(“I Have Life” –Alison,
as played by Suanne Braun, crawls to the road to save her life)
This year's programme features more women in an effort to amplify
female voices in the theatrical, performing and visual arts.
This year's National Arts Festival - which runs from July 2
to 12 - not only features a number of strong and visible women in most genres,
but also numerous productions and exhibitions that interrogate and question
fixed thinking in relation to gender more broadly.
At the closing of the recent PEN World Voices Festival in
New York, Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie spoke out against the 'codes
of silence' that govern American life. 'The fear of causing offence, the fear
of ruffling the careful layers of comfort, becomes a fetish,' Adichie said.
Practicing what she preaches, the award-winning writer
recently spoke out against the criminalisation of homosexuality in her home
country. But, she told The Guardian: 'I have often been told that I cannot
speak on certain issues because I am young, and female, or, to use the
disparaging Nigerian speak, because I am a "small girl". I have also
been told that I should not speak because I am a fiction writer ... But I am as
much a citizen as I am a writer.'
Adichie's critique could equally be levelled at South
Africa's slow burning culture of consent in relation to everyday gender
inequities and the often unspoken violence that plagues the lives of many South
African women. This year, the National Arts Festival tackles this seam of
gender inequality head-on.
This focus forms part of the overall thrust of this year's
Festival to bring urgent social matters to light and present material that explores
the limits of expressive liberty, provoking audiences and taking them beyond
their comfort zones.
“The arts need to challenge and provoke,” says the
Festival's Artistic Director, Ismail Mahomed - and that includes provocation in
relation to the most intimate questions of gender identity, sexuality and power
relations.
More female artists have been consciously featured in the
2015 programme in an effort to amplify female voices in the theatrical,
performing and visual arts. Among the many female writers, directors,
performers, curators and trailblazing artists across all genres appearing at
this year's National Arts Festival, some of the leading lights include:
- Tara Louise Notcutt is involved in seven productions at
NAF2015, not least Three Blind Mice.
Notcutt directs James Cairns, Albert Pretorius and Rob van Vuuren in this
unforgiving journey into the dark heart of South African justice, which looks
to the horrific and barely believable narratives (Pistorius, Dewani) that have
dominated our media recently.
- Thoko Ntshinga directs the Baxter Theatre Centre's revival
of legendary South African theatre-maker Barney Simon's hard-hitting 1985
docudrama Born in the RSA. Having
performed the role of Thenjiwe in the original production, Ntshinga is the
lifeline connecting the 1985 staging to this current revival.
- Patricia Boyer: Miss
Margarida's Way. Audiences and critics in over 50 countries have cheered
this allegory about totalitarianism, which uses as its central metaphor a
classroom. Also Florence: A Script Reading (as part of Think!Fest 2015)
exploring the life of Lady Florence Phillips and the circumstances that led to
the creation of the Johannesburg Art Gallery.
- Nelisiwe Xaba and Mamela Nyamza: The Last Attitude. After years of not dancing together, two female
choreographers/dancers meet up on stage again to do a ballet. The piece will
interrogate the politics of this ancient art form: including the male posture
and the relationship between the male principal dancer and the ballerina.
- Jolynn Minaar: Unearthed.
A young South African filmmaker swallows her optimism on the potential shale
gas could bring to her people after travelling to ground zero and uncovering
the dirty secrets of the fracking industry.
- Jodi Bieber: Between
Darkness and Light is this internationally acclaimed photographer's first
major mid-career retrospective and includes a selection of her work from 1993
to the present. The show has been exhibited at Stadhaus Ulm and Museum Goch in
Germany as well as the Wits Art Museum.
- Monique Pelser: Conversations
with My Father is a continuous dialogue (2011 - to date) between the artist
and the objects, images, sound recordings and documents she inherited after her
father died of a rare motor neuron disease which rendered him unable to speak
for the last year and a half of his life. Her father was 'a good man, a good
father'. As a member of the South African Police force, he was also a product
of his environment.
- Thandiswa Mazwai. The Guardian recently called her 'South
Africa's finest female contemporary singer'. One of South Africa's most
influential musicians, her music defies categorisation, but reflects elements
of African traditional, jazz, Afro-soul and house.
- Thandi Ntuli. Captivating young pianist Thandi Ntuli is
making waves in the contemporary South African jazz scene and rapidly earning
the admiration of the industry's most respected musos. She has performed on
various local and international stages including the Calabar International Jazz
Festival, and recently returned from a national tour promoting her solo album, The Offering, which has received high
accolades.
- Also catch pianist Kai-ya Chang and gifted vocalists
Nomfundo Xaluva, Lindiwe Maxolo, Auriol Hays and Siya Makuzeni
(vocals/trombone) at the Standard Bank Jazz Festival.
Lerato Bereng is this year's Featured Young Curator. Having
graduated with a Masters in Fine Art (with distinction) from Rhodes University,
she will be returning to her stomping ground. Bereng, who is a curator at
Stevenson gallery in Johannesburg, has curated Nine O'Clock, an exhibition featuring a selection of works by Simon
Gush, including elements from his project, Red
(2014), and administrator.
For gripping theatre based on harrowing true stories about
women rising up against the odds, see:
- I Have Life:
Alison's Story: Based on the true story of a woman who, 20 years ago, was
raped, stabbed multiple times and then had her throat cut, SAFTA Lifetime
Achievement award winning theatre director Maralin Vanrenen's adaptation of
Marianne Thamm's book, is a tribute to one woman's remarkable journey from her
ordeal, through her recovery and on to becoming an inspiration around the
globe. Featuring Suanne Braun as Alison Botha.
- Woman Alone,
Christo Davids' adaptation of Dannelene Noach's autobiographical novel Arabian Nightmare tells the story of a
woman working as nursing co-ordinator in one of the large, modern hospitals in
Riyadh who ends up being abducted and incarcerated in a Saudi Arabian jail. A
Muslim woman comes her rescue in a poignant tale about personal courage in the
context of current-day religious conflicts.
Bookings are open and can be made via the website – click on
the festival banner at the top of this page or visit www.nationalartsfestival.co.za
Ticketing call centre: 0860 002 004
Festival programmes and booking kits are available from
selected Standard Bank and Exclusive Books. The full programme is online at www.nationalartsfestival.co.za
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