A Good House

There’s nothing like property for bringing out the worst in people. And so it proves in Amy Jephta’s caustic satire A Good House. And given that Jephta is South African, there’s a particular sting to her funny but merciless unpicking of the intertwining of race and class and her sharp analysis of the way nimbyism can reveal deep-seated prejudices and preconceptions. Here South Africa’s bitter history lurks in every conversation.

Like so many domestic comedies, A Good House focuses on a series of social gatherings in which bad faith hangs in the air like persistent damp. First up is a brittle soirée hosted by Sihle (Sifiso Mazibuko) and Bonolo (Mimî M Khayisa), an affluent Black couple who moved into their chic suburban neighbourhood several years previously but are only now enjoying the company of their white neighbours Chris (Scott Sparrow) and Lynette (Olivia Darnley). The sharply observed conversation bristles with assumptions.

But the real reason for the neighbourly visit soon spills out. It seems that a little tin shack has suddenly sprung up on an empty plot of land in the community and residents are concerned for their property prices. They’d like Sihle and Bonolo to serve an eviction order on behalf of the neighbourhood. Why? Because they assume the residents of the shack (whom no one has ever seen) are Black and that an approach from the only Black couple in the community will improve the optics.

This ghastly scenario unfolds across several excruciatingly funny conversations. Also party to the debate are a young white couple — Jess, who teaches yoga (Robyn Rainsford), and Andrew, who manages an artisan sandwich shop (Kai Luke Brummer) — who are in over their heads financially and whose house is nearest to the shack. Soon Jephta has worked up a series of thorny issues, probing into ownership, belonging, entitlement, the cost and limits of social mobility and the way race and class snake through the arguments.

Director Nancy Medina’s staging (a co-production with Bristol Old Vic in association with the Market Theatre, Johannesburg) has a slightly surreal edge that gives the action an unpredictable feel but at its best when stoking the awkward, fiery exchanges between these couples.

The shack itself is a clever antagonist. Looming silently from the back of the stage. A freeze-frame device intermittently sets certain characters in suspended animation while the others are free to vent the true feelings that lie hidden beneath the chit chat. The performances and the dynamics are gripping. Mazibuko fills the stage with the imposing figure of Sihle, seemingly – and only initially – compliant with the reactions provoked by his skin colour and background. Khayisa’s portrayal of the no-nonsense Bonolo is a master stroke that surprises us with some refreshingly unexpected views on society and race.