(Cellist
with Rabies. Pic by Mark Wessels)
Cellist
with Rabies, created and performed by Jemma Kahn,
will be the flagship drama production at this year’s Hilton Arts Festival.
It is supported by other excellent dramas,
as well as music and comedy, in an excellent line-up for the 27th annual event
at Hilton College, near Pietermaritzburg, from September 13 to 15, 2019.
Cellist
with Rabies … words cannot describe how amazing it
is. An absolute must! Only one person is known to have survived full-blown
rabies by undergoing a radical form of treatment called The Milwaukee Protocol.
In this romantic tragedy loosely based in the sciences, virologist Joan Remy is
extremely sceptical of the Milwaukee Protocol. She is also in love with rabies.
Director Jaco Bouwer and writer Jemma Kahn,
both winners of the prestigious Standard Bank Young Artist for Theatre Award
collaborate here for the first time. They have created a piece of post-modern
theatre that can be described as erotic, intelligent and utterly engaging.
Cellist
With Rabies premiered to sold-out houses at this
year’s National Arts Festival in Makhanda.
The drama selection is for the serious
minded.
(Tony
Miyambo in “Ape”)
Kafka’s Ape
is a solo performance about a primate’s struggle to overcome the confines of
captivity. The play takes a metaphorical view on South African society. It
highlights the complexities of identity in post-apartheid South Africa and in
the human race in general. Red Peter, the ape, embarks on a journey ignited by
finding a way out of a cage he was confined to after his capture; a journey in
which he contests identity based on outward appearance. The script is an
adaptation of the famous A Report to An
Academy, by Franz Kafka. This production is performed by Tony Miyambo and
has won a slew of national and international awards and nominations.
The
Revlon Girl, Winner of the Silver Ovation Award at
The National Arts Festival 2018, and nominated for four Naledi Awards, with
Heidi Mollentze winning the Best Supporting Actress Award, is set 52 years ago
in the small coal-mining town of Aberfan in Wales, which was hit by a
devastating event that killed 116 children and 28 adults.
The Aberfan disaster was the catastrophic
collapse of a colliery spoil tip at 09h15 on October 21 1966, engulfing the
local junior school and other buildings.
Beautifully written by Neil Anthony
Docking, and poignantly told through the eyes of four grieving mothers, it is
brilliantly infused with humour, and honours those who lost and survived the
loss.
‘… an astonishingly fine piece …. The
performances are so close to the bone that you understand these women from the
inside out …. Beautifully written and directed with a sophisticated edge ‘…. R
Sassen, My View
(“Feedback”
with TQ Zondi and Mpilo Nzimande)
Feedback is a fantastical murder mystery that, in the peculiar logic of
playwright Andrew Buckland, becomes a hilarious, poignant, lyrical and quirky.
This satirical comedy cunningly explores topics as diverse as
food-consciousness and globalization, and, in the hands of physical clowns, TQ
Zondi and Mpilo Nzimande, becomes an intense action-packed celebration of
humanity and our capacity for greed and altruism. The actors take us on a
rollercoaster ride as they play scores of characters in this tale of two
brothers, a detective, and a host of flying cheeses (amongst other foodstuffs),
pitting their wits against the villainous Grave Brothers and aided by Mother
D’Earth. First performed by Buckland and Lionel Newton, they won numerous
awards for the piece. This team has also won several Ovation Awards and a Musho!
Award for their high energy off-the-wall treatment of several of Buckland’s
works, including this one. A classic SA script brilliantly re-invented.
(Tim
Redpath appears in “Breasts - A Play about Men”)
Breasts
- A Play about Men featuring Tim Redpath and
directed by Lynn Chemaly was first presented at The National Arts Festival in
July 2000, performed by award-winning writer, Greig Coetzee. Twenty years
later, the content remains relevant, not only in terms of its insight into
gender relationships and masculinity, but also in highlighting attitudes to
race, class and culture that continue to permeate our society. Redpath takes on
the challenge of presenting nine white male characters who talk about the women
in their lives. Under a magnifying glass, exposed and in the spotlight, these
characters give us tremendous insight into the attitudes of white, patriarchal
South Africa. In the face of the #MeToo movement, and the startling statistics
around gender-based violence, our ultimate goal in presenting this piece is to
open a discourse about sexism, toxic masculinity, and the gender divide.
The Hilton Arts Festival, now in its 27th
year takes place from September 13 to 15, 2019.
The full programme will appear in KZN
copies of The Sunday Times on Sunday August 11. Booking opens on August 12, and
the programme will be live on the festival website from the morning of August 12.
For more info visit www.hiltonfestival.co.za or contact the Festival Office on
admin@hiltonfestival.co.za or 033 383 0127.
The
Hilton Arts Festival is presented by Hilton College and tiso blackstar group,
in association with Grindrod Bank; Black Coffee; Extreme Events; DWR; Bidvest
Car Rental; Stella Artois; BASA; the KZN Department of Arts and Culture; Tsogo
Sun; Redlands Hotel; FNB; the Caxton Group; Maritzburg Sun; Loud Crowd, The SA
Artist and Sappi.
Posts
