IT’S ALL FUN and games until the heavies come knocking on the door. Episode 11 of Martyn le Roux’s serialised podcast Die Soutwaterheks is a mix of the mysteries of being alive in the world and the guys who want to tear everything to bits, for their own reasons. With a sprinkling of homophobic narrative tossed in, and some voice shifting on the part of Salacia, the work holds together curiously. You can find it here.

The conversation between Frans (Francois Coertze) and Salacia (Elzahn Dorfling) takes off where episode 10 ended, and opens up Frans’s awareness of things not well understood in human lore. But just as he’s beginning to grasp the rudiments of Universe 101 in the mystical sea woman’s broken language, the phone rings with a frightened Belinda at the other end, and then the doorbell sounds, with the proverbial men in black, cast against heavy German stereotypes who pussy foot around what they need to know.

Frans dances along, but throws in what he considers to be their biases, given their typecast presences, and with Salacia’s magical skills, wins. It’s a bit of a hoot of an episode, tossing together earnest values of mystery with how destructive (and rather lumpen) researchers crouching under the acronyms of scientific organisations tend to behave, but an interesting one, which leaves you wondering what will happen next.

And then there’s Angelique. What has she become in this saga? And where exactly is she? We don’t yet know and neither does Frans; and you need to tune in to the next episode, which you can read about next week Friday, to reflect on more.  

Die Soutwaterheks has 25 chapters: Watch this space for consecutive reviews! 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.

• Die Soutwaterheks: Episode 11 Die Mans in Swart (The People in Black) 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 Drikus Brand, Francois Coertze, Elzahn Dorfling, Annette Havenga and Martyn le Roux, and is available here.