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(A scene from “Siva_(seven)”
choreographed by Luyanda Sidiya. Pic by John Hogg)
Bookings have opened for South Africa’s premier arts
festival, which runs from July 2 to 12 in Grahamstown.
Aiming to satisfy, provoke and thrill both the discerning
and the curious, this year's National Arts Festival line-up showcases the best
of what South Africa's artists have to offer, as well as an un-missable
selection of international acts.
"The 2015 programme at the National Arts Festival will
be a barometer that measures the ways in which South African artists are
responding to the complexities and accomplishments of our society,” says Ismail
Mahomed, the Festival's Artistic Director. “From thought-provoking work by a
younger generation of artists to soul-stirring celebrations of South African
arts and cultural legends, all complemented by acclaimed performances by
international artists, this year’s programme will cater for wide and diverse
audiences.”
This year’s highlights include:
- Irish comic Dylan Moran – with an extra show already added
due to the overwhelming response the Black
Books star is likely to receive in Grahamstown.
- World premieres of Craig Higginson's The Imagined Land, two Pieter-Dirk Uys productions: African Times and The Echo of a Noise, and the Thambo Production of Masote’s Dream.
- Ray Phiri, rocking the Monument for one night only.
- Leading Zimbabwean contemporary dance company Tumbuka
performing Portrait of Myself as my
Father and the premiere of Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner Luyanda
Sidiya’s SIVA (seven). (See pic above)
- A stronger-than-ever music line-up: Beatenburg, MiCasa,
Shortstraw, Thandiswa Mazwai and Standard Bank Young Artist award winner
Nduduzo Makhathini.
- Leslie Lewis in Miracle
in Rwanda, the incredible story of
Rwandan genocide survivor Immaculée Ilibagiza.
- Ibsen's The Doll's
House adapted by Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for Theatre,
Christiaan Olwagen.
The Gala and Symphony concerts will be presented by the
KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra (under Richard Cock), while Cape Town City
Ballet will celebrate its 20th anniversary with two works by John Neumeier – Spring
and Fall and Le Sacre.
As South Africa's largest platform of artistic debate and
expression, the Festival Fringe is bursting with a bumper line-up of more than
400 productions, including 56 comedy productions, 41 physical theatre
productions, seven illusionists, and 34 dance shows.
There’s also a fascinating visual art programme; performance
art; the Standard Bank Jazz Festival (Carlo Mombelli, Pops Mohamed, Kesivan
Naidoo, Bokani Dyer, and others); Family Fare, which will see ASSITEJ SA
collaborate with companies from Holland and Denmark; the Film Festival,
showcasing the work of Afrikaans director Jans Rautenbach; and Think!Fest,
which will bring together South Africa’s thought leaders to grapple with issues
of self-expression and freedom.
Visitors can browse, plan and book their Festival experience
on the Festival website and the dedicated ticketing system is both efficient
and secure. Click on the banner advert at the top of this page or visit www.nationalartsfestival.co.za
for the full programme and booking forms.
Printed programmes will be available from selected Exclusive
Books and Standard Bank branches towards the middle of May.
The National Arts
Festival is grateful to its presenting sponsors: the National Lottery
Distribution Trust Fund, Standard Bank, the Department of Arts and Culture, and
the Eastern Cape Department of Sports, Recreation, Arts and Culture. City Press
and M-Net are the Festival’s media partners.