Akrasia

Synopsis

The title of the production basically speaks to the theme. The production confronts an audience with moral dilemmas. How far can we be pushed till we just cannot excuse behavior anymore? Especially when all parties involved are seemingly ‘okay’ with what is going on. When deep down, they know they shouldn’t be doing something, so why do they decide to still do it? Is it because, at the end of the day, we can relate to one another? Is it out of pure desperation? Or is it because they are all we know?

Reuben is straightforward, yet awkward and conflicted at times. His job description speaks for itself. There aren’t a lot of installation artists with a butchery on the side. He struggles to let go of things that are not meant for him anymore. He is a perfectionist; he overthinks and overcomplicates. Which is why he found it impossible to let go of his mother, who passed away a year ago from a heart condition. With a butchery nearby, the ‘logical’ decision seemed to be to turn her body into vienna sausages and to preserve her in a glass cube. He sees it fit to dedicate an art exhibition to his mother, now rawly displayed in a cube, titled Rou Moeder.

He waits, patiently, for people to storm into his studio and stare in awe at his three artworks. However, when no one shows up, the reality sinks in for him that he needs to move on. Until a young woman stumbles in, curious about his art but, more importantly, about him. Little do we know, Candice just came straight from the hospital, on her birthday, where she had just been told that her pacemaker isn’t working as the doctors would have hoped it would. Feeling rebellious and angry that her life flew by her without having been lived properly, she runs away from the hospital with an uncharged and faulty pacemaker on her way to a young man’s exhibition she has been in love with for two years. The only thing was that she’d never met him before. Only through conversations with his mother. More than a year ago.

It’s not long until we notice that she is not your regular art exhibition goer. The two hit it off quite quickly and formed a connection through his art and, also surprisingly, his mother.

Form

The production is a slightly heightened ‘slice of life’ at times, but it is swept off its feet by a bit of magic from time to time. A vienna sausage that comes and goes as it pleases, a symbolic womb artwork that gives birth by itself, and just the mere fact that the whole play dances around a big glass cube filled to the brim with human meat vienna sausages. With all this being said, it is a love story. Perhaps an absurd one. Of a guy and a girl. And a guy and his mother. The story is comical, sad, dramatic, and absurd.

The Vision

The artwork in the middle goes hand in hand with the title of the exhibition, Rou Moeder. The hanging artwork is titled Haar hart klop weer and asks a question of ‘what could be.’ A glimpse of a possible rebirth of sorts, or even reincarnation. Inside the hanging fabric, a symbolic womb rests, waiting to burst.

The chair is titled Waar ek kon rus and is about the comfort and warmth of a mother when breastfeeding. At the back is Reuben’s butchery, marked with PVC butcher curtains.

History

Akrasia was originally created for the Première Theatre Festival in 2025 at Stellenbosch University.  During Akrasia’s run at the Première Theatre Festival, the show garnered numerous awards and nominations. Apart from being nominated for best script, as well as best actor and actress in leading roles, Akrasia also took home the awards for best directing and best technical achievement for its set design. Akrasia performed at Kaapstad Toneelhuis in January 2026 and will also be performing at KKNK in March 2026.