Terry Norton on her role as Hester Jakes.
Terry's take on the script:It’s funny, I find this script kind of Chekovian and I’ve always loved (Russian playwright Anton) Chekhov. I was drawn to (director) Meg Richard’s integrity as a person and I liked the script.
I thought this was an interesting character to play because there are some things that are close to me but in many ways she very different to me - hopefully!
To be completely honest, one reaches a certain age and one gets the luxury of playing all these character roles, as opposed to a young juvenile lead. I found it really fun to play somebody quirky, very different to me.
Because I’ve never been married I had to get my head around somebody who’s very dependent on her husband and actually puts up with a lot. It must be very difficult living with an alcoholic - and in a foreign country. (In the story the couple have come out from England.)
Stephen (Jennings, who plays her alcoholic husband, Dr Jakes, the sanatorium physician) and I were trying to work out: did he have a drinking problem before we came here? Was this a land of hope?
My character obviously came from a bit of money, her money and now she is seeing it all go due to her husband’s drinking. I’ve worked with a couple of alcoholics and there is enormous guilt around their drinking. So there’s that element to my character that I find interesting.
Probably it also has to do with the period - Mrs Jakes is just the opposite of Margaret Harding (the female lead), who is a free thinker. That’s why she hates Margaret as well - because Margaret is so liberated.
I know it mentions in the book (Margaret Harding by Perceval Gibbon, from which Land of Thirst is adapted) that Mr and Mrs Jakes are representative of this kind of decaying collapsing colonial set-up.
I suppose, being South African, I have been unconsciously racist - as a white one can’t avoid it, not being politically involved during apartheid. But my work has always been quite politically motivated - I have always wanted equal rights - so to find the truth in that, I think it’s basically a lot of education.
I tried to find the differences - the truth of where these prejudices come from and this rigidity. And manners, doing the right thing, and keeping up with the Joneses and always wanting to be seen as respectable. That’s very different to me as a person.
And then I also think that I have got the most beautiful kids that I absolutely adore, and the Jakes’s marriage is kind of barren. I know I’ve changed as a person from having kids - I would have been a not nice person - so I feel sympathy for Mrs Jakes, she hasn’t had that in her life.
Mrs Jakes is so judgmental, on herself - hence she’s critical and inflexible with other people. The only thing that she’s got is this sanatorium that’s basically falling apart. I think Mrs Jakes is all about façade, not about really caring.
It’s being supportive of her husband, when he needs her she is there. I think she could have been running anything as long as she was in charge and it’s that control element, her holding everything very tightly.
I wouldn’t say she has a compassionate side - she’s also a fish out of water - she’s way out of her comfort zone and reference from England. And she and her husband probably had grand hopes that this was the promised land, and it turned out to be just the opposite for them.
What's it been like working in the Karoo in a drama about the Karoo?I didn’t know Matjiesfontein, but I love the quiet. Personally, I am actually a quiet, shy person so I’m very happy when it’s quiet.
Have you ever worked with any of the actors in Land Of Thirst in the past?Ian Roberts and I have worked together in the past. In fact, my very first project was with Ian: Sky Blue. In my second year at 'varsity I was studying with Richard E Grant and we were the first university students to take a production to the Grahamstown festival and Ian was studying there, in 1978 - we connected there.
I’ve also worked with Pierre Malherbe. We did a theatre production of Beautiful Thing - I played a real Cockney tough cookie and he was my boyfriend, a younger man. Ntombi Makhutshi (who plays the servant Nolubabalo) and I worked on a production of Antigone together. And I’ve worked with Brian Heydenrich, who plays the policeman, van Zyl.
What's it been like working with the two leads, Nina Lucy Wylde, who plays Margaret and Hlomla Dandala who plays Khanyiso Phalo?As an actor Nina Lucy Wylde is lovely, very down to earth, very approachable, and very generous to work with. I think she’s enormously talented and she’s lovely. I have worked with some prima donnas and she’s very down to earth.
As for Hlomla, I think he takes his work very seriously, but he’s also very easygoing. There is no ego nonsense or airs and graces - and he is very generous as well. We have a South African expression: Bok! When you bok for something. There’s been a lovely willingness on this production.
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