(The
Monument at Festival time!)
South Africa’s artists, theatre makers and
musicians are responding to the challenges of living in a country in flux with
genre-busting work that is provocative, innovative, engaging and entertaining.
Some of the best of these productions will be showcased at this year’s National
Arts Festival, to be held in Grahamstown from June 29 to July 9 this year.
Featuring new works from theatrical
firebrands alongside Festival favourites such as the Gala Concert, presented
this year by the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra, visitors to this year’s Festival
can expect a thrilling mix of new and familiar in a programme that both
reflects and challenges South African society.
“Creative disruption has served as the
backbone for building this year’s core programme – and the response has been
extraordinary,” says National Arts Festival Executive Producer Ashraf Johaardien,
who has been working with the 20-member Artistic Committee to put together this
year’s programme.
The National Arts Festival is made up of a
number of programmes and events, including the curated Main; the open-access
Fringe; and the Arena, which gives award-winning works a platform at the
continent’s biggest cultural event.
“A number of the works selected for the
Main programme refuse to sit quietly in any one genre – and that will be the
first clue that something is in flux,” says Johaardien. “Multi-sensory,
immersive works that cut across disciplines signal a desire by the artists to
engage audiences in new and unconventional ways. Other works will disrupt
dominant historical narratives by offering new lenses for looking at the past
and reclaiming stories previously relegated to the margins.”
This year’s Featured Artist is composer,
musician and cultural activist Neo Muyanga, who will premiere solid(t)ary, a piece composed
specifically for the Festival, exploring the notion of song within protest and
revolt. The Neo Muyanga Trio will present a new collaborative music production
with Andre Swartz, Peter Ndlala and guest Msaki. He will also host a talk on
protest and creativity as part of the Think!Fest programme, a fascinating
series of lectures, debates, and conversations that provide insight and opinion
relevant to programmed events and wider topical issues.
Audiences are guaranteed nothing but
brilliance from the winners of this year’s Standard Bank Young Artist Awards: cellist
Abel Selaocoe (Music); bassist and composer Benjamin Jephta (Jazz);
choreographer and dancer Thandazile Radebe (Dance); playwright and director
Monageng Motshabi (Theatre); sculptor Beth Diane Armstrong (Visual Art); and
multimedia artist Dineo Bopape (Performance Art).
As well as showcasing works that serve and
include new and diverse communities, the Festival continues to offer
opportunities for high-quality performances from the country’s more established
artists – look out for Sylvaine Strike, Jay Pather, Vincent Mantsoe, Vanessa
Cooke, Rehane Abrahams, Dada Masilo, PJ Sabbagha and Craig Morris.
British stand-up comedian Stephen K Amos
will be doing two shows in Grahamstown and there are two other UK acts on the
Arena programme as well: athletic comic duo The Pretend Men in the Fringe smash
hit, Police Cops; and Louise Reay,
fresh from the Brighton Fringe with It’s
Only Birds, “a comedy in Chinese for people who don’t speak any Chinese at
all”.
“Despite a tough arts funding environment,
the programme we’re able to offer still represents the cutting-edge of
performance excellence in South Africa. Our artists, institutions and producers
are doing amazing things in every corner of the country, and the programme that
Ashraf and the Committee have shaped, will once again be a celebration of the
best of this,” says Tony Lankester, the CEO of the National Arts Festival.
Hazel Chimhandamba, Head of Group
Sponsorships for Standard Bank who have been long-standing sponsors of the
festival, says, “With the calibre of artists on the programme for the National
Arts Festival this year, we can expect to be stirred by works that reflect
creatively on our past, stimulate dialogue about our present, and inspire
conversation about our collective dreams that drive innovation and change.”
In a Festival-first this year, a number of
popular shows will open for pre-booking in the course of April – details will
be communicated on the National Arts Festival social media channels.
Bookings – including pre-bookings – for all
shows can be done via the secure National Arts Festival website at www.nationalartsfestival.co.za.
The full programme will be available online
when bookings open in early May at www.nationalartsfestival.co.za
Printed copies of the Festival programme
will be available at selected Standard Bank and Exclusive Books branches.
The programme and other useful information
about the Festival will also be available on a user-friendly app, available for
IOS and Android.
HIGHLIGHTS
OF THE 2017 NATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL
THEATRE
Versatile and exciting young theatre makers
and artists will break new ground and excavate forgotten histories this year in
Grahamstown, premiering a number of new works.
Standard Bank Young Artist Monageng
Motshabi’s brand-new play Ankobia is
set in Kgomodikae, a land where history is forbidden. He uses sound, silence
and text to explore the pain of not being allowed to remember – and what
happens when children are reminded of our past.
The past exposed is also examined in Nadia
Davids’ What Remains. Directed by Jay
Pather, dance, text and movement combine to tell the story of the unexpected
discovery of a slave burial ground and a city haunted by the memory of slavery.
Sabamnye
noMendi, a series of evocative live performances
conceptualised and curated by Mandla Mbothwe, goes beyond the theatre walls and
into public spaces to investigate and interpret SEK Mqhayi’s poem about the
sinking of SS Mendi just off the Isle of Wight in 1917, a tragedy in which more
than 600 black South African troops drowned.
There are works with a lighter, funnier
touch too with Ben Voss and John van de Ruit co-writing Mamba Republic, a rapid-paced satirical sketch-comedy that takes a
look at all that is wrong in South Africa. Sylvaine Strike directs the
hilarious and poignant Tartuffe,
Molière’s satire at its very best, featuring Craig Morris, Neil McCarthy,
Vanessa Cooke and Khutjo Green.
ARENA
Previous winners of Standard Bank Ovation
Awards, which reward productions on the Festival Fringe that show a high
standard of creative excellence, are invited to participate in the Arena programme.
Presented by Business and Arts South Africa, this award-winners’ playground
includes productions spanning theatre (the irrepressible Roberto Pombo and Joni
Barnard in Kidcasino; Jade Bowers’ Black; and Hungry Minds Productions’ Reparations); music (young violinist Pendo
Masote and Msaki and the Golden Circle’s Platinumb
Heart); as well as performance art, dance and physical theatre (Phakama
Dance Productions’ …On The Line; Alan
Parker’s Ghostdance For One; and
AfriArtiK’s Down To Earth).
DANCE
The Dance programme is a curious, furious
and poetic mix between the past and the present, with many of the works dealing
with history and memory. Standard Bank Young Artist Thandazile Radebe leads the
way with Sabela, a contemporary
African dance piece, while Vincent Mantsoe’s new solo work KonKoriti references an ancient song about pride, arrogance,
physical power and selfishness. Former SBYA Award winner Dada Masilo will
present her feminist revision of the classical ballet Giselle, with music especially written by composer Phillip Miller
that layers African percussion and voice with the Western classical harp, cello
and violin.
A collaboration between Cape Town’s Unmute
Dance Company, Johannesburg’s Dance Forum, and Harare’s Tumbuka Dance Company
brings Breaking Borders to the
Festival stage. Reaching out to each other, this border-breaking piece aims to
highlight and negate the tragedy of xenophobia through connection and looking
forward.
MUSIC
Standard Bank Young Artist Abel Selaocoe
returns to South Africa from the UK to astound and delight audiences with his
diverse virtuosity, with a performance that includes works ranging from
Debussy’s poetic and vivid Cello Sonata in D minor 13 to James Macmillan’s
spiritual reflective music as well as foot-stomping klezmer and African style
inspired pieces.
Selaocoe will perform with the Cape
Philharmonic Orchestra, who make a welcome return to Grahamstown for the annual
Gala Concert, under the baton of Richard Cock. Their Symphony Concert will be
conducted by Bernhard Gueller, with Selaocoe and pianist Luis Magalhaës as
soloists.
Pianist Charl du Plessis, with Werner Spies
on bass and Hugo Radyn on drums, will present famous themes from the Baroque
observed through a jazz lens in Baroqueswing,
while Neolektra with Naomi Tagg will
explore new genres for the violin, such as film and gaming music.
The best of contemporary music across all
genres also gets a look-in on the programme, led by a unique collaboration between
Karen Zoid and the Parlotones’ Kahn
Morbee. The Soil, who left Grahamstown in 2011 with a Standard Bank Ovation
Award as an up-and-coming act, return in 2017 as one of the country’s hottest
acts. Also on the line-up are R&B star Jimmy Nevis, Desmond and the Tutus
supported by Opposite the Other, and a partnership between Robin Auld and Wendy
Oldfield.
VISUAL
AND PERFORMANCE ART
The work of this year’s selected
Performance and Visual artists exquisitely combine the historic and the
contemporary. In Excerpts From The Past,
for example, Sethembile Msezane taps into the red-hot conversation about
colonial conquest of land in Africa in a performance narrated by sound clips
from the colonial and apartheid eras and our current context.
Francois Knoetze’s Virtual Frontiers uses virtual reality panoramas and immersive
sound pieces to tell stories of the past, present and imagined future of
Grahamstown. In Footprints, curated
by Thembinkosi Goniwe, Andrew Tshabangu both contributes towards and subverts
Johannesburg’s iconoography.
Spearheading the Performance Art programme
is 2017 Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for the genre, Dineo Seshee
Bopape. The 2017 Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art, Beth Diane
Armstrong, explores scale, materiality, process and change in her
award-commissioned solo exhibition, in
perpetuum
One of South Africa’s most respected
artists, Mmakgabo Helen Sebidi makes a welcome return to Grahamstown, after
winning the Standard Bank Young Artist Award in 1989. In They Are Greeting, a series of paintings, prints and sculptures,
Sebidi continues the dialogue between tradition and the contemporary, the
material and the spiritual, Africa and the West.
Two exhibitions pay tribute to South
Africa’s musical heritage in September
Jive, co-ordinated and supported by the Alliance Française: SA Musical Graphics is a fascinating
selection of album sleeves that offer a reflection on the country’s social
history through the lens of the music industry; and My Favourite Sounds, which combines 47 portraits of musical
personalities shot by Dwayne Kapula with online interviews.
FILM
This year’s Film Festival highlights film’s
role as a disruptor of mainstream narrative. Social critique has always been
currency for film and documentary makers, and the line-up includes movies about
conflict and war (John Pilger’s The
Coming War On China, Wolfgang Staudte’s The
Murderers Among Us); resistance (Michael Verhoeven’s The White Rose); and politics, freedom and dissension (Akong – A Remarkable Life; The Hidden Sky by
Argentinian director Pablo Cesar).
Tribute will be paid to Freddy Ogetrop, a
film librarian at the Cape Provincial Film Library, with a screening of some of
the treasures he collected over 40 years at the library, including the very
rare film by Marcel Ophuls, A Sense of
Loss.
Powerful new South African cinema includes Kalushi: The Story of Solomon Mhlangu,
Meg Rickard’s Tess, Daryne Joshua’s Noem My Skollie, and SifisoKhanyile’s Uprize!, which explores the world that
shaped the students of 1976.
JAZZ
FESTIVAL
The Jazz Festival celebrates its 20th
anniversary this year with a programme that’s stronger than ever, entrenching
its place at the centre of South Africa’s jazz calendar. It includes the 2017
Standard Bank Young Artist for Jazz Benjamin Jephta, who, at 24, is already one
of South Africa’s premier double bass and electric bass players, the programme
brings world-class musicians from all over the globe to Grahamstown. Jazz
enthusiasts can look forward to seeing Estafest
from the Netherlands, South African icons Judith Sephuma and Kyle Shepherd, as
well as Marcus Wyatt’s new project Bombshelter
Beast, and many others.
FAMILY
FARE
The National Arts Festival is not just for
grown-ups – there is plenty to entertain and excite young ones too. The Jungle
Theatre Company brings the fantastical When
Lion Had Wings to Grahamstown this year. Based on an ancient Khoi Khoi myth
about overcoming fear to take back personal power, the production uses daring
stilt characterisations, animal masks, original music and a combination of
English, Afrikaans, isiXhosa and Nama language to explore this traditional
folktale.
The South African production of The Gruffalo will return from a national
tour to delight young theatre-goers. With an all-Grahamstown cast, and
showcasing costumes and props made in the town, the run will signal a
homecoming for the National Arts Festival-produced show.
UJ’s student theatre offering, James And The Giant Peach, is also sure
to lure the young and young-at-heart, while daily storytelling, workshops,
Think!Fest talks on child and family issues, highlighting the 100th anniversary
of Child Welfare SA Grahamstown, plus a plethora of Fringe shows will keep the
Family Fare venues buzzing.
STUDENT
THEATRE
The Fallist movement and other protests
last year put student activism firmly on to the news agenda and into the centre
of conversation in South Africa. Each year, universities and colleges are
invited to participate in the National Arts Festival and the 2017 line-up is as
wide-ranging and complex as the issues faced by young South Africans – there’s
revolt and contestation (University of Pretoria’s Blood Wedding, Wits Theatre/WSOA and Theatre and Performance
Division’s MMU), dance (Oakfields College’s 4), a focus on black women (Gender
Unit of the Western Cape’s The Citizen,
Sol Plaatjie University Drama Group’s Lerothodi
La Sebukwabukwane), moral dilemma and identity (University of the Free
State’s Soverign, AFDA’s Zenith and AFDA Cape’s The Couch); as well as sex and sexuality
(Market Theatre Laboratory’s POP Icherri
and Rhodes University’s Cult Clit).
Tshwane University of Technology’s Molora
uses a highly physical performance vocabulary to express the textual nuances in
Yael Farber’s adaptation of the Greek classical tragedy, The Oresteia.
EASTERN
CAPE SHOWCASE
Mindful of its home in the Eastern Cape,
the National Arts Festival will once again celebrate its rich heritage by
showcasing and highlighting the work of crafters, jazz musicians, indigenous
musicians and dancers, visual artists and writers from the eight districts of
the Province. The discerning festival goer will enjoy an authentic Eastern Cape
experience offered by the Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture
through its development programmes and its celebration of excellence. The focus
this year is on the centenary celebration of the life of struggle stalwart
Oliver Reginald Tambo. In preparation for the Eastern Cape Showcase, young
artists will play an active role in a number of build-up activities during June
(Youth Month).
The Dakawa Music Programme will highlight
the revitalization of this treasured project. Emerging talent will be given an
opportunity to perform alongside established performers such Dumza Maswana,
Lwando Gogwana and Titi Luzipo. A flamboyant platform is available at the
Dakawa Art Centre for Eastern Cape artists.
FINGO
FESTIVAL
An independent, community-led event that
runs concurrently with the Festival (July 4 to 8), this year’s Fingo Festival
offers a wide variety of children’s activities, live performances, concerts and
conversations. All shows are free and the 2017 programme, which includes the OR
Tambo Memorial Lecture and the ever-popular Around Hip Hop Session, will
provide visitors with more than enough reasons to attend. Fingo Festival is
funded by the Eastern Cape Department of Sports, Recreation Arts and Culture
and the National Arts Festival.
Now in its 43rd year, the National Arts Festival
is the largest and longest-running celebration of the arts on the African
content. It is held annually in the small university city of Grahamstown in the
Eastern Cape, 130km from Port Elizabeth. The programme comprises drama, dance,
physical theatre, comedy, opera, music, jazz, visual art exhibitions, film,
student theatre, street theatre, lectures, craft fair, workshops, as well as a
children’s arts festival.
KEEP IN TOUCH #NAF17
Website: www.nationalartsfestival.co.za
Twitter: @artsfestival
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