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Friday, August 4, 2017

BAXTER THEATRE BIG AT HILTON ARTS FESTIVAL



Two of Lara Foot's highly acclaimed plays will head the theatre line up at this year's festival. A perfect chance for KZN audiences to indulge.

Over the years Cape Town’s Baxter Theatre, under the visionary leadership of Lara Foot, has provided the Hilton Festival with a wonderful variety of challenging original productions. This year the Baxter is producing two shows which will be part of the Hilton Festival line up: The Inconvenience of Wings and Karoo Moose.

“We are looking forward to two remarkable productions both of which have a slew of prestigious awards to their names. The presence of Baxter shows at our festival provides local audiences with the rare opportunity of seeing major, large-scale theatre productions which would otherwise not travel to KZN,” said Festival Director, Sue Clarence

Acclaimed writer and director Lara Foot’s latest play, The Inconvenience of Wings, brings bi-polar disorder and friendships into the spotlight. The National Arts Festival 2016 Featured Artist and 1996 Standard Bank Young Artist for Theatre, Foot has assembled a stellar cast and creative team for The Inconvenience of Wings. Featuring Jennifer Steyn, Andrew Buckland and Mncedisi Shabangu, The Inconvenience of Wings is set in a landscape of memory and dreams and tackles the issues of friendship, dysfunction, addiction and angels.

Sara (Steyn) has been diagnosed with bi-polar disorder; she is compulsive, alive and hates women who know how to make cupcakes. Andrew (Buckland), her husband, is on a mission to find a cure for her afflictions and Professor James (Shabangu) quietly tries to save Andrew from himself.

For mature audiences only.

Foot’s enduring smash-hit physical theatre production Karoo Moose chronicles the story of a young girl, Thomaza, who lives in an isolated village in the Karoo region of South Africa, who ends up killing a moose. Strange and enchanting, the production explores the disintegration of the family unit and the violation of innocence. Performed in English, the play cleverly and creatively combines African storytelling and magical realism.

Foot explains, “The themes of the story for me were bound up in the idea that the children in the village needed some kind of magical event to free them from abuse, neglect and poverty. Something magical was needed to break the cycle of violence.”

Karoo Moose, written more than a decade ago, has won 15 top South African theatre awards including Best Director and Best SA Production at the Fleur du Cape Theatre Awards, Most Innovative Work from Aardvark and Best Production at the Aardklop Festival.

“A gem of a play... touching, imaginative and blessed with a flavour all its own. A celebration of story-telling,” enthused Charles Spencer: Telegraph, UK.

The festival would not be possible without the generous support of Hilton College, Times Media Group, Grindrod Bank, Black Coffee, DWR, PWC, Bidvest Car Rental, Indwe Risk Services, Assitej South Africa, Loud Crowd, Sappi, Redlands Hotel, Zultrans, KZN Dept of Arts & Culture, BASA, Castle Lite, Maritzburg Sun, Caxton, KZN Weddings & Functions, Midlands Stretch Tents, and Ken Forrester Wines.

For more information visit http://www.hiltonfestival.co.za/ or like the Facebook page, Hilton Arts Festival. Follow on Twitter @HiltonFest or download the free APP Hilton Arts Festival for both Android and IOS.

Booking enquiries: tickets@hiltoncollege.com All enquiries on 033 383 0127 or festival@hiltoncollege.com

Programme available August 11 and schedule on line as pdf on website from August 21– bookings open and programme at various outlets in Pietermaritzburg and Durban.