Hydrolunatics

Binwe Adebayo

The global water crisis is a topic on everyone’s lips. From the political arena to classrooms, many minds are focussed on debate and solutions to this problem. For a group of young performers from the Rhodes University Drama Department, street theatre is the platform for discussing this issue. In a showcase of quirky characters, imaginative costume design and sometimes absurd storytelling comes Hydrolunatics, a creation which uses nonsense to show the lack of common sense employed by the human race when it comes to our relationship with water.

Guided by an all seeing eye and a giant face constructed from water bottles, the cast took the audience from the top of High Street all the way through campus, closing at the bicycle statue. A crazed drunkard clutched his bottle of whiskey chanting “whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting”, whilst a water sprite of sorts bent fully head first into the koi pond. With so much to see and absorb, it was understandable that the audience- ranging from the very young to the elderly- was sometimes remise to understanding the underlying message. Although the cast did make an effort to tie the craziness together in some form of rationality, amongst all the moving and focusing on all the different characters at once, it was easy for the audience to get side-tracked along the way. Perhaps in a contained venue, this may have not been the case.

However, a valiant effort was certainly made by the cast and each character had a distinct flavour and contribution to the greater vision. For a free show staged on a small patch of grass, Hydrolunatics definitely makes a big splash.

Hydrolunatics is playing at The Drodsty Arch