Buckland reprises role in political one-man show

South African actor Andrew Buckland brings back his award-winning one-man show, The Ugly Noo Noo, to the Baxter theatre, from Tuesday July 23 to Saturday August 10, at 7.30pm, with matinees on Tuesdays and Thursdays, at 11am, and Saturdays, at 2.30pm.

Buckland wrote and performed in the play, directed by his wife, Janet Buckland, in 1988.

He reprises his role for this season, 35 years after he first performed it at the Baxter. The Ugly Noo Noo received a total of 17 national and international awards for the script, direction and the performance, which included a Fringe First and Perrier Pick of the Fringe short listing accolade, at the Edinburgh Festival, in Scotland.

“The idea of performing The Ugly Noo Noo again in 2024 at the age of 70, was born from the time spent working to create an annotated text of the work as part of a book and website, to bring the text to a new generation of players and teachers,” says Buckland.

“It struck me that it is still quite funny and with the rampant unapologetic surge of fascism in the world today, it becomes even more relevant than it seemed to be in 1988 when it was first presented, specifically to South Africa.

“The journey to reviving it has been challenging and thoroughly enjoyable. It was always a test during the creative process of making works that if it made me laugh, and more importantly, Janet the director laugh, then it had a good chance of sparking some joy in an audience. We’ve been having fun and can’t wait to share it again with audiences.”

Nearly four decades later, the play deftly and humorously shows how fear can be used to manipulate, dominate, exploit and destroy.

Andrew was senior lecturer and later professor at Rhodes University until his retirement in 2017 and is Associate Professor Emeritus.

Tickets cost from R150 to R190 through Webtickets. For discounted block bookings, contact Mark Dobson on mark.dobson@uct.ac.za or 021 680 3972.