A restaurant-cum-karaoke bar in Parys, Free State, may not sound like the setting for an existential thriller, but then Paul Slabolepszy has never shied away from a creative challenge.
Inside the venue, two strangers find themselves sharing a secret that neither expected and neither can escape. But that’s about as much as the playwright would reveal about his new play called Midnight In Parys.
“It’s a Hitchcock kind of play. It’s about the build-up and the tension. Even if somebody told you what happens, you’d still want to see it because of the journey.”
Slabolepszy shared a teeny bit more. The play follows Joanna and Aidan, two people brought together by circumstance. What begins as a chance encounter slowly becomes something much bigger, touching on questions of identity, purpose and the fragile nature of life itself.
Yet audiences should not expect a heavy evening spent staring into the abyss.
“There’s comedy, there’s love, but there’s one main question,” he said. “I think there’s going to be a debate because of what it is.”
And that, for now, Slabolepszy is not sharing.
The plot is still a secret
The balance between humour and humanity has become something of a trademark for the playwright over the decades.
Think Heel Against the Head, the rugby-themed production he created with his late friend and collaborator Bill Flynn.
Slabolepszy laughed as he recalled some of the outrageous comedy that made audiences howl, including scenes involving the first underwear bearing the South African flag and characters behaving badly.
He noted that some of those jokes probably would not survive today’s social climate, but said South Africans have always found ways to laugh at themselves and their circumstances.
“South Africans will always make jokes about potholes,” he said. “That’s what we do. We get a laugh because there are lots of troubles.”
Beneath the comedy, however, there was always something more substantial at play, a quality that continues to define his writing today.
Storytelling did not begin on a stage for the artist.
“It’s always been there,” he said. “When I was three and a half years old, I was already telling stories.”
As a child he entertained friends with tales spun from his imagination. At boarding school, he was writing stories and dramatic scenes while other boys focused on more practical pursuits.
“My dad wanted me to be an engineer, which was a joke,” he said.
Still collecting stories with a notepad
The urge to observe people and collect stories is as strong today as it was then.
Slabolepszy still carries a notebook and pen with him wherever he goes, constantly recording snippets of conversations, odd encounters and the little moments most people miss.
He shared a moment that occurred on a bus in Cape Town when he overheard an argument between two men.
“I thought, I’ve got to put this in a play,” he said.
The exchange eventually found its way into Saturday Night at the Palace. “It’s stuff that you hear in real life,” he said.
His fascination with ordinary people like you and I is also front and centre in Midnight in Parys.
While the premise may sound mysterious and a tad ominous, Slabolepszy said the themes are universal.
“I believe the theme of this play is not just South African. There are millions of people who deal with what we deal with in this play.”
But again, he didn’t say more. The real magic he said, lies in how the story unfolds, in the tension that builds between two people, and in the questions, audiences carry with them on the drive home.
The production reunites an accomplished creative team. Slabolepszy is joined by director Bobby Heaney and actress Bianca Amato.
He said the director has already described it as the finest play he has written.
Midnight in Parys opens on 12 June and will run for a month at Pieter Toerien’s Montecasino Theatre.
Tickets are available at Webtickets
