(National Arts
Festival Featured Artist for 2018 Mamela Nyamza will present her work on the
Main programme. Photo Jean Michel Blasco)
The National Arts Festival’s Executive Producer and its
Artistic Committee have finalised their selections for the 2018 Festival and
shows headed for the Main Programme stages are being announced as the details
are confirmed.
Says Executive Producer Ashraf Johaardien, “We received an
overwhelming number of high-calibre proposals for consideration. Whittling
these down to match the available space and resources at our disposal was no
mean feat but the Artistic Committee tackled this gargantuan task with gusto
and I feel confident that audiences can look forward to a bold but balanced
programme of work that will both entertain and provoke."
Among the confirmed works that National Arts Festival
visitors can expect to see are:
Steven Cohen’s performance art piece put your heart under your feet… and walk! / to Elu is an intense
meditation on loss, grief and absence, following the death of Cohen’s partner
and artistic collaborator, the choreographer Elu. This work takes the form of a
performance, a two-screen projection and an installation of sculptural objects.
A myriad pointe shoes – among them Elu’s – invoke his absence and are collaged
with other found objects embedded with histories, ideologies, beliefs, many of
them recurrent images in Cohen’s artistic lexicon.
Mary Watson’s Jungfrau
will be presented in partnership with Festival Theaterformen (Germany).
Directed and designed by Jade Bowers, 2017 Naledi Award Winner for Best
Director and the 2016 Standard Bank Young Artist for Theatre, and adapted by
Ameera Patel. This piece of theatre is based on the Caine prize-winning short
story from Watson’s collection Moss.
“…poetic revolt: raw, confronting, iridescent, antisocial …”
is how Boris Nikitin’s Hamlet has
been described. Presented in partnership with Pro Helvetia, Johannesburg,
performer and electropunk musician Julian Meding takes on the role of a
contemporary Hamlet rebelling against reality. Supported by a baroque ensemble
assembled by last year’s National Arts Festival Featured Artist Neo Muyanga,
Meding embarks on a tour de force in which he reveals himself, his body and his
biography to the eyes of the audience.
Staged is UJ Arts
& Culture’s all-new play development platform, a public-facing extension of
the hugely successful UJ Can You? Programme that actively identifies and develops
talent from amongst UJ's 50,000 students. Staged similarly seeks to nurture new
plays and professional talent for the stage by creating a national platform to
showcase selected works to local and international producers and presenters.
Featured productions for 2018 National Arts Festival programme include Wynne
Bredenkamp’s At The Edge Of The Light
(South Africa), Joakim Daun’s The
Incident (Sweden/Zimbabwe/South Africa) and Greg MacArthur's A City (Canada/South Africa).
Presented by the Market Theatre Laboratory and Windybrow
Arts Centre Youth Drama Company in collaboration with Art of Synergy Circus
School and supported by the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS), Antoine de
Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince is
the story of a grown-up meeting his inner child. It’s a philosophical contemplation
of loneliness, friendship, adulthood and authority retold for the stage.
The National Arts Festival has also secured the rights to
screen the UK National Theatre’s live theatre recordings which include Angels In America, Who’s Afraid Of Virginia
Woolf? and Hamlet.
National Arts Festival Featured Artist for 2018 Mamela
Nyamza will present her work on the Main programme. Confirmed dance works
include Hatched (a retrospective
piece about becoming a mother) and Phuma-Langa,
which looks at the revival of language, art and culture. Mamela’s third work as
Featured Artist will be revealed soon.
The Gala Concert will take place on the first weekend of the
Festival this year. The Eastern Cape Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by
Richard Cock is set for July 1 at the Guy Butler Theatre. Details about the
ballet performance, which will also be on the first weekend, will be announced
soon.
For more information about the National Arts Festival 2018
and for all the latest news on the programme click on the banner advert at the
top of this page or visit:
● Website:
www.nationalartsfestival.co.za
● Facebook:
www.facebook.com/nationalartsfestival
● Twitter:
@artsfestival
● Instagram:
@nationalartsfestival
● Use the hashtag
#NAF18
For more sneak peeks, behind-the-scenes interviews and all
you need to know about NAF18, subscribe to our newsletter FEST44
DATES TO DIARISE
April 2: A select range of must-see shows will go live for
booking.
May 7: The full National Arts Festival programme will be
available on www.nationalartsfestival.co.za and all shows will open for
booking.
Mid-May: The National Arts Festival printed programme will
be available at select Exclusive Books and Standard Bank branches, as well as
at some theatres across SA.
June 28 – July 8: The National Arts Festival presents a
packed programme of incredible shows, discussions, public art, entertainment
and more!
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