The reading of the play took play in March and, judging by the powerful performances by Rowan Studti and Richard Lothian, Cape Town audiences are in for a real treat. This is theatre for anyone seeking drama that is powerful and takes you on an emotional journey into the hearts and souls of two young men whose differences separate their mutual desire for intimacy.
Although the play was first staged in the mid-1980s in London by Zajdlic and Crowe, it's an intriguing story that is relevant and timeless, and will live on through each re-staging, and which offers a rare opportunity for Capetonians. Intimacy and friendship are two emotional desires that form the heartbeat of humanity and, with Cock and Bull Story, the issues surrounding its potency are dealt with head on.
Featuring Rowan Studti as Ralph Travis (Trav), an amateur boxer on the verge of the big time, and Richard Lothian as Jack Foster (Jackie), his coach and best friend, Cock and Bull Story is directed by Michael Kirch, 2012 Fleur du Cap nominee as Best New Director for Bench by Brent Palmer.
In Cock and Bull Story Trav, an up-and-coming boxer on the verge of the big time, prepares for battle in the fight that could make his lifelong dream a reality. Jackie, his friend and coach, psyches him into fitness with grand illusions of a world of endless bodily pleasures and material spoils.
Trav's zealous drive for power and glory leads to questionable conduct in the boxing ring. Although Jackie has little regard for the rules of the game and is only concerned with winning, he is faced with a serious blow to his conscience: How far is too far? As they prepare for the big fight that could entirely change their reality, it comes out that Trav experiences sexual arousal in the ring, a fact that seriously disturbs the homophobic Jackie. The boundary of their friendship is tested and a battle of wits ensues. The story delves into the themes of male friendship, homosexuality, masculinity, dreams and ambitions, the fight for survival and keeping the male ego in check.
It is gritty and fierce, and the characters are challenged psychologically and physically, culminating in an explosive and emotional journey of discovery.
Following his studies at the New York film Academy and at the Actors' Centre in San Francisco in 2008, Rowan Studti enrolled at ACT Cape Town and graduated with a BA in Drama, Film and Screenwriting from the University of Cape Town. His most notable and recent work includes An Absolute Turkey, directed by Chris Weare, and The Beauty of Incomplete Things, written and directed by Daniel Dercksen, as well as a number of international and local film/television productions.
Although Richard Lothian studied film he is well known to theatre audiences for Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet, and Othello, as well Sondheim's musical Assassins. On television he also starred in Northmen a Viking saga, as well as the Emmy-winning Gettysburg.
Working in Cape Town as a film and television actor, stage director as well as freelance casting director, Michael Kirch completed his undergraduate degree at UCT, and directed More Rooms, which was based on the 1995 Tarantino movie Four Rooms, the musical The Wizard of Oz to an all-Japanese audience, and Nude/Tails, an adaptation of Dario Fo's One was Nude and One wore Tails,
Make sure to see Cock and Bull story during its short run in Cape Town and if you are a first time visitor to the delightful Alexander Bar, it won't be your last, but leave you wanting more.
Cock and Bull Story is on at the Alexander Bar Upstairs from 12 to 17 May at 7pm. Book seats at www.alexanderbar.co.za. For telephone bookings and enquiries: +27 (0)21 300 1652.
For more on Cock and Bull Story, go to www.writingstudio.co.za/page4416.html or share the journey on www.facebook.com/RowanStudtiProductions or Twitter twitter.com/RStudti.
