IN EPISODE FIVE of Martyn Le Roux’s serialised podcast tale, Die Soutwaterheks, (The Salt Water Witch), we find a very drunk Frans Baker (Francois Coertze). After a night of scepticism and belief, with his friends, recounting his weird experiences at the mysterious hands of the sea storm and what it seemed to contain, he resorts to consorting with a photograph of his dead father, and much alcohol until late in the night. Recorded and released independently online, in both MP3 and MP4 formats, in Afrikaans with bits of English, this tale, told in individual episodes is accessible through various links.
And that’s how Belinda (Annette Havenga), his assistant at the office, finds him, after an SOS from his buddies. He’s out of the picture with inebriation, but not removed from the bizarreness of the experience and conjoined with a bit of post-traumatic stress and a lot of clarity beneath the haze of too much drink, knows exactly what he saw, and remains broken with the absence of his beloved Angelique.
The mystery is far from solved, but now Belinda has an inkling that this is not just a stupid drunken episode, but something more. What spouts from Frans’s mouth – other than the alcohol imbibed – resonates with Shakespeare’s Hamlet’s words to his friend Horatio – about there being more thing in heaven and earth than we, as mere mortals, are cognisant of. Belinda is irritated, angry, perplexed and a little frightened. But her mission is to ensure that he has a safe night and one as comfortable as possible. For his body and injured head, if not his soul.
Die Soutwaterheks promises 25 chapters: Watch this space for consecutive reviews!
- Die Soutwaterheks: Episode 5 Die Soutwaterengele (The Sea Witch: The Salt Water Angels) is written by Martyn Le Roux. Directed by Martyn Le Roux, and featuring technical input and sound research by Arné von Molledorf and Martyn Le Roux, and music by Yolanda Strauss and David Muller, it is performed by Jurgen Bosman, Elsa Dorfling, Deon Botha, Francois Coertze, Annette Havenga, Pieter Theron and Riaan Visman. It is available here.