The Ugly Noo Noo

Prosaic fears and political consequences

The longevity of good theatre is a beautiful thing. On Saturday night we went to watch Andrew Buckland’s The Ugly Noo Noo at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, directed by the brilliant Janet Buckland. This one-man show first debuted at the Market Theatre in 1988, at a time when South Africa was in a state of heightened political tension.

It is a piece of exquisite comedic satire and genius physical theatre that has stood the test of time. A story about the suburban terror wrought by the eponymous Parktown Prawn; the harmless but scary looking African King Cricket, replete with its hissing and defecating to ward off predators.

The Ugly Noo Noo “examines in splitting comic detail the relationship between fear and power in our everyday lives” . While the play was written some 38 years ago, as I watched it, its themes felt as pertinent as ever, and the power of theatre to make us think, as necessary as ever.  

The subject and object of fear and power are sites overpopulated with meaning. So many of our current social cleavages are aptly captured in the metaphor of Parktown Prawn and terrified home-owner - the visceral and irrational fear we feel towards an unknown other, our out of proportion reactions, and our quick descent into violence.

The seed of the 1988 production was planted when Buckland observed his wife’s out of size fear of the insect, and her physical reaction to it. Keith Bain writes that as Buckland developed this idea he was ‘struck by the parallels between the irrational fear of the other that his human character was expressing and the fear response of the apartheid government. “And the only reaction from the government to that fear was violence. Immediate and very strong violence. The mirror seemed to me so obvious and so clear.”’

‘“It became clear that the fascist language in the text, which in the 1980s seemed so specific to South Africa, was the kind of language being used universally today, that it reflected what is happening to humanity right now. That gave me the kind of energy to consider that it’s not just a South African period piece from the 1980s, but may have relevance today.”’

Indeed, as I watched it my mind slipped between the idea of the ‘swart gevaar’ of the 1980s, xenophobia, transphobia, the Palestinian genocide and even the prosaic fear of the poor on our suburban streets (who is not part of some hysterical community whatsapp group bemoaning the homeless as the harbinger of all that is bad in the neighbourhood).

“Whatever it is, we’re very good at falling victim to our capacity to be afraid of that ‘other’ and then allowing that fear to turn into violence, whether it’s physical, psychological or emotional violence,” says Buckland. 

Do yourself a favour and have your sides tickled, your mind stretched, and watch this classic piece of South African theatre at The Market before 1 September.