New cast, new funnies: Defending the Caveman returns

It is one of South African theatre’s most enduring comedies. Who can ever forget Tim Plewman’s belly-laugh inducing performances with new incarnations and cast refreshing hilarity every couple of years.

Beauty of it is, every time a new season opens, there’s something new to the script. Black Sails star Craig Jackson takes to the stage in a new production of the classic.

Defending The Caveman, opened at the Theatre on The Square this week.

Defending the Caveman is one of the most popular stage comedies in South Africa, performed many times. What will you bring to the show compared to previous incarnations?

“I have a feeling a lot of people should come to this because they’ll feel like they’re watching a brand new show, in a different setting with different circumstances and why he’s on stage, and more relevant contemporary content. And hopefully I can bring a fresher, more modern caveman to the audience.”

Defending the Caveman is far less politically correct than what the current shift to wokeness allows.
We need to stop taking life so seriously. And the show has proven it over the years, and decades. It’s a show about the two sexes and at the end of the day, couples are complex and they all different.

Defending The Caveman can be thought provoking beyond the laughs. What is your take on the layers beneath?
It is a very thought-provoking show and it is not one liner jokes. People just laugh throughout because everything I say is so true of couples and the battle of the sexes and the differences between them. This show has so many layers.

What is it about theatre that keeps an actor on their toes?

It is a very volatile medium. It is exciting, it is immediate. You have the audience response live in front of you. It’s a little bit dangerous and even more so when you’re doing a one man show like Defending the Caveman because you can’t rely on other actors to help you out if you get lost.

Looking back at your career, to date, what are the highs and lows for you? There are so many highs. Black Sails for me was a fantastic opportunity to have a role kind of written for me.

That was a big high for me. I’ve just done an Epilogue invasion Season two, which is on Apple TV coming this year, and I got a nice role in that. So that was another high. Lows. When you do not get the role that you’ve always wanted.

When you’re not on stage or in front of the camera, how do you keep yourself busy?
I adopted a child last year and at the same time I got two puppies and I’ve got two cats and a wife. So that is how I keep busy.

What is the funniest thing you have seen or heard lately?
I tell you what I find very funny. Dad jokes on Instagram and the guys that tell each other jokes, very straight faced and the jokes are so bad.

Should men wear socks with their sandals?
Craig Jackson: “I think absolutely not. I would use sandals for your feet to breathe. Why would you put socks on them? That is too stupid.

Do real men drink pink drinks?
Absolutely. I think back in the day a guy would have said, oh, macho, yeah, I don’t drink pink
drinks, but a strawberry daiquiri is delicious. And now we are older and wiser. For new age men, like today, it’s 100% pink drinks all the way.

Do you wash your own car?
I try to wash my own car, but I don’t have the time because I’m trying to keep my very young child from putting his finger in plugs and trying to keep my pool blue with all the rain we had along with all the leaves that are coming from my neighbour’s house and clogging up my pool pump.

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