Coyote…

Tuesday began with a student production from the University of Free State called Coyote. Coyote is an edgy, illicit play that tackles larger than life South African issues in story that manages to maintain its intimacy, as two siblings separated in their youth cycle back to each other in adulthood. The set is empty with the exception of four flashing blue police lights. The male lead enters in the dark and explains he and his twin sister were born, quite literally, in the back of a police car and have been running from the cops ever since. The blue lights flash and a chase scene, which is to be the connective tissue of the play, ensues. Through the snippets of time you discover the tragedy of the twins separation, which came as a divorce agreement between their parents after their father in his desperation abducted the family for two days. Each parent chooses a child to raise. The daughter went to live with her father (a lawyer) and the son goes to his mother (a police officer). His mother shortly there after, abandons the son while the daughter is left to fend for herself after her father is murdered by his business partners. Each child, in their quiet desperation turns to the streets for survival. Time passes through a series of police chases alternatively between the siblings. Through the course of the show in the most casual, at times extremely funny, way you are exposed to the severe issues of domestic abuse, poverty, rape, prostitution, a culture of murder, loss of humanity, misogyny, homosexuality, religion sexism, desperation and fear in the black townships. In an ending of Greek proportions the brother (a pimp) accidentally murders his sister (a prostitute) and overcome with grief kills himself. You are left with the overwhelming sense that the world you’ve just witnessed is one with little solace. Technically the show needed fine tuning, and there were moments where edginess crossed over into unnecessary crassness, but those are directorial issues at worst. It is a play that would benefit from more development, but a challenging story told in the most unexpected way.