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.
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