Aimeè stimulating debate through theatre

PETER FELDMAN

Among these was her recent ‘Cheers to Sarajevo’, which she co-wrote and played a Bosnian woman during the war.

However, in her latest offering, Ask Walter, she wanted to “create a more light-hearted piece, something fresh.”

Ask Walter, which opens this week at Auto & General Theatre on the Square in Sandton was conceived by Goldsmith in 2010 when she was in final year drama at Wits University. After Cheers to Sarajevo, she returned to the drawing board with Ask Walter and began writing a new script for it with her fiancé, Zee Ntuli, a filmmaker, director and writer. Goldsmith also directs the play.

“We knew we wanted to keep the character of Walter from the first draft,” she told Jewish Report, “We then came up with a basic premise and storyline. From there we auditioned actors, three of whom were in the original cast.

“We wanted the characters’ voices to be authentic and therefore we embarked on a workshop process.”

The lead character Walter, is a psychology major who dropped out and then miraculously landed his own TV talk show. He is incompetent and out of his depth, but he knows how to bluff. However, the situation spirals out of control when the show’s first guest arrives.

The comedy features Jeremiah Mtonga, Ricci Lee Kalish, Arthur Bongani Zith, James Reynolds and Denel Honeyball.

Writing plays is not an easy task, Goldsmith admits, and she says she finds it a daunting and sometimes lonely process. “I am inspired by interesting characters, usually ordinary people in extraordinary situations, the condition of the human psyche and of course history, hence Cheers to Sarajevo, and my upcoming project Anochi – a piece about the Holocaust.

“We are at an exciting time in the development of South African theatre. Places like Theatre on the Square are willing to produce new cutting-edge work. That is what South Africa needs, fresh new voices as well as seeing itself as part of a greater whole, to tell stories about the world, and avoid being an insular industry.

“I’ve been acting for 14 years and started at the Johannesburg Youth Theatre under Joyce Levinsohn. I performed in a number of productions there until I matriculated. At King David, my drama teacher, Clara Taub, instilled in me a passion for theatre.”

Goldsmith is also working with a group of professors from Ottawa in Canada on a research project about women in genocide. “This is aimed at encouraging women to speak about war rape experiences in order to seek justice and healing.

“I will be working on the Yugoslav wars and the genocide in Bosnia with Dr Tatjana Taskeva.”

“As the ‘born free’ generation in South Africa, our responsibility is to honour the freedom Struggle and its heroes by attempting to forge a new future that embraces our diversities. It is important that we don’t romanticise our past and forget its destruction.”

Ask Walter runs at Auto & General Theatre on the Square until June 4.