actors who are artists in themselves and who contribute to the creative process. Mostly they need to be able to work as an ensemble and be great people who love to work.
DD: What is your deciding factor when it comes to directing a project?
LF: I need to believe wholeheartedly in the story and how it speaks to the world today. There needs to be an urgency in the telling, and I need to have the passion and the desire to make the project happen no matter what.
Finally, I have to know that I can cast it correctly. I believe that funding and practicalities always fall into place once you start driving a project. Energy attracts energy.
DD: Talk about working with Tony award-winner Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler from Handspring Puppet Company for the first time. How did the three of you work together?
LF: I have known Basil and Adrian for many years. We have a very similar work ethic. We like to speak about the work with great care and investigate all possibilities over a long period.
Adrian is the master puppet maker, Basil is the questioning one who loves to do a lot of research, and I like to bring all the elements together. I would say that we are a perfect team and it was, and still is, an honor to work with them.
I’m not sure that anyone realizes the magnitude of their contribution to world puppetry for adults, from War Horse to Little Amal; their footprint is everywhere in the world. Adrian’s puppets are each great works of art that hold complex biographies and breathe life into the audience’s imagination.
DD: You are the first woman artistic director and CEO of the Baxter. Talk about the significance of that. Do you feel any kind of pressure?
LF: I did feel pressure as a woman and still do. Racism and sexism are still rife everywhere. All we can do, as artists, is to find strength in one another and keep telling stories.
I am in my 15th year. The first [artistic director] was there for 19 years, I’d like to make it to 20 years and that way we can say a woman had the greatest influence — it truly is a wonderful theater with terrific staff.
DD: What was your vision when you became artistic director?
LF: I wanted to make a home for all the artists of Cape Town and the surrounding communities and townships.
DD: What did you learn about yourself from writing/directing this show?
LF: I learned that I could work across disciplines creatively and cohesively. And once again, I was reminded that I am extremely lucky to be doing something I love every day and to be working with the most amazing actors. I also learned patience. Directing puppets is slow and particular.
“Life and Times of Michael K,” first premiered in 2021, at Theater der Welt in Düsseldorf, Germany, and South Africa. It is being staged at the Bram Goldsmith Theater of the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Nov. 21 and 22; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Nov. 23; and 2 p.m., Nov. 24. Tickets, at $69, are available by calling 310 746-4000; or visiting TheWallis.org.
Darlene Donloe is a freelance reporter for Wave Newspapers who covers South Los Angeles. She can be reached at ddonloe@gmail.com.
