(Zakithi
Mavundla with Londiwe “Cinderella” Cele in front)
Talking
Spirits was one of the four productions featured by
The Playhouse Company in its fourth Community Arts Festival (CAF) which ran in
the Playhouse Loft from April 11 to 20.
As previously, the Festival featured
productions from KZN communities which received performance and theatre skills
training from professional arts practitioners.
Providing training in voice production
(speech), artSMart editor Caroline Smart was one of the industry professionals
working with this year’s community artists. Others included Edmund Mhlongo
(mentor and director); Ralph Lawson (directing and acting); (voice production);
Peter Gardner (agents and auditions), Juan Burgers (music and singing); Ashwin
Singh (scriptwriting, contracts and copyright); Peter Court (masks and physical
theatre), Dr Emma Durden (administration & artistic management), Megan Levy
(stage management), and Nkanyiso Kunene and Sandile Mbili (movement and dance).
“Obviously I can’t give a full review of this
production as I was involved in its development,” says Caroline Smart, “but Talking Spirits was a fascinating piece,
well-directed by Bongani Baai. His eagerness to improve the quality of his
production showed the value of this Playhouse Company project. Our skills were
made available to him and he was ever-ready to learn. Londiwe Cele, Nomathemba
Kawula, Sanelisiwe Mabine, Zakithi Mavundla, Nozuko Ncayiyane and Londiwe
Ngwazi all gave focused and mature performances. The production dealt with the hard-hitting
issues of abortion, correctional rape and murder and the inevitable
consequences.
The other three productions in the
Community Arts Festival were Umlabalaba
and Zion (Programme 1); and Sugar Daddies (Programme 2). (See
separate articles)
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