The University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Drama
Programme (Howard College Campus) in collaboration with Life Check and the
eThekwini Municipality’s Celebrate Durban presents a festival of spoken word,
hip-hop, graffiti, breakdance, and innovative theatre!
2012 sees the inaugural Expressions
Sessions festival launch itself in Durban, aiming to woo audiences with
alternate heartfelt and deeply engaged theatre and performance.
The festival takes place over two weeks and
has three distinct encounters or events. Expressions Sessions opened with the
critically acclaimed one man show Seriously?
Written and performed by Durban’s inimitable spoken word rhyme master
iainEWOKrobinson, and directed by Karen Logan, best known for her sensitive and
award winning directorial work on Neil Coppen’s Tin Bucket Drum and her inventive film and video work for Flatfoot
Dance Company.
Seriously? has already had two sell-out seasons at the National Arts Festival
in Grahamstown and a very short but sold-out run as part of the New Stages at
the Playhouse. This marked a welcome return of a masterfully crafted and deeply
personal spoken word encounter with self and the world. Rooted in a tell-tale
narrative of a white boy growing up in 80s KZN and finding that he doesn’t
quite fit in till he stumbles upon ‘The Universal Zulu Nation’; and then all
hell breaks loose! It is about calling
for the creation of a society that thrives on individual expression and
creativity – the very essence of what the Expressions Sessions festival is all
about! Performances took place from September 27 to 30.
The festival continues in week #2 with an
epic battle between the classic Bertold Brecht text of The Good Person of Setzuan, and a very contemporary picking up of
where Brecht left off around this seminal socially astute and politically
engaged 20th century theatre text, into a workshopped production called The Free Person of Such-A-One. Performances take place from October 4 to 6 at
19h30 and on October 7 at 15h00 at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre. Tickets: R50
(R25 students, scholars, pensioners, and group bookings of more than 10). Booking is at Computicket.
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