Anthea Thompson is one of South Africa’s most accomplished actresses. She’s graceful, talented and has more than one Fleur Du Cap award on her mantle. Bertha Cummings is a crazy old aunty from the Southern Suburbs. She is crude, loud and wears a urine bag which she displays with the same pride with which one might show off a Hermes Kelly Bag. It is impossible to imagine that for an hour each night these two are the same person.
Anthea Thomson introduced the Bertha Cummings character in 2010 as part of the all women comedy act Cracks and the City. She might have been funnier if they had given her less stage time – the few jokes just could not carry the whole skit.
Living Remote: Bertha’s Guide to Life, Love and Pharmaceuticals has the same one liners that drift around in an hour that is otherwise filled with crude jokes and awkward fillers. One such filler was a makeover of an audience member with ugly old lady clothes. This might be funny if you are a tween playing dress up in your grandma’s closet, but a paying audience deserves better.
Then there’s the urine bag filled with yellow liquid attached to her leg… And the blow up doll she all but molests on stage… Something about it reminded me of the Hangover movies, only it is not funny when women do completely gross things. Yes, that’s a double standard but a woman should be better than that.
The neighbourhood crazy lady is funny for a few minutes when you run into her at the Spar. But then you get in your car and go home. If she turns up at the theatre in the evening you don’t watch her for an hour. You get in your car and drive home. And whatever you do, don’t look back.
Jana van Heerden
@woict_girl
Living Remote: Bertha’s Guide to Life, Love and Pharmaceuticals runs at the Kalk Bay Theatre to 24 September.
