Moira de Swardt
2006-06-11 13:10:59 UTC
Sunday morning, 11 June, shortly after ten found half the
Johannesburg theatre world enjoying tea and biscuits under the
unusually grey Gauteng winter sky at the Sound Stage as we noted,
and greeted, each arrival for the memorial of Anthony Farmer.
The trend towards sensitive and pleasing memorial services for
non-religious people is one that is satisfying to me as a religious
person. Hypocrisy is never attractive. This particular memorial
service was put together and hosted by Richard Loring who also
served as the Master of Ceremonies for the event. For it was a
suitable event for honouring someone who contributed a great deal to
theatre in South Africa over the nearly six decades in which he
worked in almost every aspect of South African theatre. Richard
Loring is to be commended for all he did to make it happen.
A history of Farmer's work and some of his life was put together
through the various eulogies by people who knew and worked with
"Tony", "Farmer" or "Anthony". Des Lindberg spoke on behalf of the
Theatre Managements, mentioning some of the wonderful things that
were achieved through the vision of this man. One of them was the
unveiling of the elephants at the Lost Palace. Farmer was talking
about using organza. Des wanted logs as being more in keeping with
the concept of elephants. The organza weighed 3.5 kilograms, the
logs weighed 3.5 tons. Sol Kerzner paid R30 000 per day to keep the
crane on hand to remove the logs, an exercise choreographed by
Farmer who had originally trained, and qualified, as a mechanical
engineer. Neels Hansen spoke of the work Farmer did for the various
operatic productions over the years and the Black Tie ensemble sang
some of the arias from most recent opera production he worked on,
Rigoletto. Chatting to one of the singers before the memorial
revealed that when they had been asked to volunteer to perform at
the memorial there had been so many volunteers that they had to be
selected for the honour. I would imagine that would have been the
reaction from most theatrical genres, for there were few people in
the world of entertainment who were not subjected to the "Farmerama"
touch at some time or on some stage. Also presented were a number
from "African Footprint", to which Farmer contributed some of the
lyrics, and then finally the boys from Hi-5 currently appearing at
Sound Stage in their "Queen" medley.
Ivor Jones and Hazel Feldman paid tribute to the work Anthony Farmer
did out at Sun City in the early days, and mentioned that he had
contributed much to the actual design of the theatre, apparently a
theatre which works extremely well from the technical side.
Vincent Bath from the Johannesburg Operatic and Dramatic Society
then paid tribute to the life and work of Anthony Farmer in shows
such as "Kismet", "Man of La Mancha", "Around the World in Eighty
Days" (in which the balloon slid across the space above the
audience), "Showboat" (in which the wheels turned up real water as
the three story high boat moved across the stage), "The Great
Waltz", where the musicians came up on a lift that elevated them
high above the stage, which Percy Tucker explained resulted from an
opening night of something else where the technicians did that by
accident but the audience thought to be a stunning theatrical
device, and "The Merry Widow' where the poor soprano was turned
around on a moving set so quickly that she was almost flung against
the wall backstage each evening.
Farmer originally came to South Africa in 1953 as a dancer in a
touring show, but on that show moved into lighting, and then into
set design and directing. What was not mentioned was that he did a
great deal of set design for spheres other than the strictly
theatrical and the "Events and Installations" magazine had just
finished interviewing him for a professional biography of this
aspect of his life when the news reached them of his death on 20 May
2006, just in time for them to mention it as a footnote. What that
article fails to note anywhere, but which was mentioned time and
again, usually with some humour, was the legendary temper Farmer let
loose whenever things weren't going exactly the way he'd
meticulously planned them to go.
We were given copies of the magazine at the refreshments section
which was held at the Clapperboard beneath the Sound Stage, a bar
venue which I have not visited. A magnificent display of
photographs and articles, including all the obituaries were mounted
for perusal over drinks and snacks. We were also given cards to
write and sign for the book of the event which was being sent to his
sister in England.
I mention some of the quotes from some of the speeches: "Not only
proudly South African, but the best in the world", "long, happy,
illustrious life", "a class act", "creative and imaginative", and
"never been scared of work, only of no work", and "the portals of
heaven have recently been redesigned".
Anthony Farmer was 86 years old at the time of his death. His
passing is a sad loss to the world of theatre in South Africa.
Johannesburg theatre world enjoying tea and biscuits under the
unusually grey Gauteng winter sky at the Sound Stage as we noted,
and greeted, each arrival for the memorial of Anthony Farmer.
The trend towards sensitive and pleasing memorial services for
non-religious people is one that is satisfying to me as a religious
person. Hypocrisy is never attractive. This particular memorial
service was put together and hosted by Richard Loring who also
served as the Master of Ceremonies for the event. For it was a
suitable event for honouring someone who contributed a great deal to
theatre in South Africa over the nearly six decades in which he
worked in almost every aspect of South African theatre. Richard
Loring is to be commended for all he did to make it happen.
A history of Farmer's work and some of his life was put together
through the various eulogies by people who knew and worked with
"Tony", "Farmer" or "Anthony". Des Lindberg spoke on behalf of the
Theatre Managements, mentioning some of the wonderful things that
were achieved through the vision of this man. One of them was the
unveiling of the elephants at the Lost Palace. Farmer was talking
about using organza. Des wanted logs as being more in keeping with
the concept of elephants. The organza weighed 3.5 kilograms, the
logs weighed 3.5 tons. Sol Kerzner paid R30 000 per day to keep the
crane on hand to remove the logs, an exercise choreographed by
Farmer who had originally trained, and qualified, as a mechanical
engineer. Neels Hansen spoke of the work Farmer did for the various
operatic productions over the years and the Black Tie ensemble sang
some of the arias from most recent opera production he worked on,
Rigoletto. Chatting to one of the singers before the memorial
revealed that when they had been asked to volunteer to perform at
the memorial there had been so many volunteers that they had to be
selected for the honour. I would imagine that would have been the
reaction from most theatrical genres, for there were few people in
the world of entertainment who were not subjected to the "Farmerama"
touch at some time or on some stage. Also presented were a number
from "African Footprint", to which Farmer contributed some of the
lyrics, and then finally the boys from Hi-5 currently appearing at
Sound Stage in their "Queen" medley.
Ivor Jones and Hazel Feldman paid tribute to the work Anthony Farmer
did out at Sun City in the early days, and mentioned that he had
contributed much to the actual design of the theatre, apparently a
theatre which works extremely well from the technical side.
Vincent Bath from the Johannesburg Operatic and Dramatic Society
then paid tribute to the life and work of Anthony Farmer in shows
such as "Kismet", "Man of La Mancha", "Around the World in Eighty
Days" (in which the balloon slid across the space above the
audience), "Showboat" (in which the wheels turned up real water as
the three story high boat moved across the stage), "The Great
Waltz", where the musicians came up on a lift that elevated them
high above the stage, which Percy Tucker explained resulted from an
opening night of something else where the technicians did that by
accident but the audience thought to be a stunning theatrical
device, and "The Merry Widow' where the poor soprano was turned
around on a moving set so quickly that she was almost flung against
the wall backstage each evening.
Farmer originally came to South Africa in 1953 as a dancer in a
touring show, but on that show moved into lighting, and then into
set design and directing. What was not mentioned was that he did a
great deal of set design for spheres other than the strictly
theatrical and the "Events and Installations" magazine had just
finished interviewing him for a professional biography of this
aspect of his life when the news reached them of his death on 20 May
2006, just in time for them to mention it as a footnote. What that
article fails to note anywhere, but which was mentioned time and
again, usually with some humour, was the legendary temper Farmer let
loose whenever things weren't going exactly the way he'd
meticulously planned them to go.
We were given copies of the magazine at the refreshments section
which was held at the Clapperboard beneath the Sound Stage, a bar
venue which I have not visited. A magnificent display of
photographs and articles, including all the obituaries were mounted
for perusal over drinks and snacks. We were also given cards to
write and sign for the book of the event which was being sent to his
sister in England.
I mention some of the quotes from some of the speeches: "Not only
proudly South African, but the best in the world", "long, happy,
illustrious life", "a class act", "creative and imaginative", and
"never been scared of work, only of no work", and "the portals of
heaven have recently been redesigned".
Anthony Farmer was 86 years old at the time of his death. His
passing is a sad loss to the world of theatre in South Africa.