“Tony Miyambo in Red Peter’s Way Out”
Tomorrow evening and Saturday evening, The
Hexagon Theatre at the University of KwaZulu-Natal Pietermaritzburg will host
the 7th Annual Theatre Minifest, showcasing the best in New South African one
and two person plays, performed by new up and coming performers, as well as
established well-known actors.
February
22 (Friday) at 16h00: Locked-In,
Locked-Out
“We leave you in the morning before work,
we see you again only once the sun goes down, we escape you in the holidays and
we treasure you on the weekends ... you are our house, and together we are a
home.”
Benjamin Bell and Monique Hill have crafted
a little piece of magic that grows out of a set entirely made up of brown
moving boxes. Through the use of this clever design stories of people, of you
and of me, are interwoven, each struggling with their own concept of
"home". The play asks: How does space, a house, become a home? How
does a house alienate us from the outside world; how does it give us joy; how
does it comfort us and when does it feel like we need to move out and move on
with our lives? Hill aptly treats her five characters with the utmost respect
and humility. The gentleness of Locked-In,
Locked-Out is its real strength. We're treated to bursts of laughter and
painful self-truths that can only be likened to those quirky French films that
fill one with that sensation that can only be described as: the joy of life.
February
22 (Friday) at 19h45: Pockets of Knowledge
Pockets
of Knowledge tells a simple story set against the
backdrop of a typical African village. Inside this village two young boys
witness an event that changes their lives and in the midst of this, they
continuously look to their mentors, Chief Babu’ Mantshongo and an exceptionally
impactful teacher Mazibuko.
After a successful run at the Durban
University of Technology’s Arts Gallery, Pockets
of Knowledge received a nomination at The Mercury Durban Theatre Awards in
the category for best New South African Script. The play is written and
performed by Sabelo Ndlovu and Menzi Mkhwane, who have just won an Audience
Favourite Award at Musho! Festival for their new show, Looking into the Abyss. In 2010, Sabelo Ndlovu co-wrote and
directed Fragmented Prism!, a student
production which premiered at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival. In the
same year, Menzi Mkhwane (son of celebrated theatre actor, creator and director
Bheki Mkhwane) became one of four South Africans chosen to work in Holland as
part of the Dutch production of Oliver
Twist. He was then introduced into the Durban theatre scene with Belly of the Beast which he performed
alongside his father. He has recently been seen in a lead role in Horn of Sorrow.
February
23 (Saturday) at 16h00: Red Peter’s Way
Out
‘A way out, A way out’, cries Red Peter in
his address to the academy. Caught between a Human and an Ape, Red Peter has
lost his essence. Red Peter’s Way Out
is a one-hander that depends on physicality to express the character and its
world. The deliberate physicality is meant to reference the physical self as a
point of external identity conflicting with the internal identity. Relaying his
story, Red Peter speaks from the heart and wants everyone to share the depth of
his ape to human transformation story.
Writer/Director Phala Ookeditse’s
adaptation of Kafka’s A Report to an
Academy is an in-depth exploration of an identity crisis. Who are we as
Post-Apartheid South Africans? Moreover, what makes us South Africans in the
first place? Through the brilliantly crafted script, the play tackles these
challenging questions head on. But it is through Tony Miyambo's performance
that we identify with Red Peter: his highly strung physicality, the
death-defying climbing and jumping, his insight into the human condition, his
pain and his pleasures.
“Miyambo in his pseudo-academic voice –
delivers a performance that really makes you think not just about his identity
as a Man/Ape, but your own identity, in your own country.”- The Citizen
February
23 (Saturday) at 17h45: Behind the
Curtain of Justice
This play says a lot about men, their
attitudes, their anger, their lies and suspicion. Behind The Curtain of Justice is conceptualised by Wiseman Mncube,
written and directed by Radwinn Paul van Wyk and performed by Musa Ntuli and
Monde Tshazi. A middle aged detective gets a surprise visit from an old high
school friend who is also an undercover detective. They both have something to
hide. Peppered with moments of light comedy and sarcasm, the audience is kept
in suspense by the gradual unmasking of the lives of these two characters.
February
23 (Saturday) at 19h30: Callum’s Will
The highly acclaimed play that has
enthralled audiences country-wide for the last two years is finally at the Hex!
The beautiful and intimate story of Callum’s
Will takes the audience on an almost filmic experience as the unlikely
relationship of the two male characters evolves from an awkward first encounter
to a deep and lasting friendship which neither expects or understands.
Sometimes in life friendships choose us. People enter our lives for the wrong
reasons but at exactly the right moment to save us from ourselves.
Set in London’s early 90’s the two
characters come from completely different backgrounds in. Callum is a cultured
man in his mid-forties, an ex-ballet dancer whose career was cut short by a
tragic accident which has left paraplegic and in a wheel chair. Disconnected
from his “friends” and previous life he is unable to cope and forced to seek
assistance in the unlikely form of Will.
Will – a boy in his mid-20’s from the wrong
side of the tracks - is the result of growing up in mass unemployment and a
country of state benefits. Surrounded by friends who have accepted their lot in
life, Will however is not bereft of hope and dreams. Something his eccentric,
late mother left as a seed and is about to germinate.
The story takes the audience on a journey
of laughter and sometimes tears but essentially full of hope as it offers a
quiet window into the tiny intricacies of human behaviour and interaction which
we never really get the opportunity to observe. Written and directed by Janna
Ramos-Violante and performed by Darren King and Clinton Small.
February 22: Locked-In, Locked-Out and Pockets
of Knowledge and February 23: Red
Peter’s Way Out; Behind the Curtain of Justice and Callum’s Will. Performances take place in the Hexagon Theatre on
the UKZN Pietermaritzburg campus. Tickets R60 per show or R250 for all five shows.
Bookings on 033 260 5537or email: hexagon@ukzn.ac.za
Seating is unreserved.
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