GENTRIFICATION. IT’S AN issue you cannot be passive about, particularly if you have axes to grind and stakes you’ve planted in the decaying area under question. Brent Palmer’s play King George takes on the behemoth of city life in all its glory and shabbiness, and he wins. It’s a slick and tight, beautifully written and superbly performed piece of theatre that will have you rivetted. For all the most important reasons. It’s at Theatre on the Square in Sandton until May 4.

And it is here where we meet two well worked stereotypes. Shane Wyntock (Clyde Berning) is your quintessential millennial businessman. Married with two daughters, he comes of successful stock, he’s got the hair and the R5k shirt, the lavish house in Fresnaye, all the yoga moves and the technology and smart drinks to go with them. He’s also armed with team of big shots on the other end of his Zoom conversation, with whom he’s whipping up a pinpointed area in Woodstock, Cape Town, to clean it up, refurbish it of ‘undesirables’ and make a mint, along the philosophy of one man’s downfall being a simple opportunity for another.

But then, there is George Megalos. With his cheap and rough jazzy printed shirt and his expressive posture, his heart in Bulgaria with his ex-wife and daughter, he’s been living in the area all his life and he knows the wiles and interstices of the community at large. Including its penchant for gangsterism. He was a tenant in the space that Wyntock currently has in his cross hairs. His industry: the sex trade. His artillery, all the residents whom Wyntock will be rendering jobless and homeless.

And from their first confrontation with one another, over the privacy or publicity of online communication, their proverbial guns are cocked. Each man has several Achilles heels. Each is aware of the others’ flaws and so begins a battle of egos and pragmatics that is as enthralling to watch as a tennis match on the highest level. Only the stakes are complicated and could reach into massive destruction inflicted on either side. And this makes it even more mesmerising.

Each man has his vantage point. Each serves. Each delivers an offer. Failure doesn’t phase them, it forces them to regroup. The language and venomous threats are mercurial and the story presented has the kind of empathy and balance in its writing and its understanding of the characters that made series like HBO’s Oz the runaway success that it was – where even the most revolting of felons could bring you to tears when the humanity of their side of the story is revealed.

This work represents both a strong understanding of the complex issues of gentrification and a highly sharpened skill in theatre-making; the characters come to convincing life from the get go.

So who do you support? Who do you think will ultimately top the balance and win? And at what price? This play is like watching a choreographed battle only the footwork and jabs are verbal and threat-based, and the blows to the head and heart revolve around chaffs, weaves and bobs. It’s another utter winner for a two-hander at this theatre, which as always, punches well above its own weight. Don’t miss it.  

• King George is written by Brent Palmer and directed by Adrian Collins. Produced by Daphne Kuhn and featuring production design by Adrian Collins, it is performed by Clyde Berning and Brent Palmer, stage managed by Regina Dube assisted by Melidah Thakadu, with technical management by Loftus Mohale assisted by Reggie Mathebe. It is onstage at Theatre on the Square in Sandton until 4 May 2024.