Gone Camping

Gone Camping

1 performance between Aug. 24, 2015 and Sept. 19, 2015
Light Comedy
Written & Performed by Jason Potgieter
65mins
Jason Potgieter 02.jpg Gone Camping WEB v2.jpg jasonchaircarebear.png
It's the 90's. The New South Africa is a toddler playing in the global sand pit with bucket and spade, building castles, making mud pies and learning to share her toys, while her now liberated people run through sprinkler-rainbows looking for pots of shiny gold. Ideas of change and social rebirth fly through the nation like a flock of drunk ducks looking for a decent Martini and while some would-be-pillow-stuffers run for their guns with one eye on the sky, others chuck breadcrumbs out on the lawn and keep the dog inside. Somewhere up the West Coast, on a camp site formerly known as Volmaansig, three white okes, a ghost called Polla and a Staffie with a bone to pick get chatty around the campfire. They remember, they theorise, they consider and they criticise, - but most of the time they just like to laugh and tell stories, because roasting marshies and having someone to talk to is a good way to pass the time and fend off the Worry. Gone Camping is a fireside storybook brought to life by playwright and performer, Jason Potgieter. It is a new theatrical work and is based on events experienced by Potgieter in Cape Town, South Africa, between 1990 and 1996. Similar in style to his previous work, The Things You Left Behind, Potgieter has crafted five humorous monologues borne from his love of people-watching and performs characters from different social backgrounds, age-groups and even species, all brought together by a place where the struggles and worries of everyday life are discarded in favour of flimsy tents, mosquito repellent, midnight skinny dipping and the great outdoors.

Media & Reviews

Interview

Audience Responses

My friends and I attended the production of Gone Camping last night. Here are their comments: 1)"A play that was not a play that was a play. Raw and revealing, it was a peek inside the mind of the struggles that many actors face. An emotional, funny production." 2) "Hysterical, more of Steve please!" 3) "Raw 'from the heart' acting with audience interaction. Well done" 4) "Thoroughly enjoyed it, Jason is a natural. Excellent performance" 5) "Brilliant. It touched on bi-polar which is generally a non entity. No telling whether it was part of the play or not!" 6) "As this was my first time at Alexander Upstairs Gone Camping was well worth the R80 for an enjoyable, funny and emotional production." The question I put to my friends was: "would you go and see Gone Camping again in the future?" The answer: "yes, most definitely" Kind regards Adele.