HEXAGON TO NAF

Pietermaritzburg audiences offered a preview of Hexagon shows for Grahamstown.

There will be a short opportunity next week for audiences to see Pietermaritzburg's Theatrical contributions to the National Arts Festival. Three shows will be going to Grahamstown this year: The Hexagon Theatre's production Coming Up Roses and Janet van Eeden's In-Gene-UityA are entries in the Fringe Festival. Local post-graduate student Mandisa Haarhof's Crawl is the entry in the Student Drama Festival.

Coming Up Roses is a delightfully engaging comedy by local playwright Louise Buchler and directed by veteran director Peter Mitchell, with local actors Buchler, Ron Barbour and Caitlin Kilburn. Meet Christine, Earnest and Cadence, three people stuck in a rut. Christine's boyfriend just ran off with her brother, Earnest wants to be a 'Serious' writer and Cadence ... well, no-one's really sure about Cadence. Follow these three unwitting characters as they deal with life's curveballs - jail, dead fish and ruby red stilettos, Supermarket aisles and internet dating, and then again there are the signs. If you've ever had your heart broken, if you've ever lost your way - if you've ever felt that the universe is trying to speak your language but you just don't get it? This may be the sign you need ... because there is a sign in everything...

Directed by Ian Roberts, In-Gene-Uity is a humorous look at cross-cultural adoption. When Jean and Lucy adopt the son of their deceased domestic worker, they think love and affection are the only things needed to bring up orphaned young James. However, when James turns 16, he seems to turn into someone else. When they discover that James has been missing school, Lucy and Jean decide to intervene. Little do they know that they are not the only ones helping James to discover his roots. Just Do It Productions presents this new play by Janet van Eeden. It will premiere at the Grahamstown Festival in July and is funded by the National Arts Council. It stars Kiara Worth as Lucy, Arifani Moyo as James and Janet van Eeden as Jean.

Coming Up Roses and In-Gene-Uity are being performed as a double bill on June 30 at 18h00 in the Hexagon Theatre. Tickets R40 available at the door.

Crawl is a physical theatre production directed by Mandisa Haarhoff and Mlondolozi Zondi. The storyline follows a set of individual stories told through narration and movement, looking into the personal lives of the characters as everyday personalities. Using music, poetry, sound-scapes and dance, this physical theatre work examines aspects of our lives as systems of existence. Crawl puts forward the painful struggles faced by individuals as they seek to exist free in their identities, functions, circumstances, expectations and new ground. Rich with questions and proclamations, Crawl invites the audience to ask, search, remember, understand, maybe anew or even assured that which they hold as their philosophical notions and religions.

Performances of Crawl will take place on July 2 and 3 at 18h00 in the Hexagon Studio Theatre. Tickets R20 at the door.

Enquiries about all shows can be made to the Hexagon at hexagon@ukzn.ac.za or 033 260 5537.