The Main Theatre programme at this year's National Arts Festival boasts not one, but two world premieres and a considerable list of world-class productions.
The Main Theatre programme at this year's National Arts Festival boasts not one, but two world premieres and a considerable list of world-class productions.
As South Africa's iconic playwright Athol Fugard celebrates his 80th birthday in June, the Festival joins in the celebration of his life and work by presenting, alongside the Fugard Theatre and Mannie Manim productions, the world premiere of his newest play, The Blue Iris.
A love story of tender and personal revelations with layers of emotional exchange, this glimpse at ghosts of the past reflects true Fugard brilliance. Directed by Janice Honeyman, it promises not to disappoint.
And hitting Grahamstown stages before whizzing off to Austria is the other world premiere, Trapped. Princess Zinzi Mhlongo, this year's Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for Drama, whose skills as a strong director have won her several accolades, will make her début as a writer at this year’s Festival with her first play script.
But last year's Young Artist winner Neil Coppen is also on the scene, and continues to challenge the boundaries of contemporary South African theatre. He collaborates with writer Craig Higginson and director Malcolm Purkey in the creation of Higginson’s latest play, Little Foot.
This multi-media event promises to be a unique piece of storytelling, and italLittle Foot/ital will go on to be performed at the National Theatre in London prior to the 2012 Olympics, starting at the end of July. Italian-based company Scarlettine Teatro takes their audience into the world of the comic book. Actors interact with the characters and become part of the story in the South African premiere of their multi-award winning production Manolibera.
From Durban, independent theatre company Kickstart (by special arrangement with the Creative Artists Agency, New York) will present the South African premiere of John Logan’s 2010 Tony Award-winning play, Red.
Directed by Steven Stead, it explores the fascinating creative process and inner conflict of the famous American artist, Mark Rothko. Then sex, lies, class, race, shame and guilt take centre stage in the Playhouse Company’s production of David Mamet’s fast-paced play, Race.
Acclaimed South African-born director Yael Farber bares contemporary South African struggles in her explosive new adaptation of August Strindberg’s classic Miss Julie, set in the remote, bleak beauty of the Eastern Cape Karoo.
Voices Made Night, adapted from short stories by Mia Couto and directed by Mark Fleishman, will reflect Magnet Theatre’s orientation as a creative, innovative and sophisticated African theatre company.
In I Love You When You’re Breathing the Handspring Puppet Company will give audiences the unique opportunity of seeing a puppet deliver a meta-theatrical address, using comedy and generous amounts of self-reflexive humour to give insight on the nature of puppetry, the process of creating life in the object, and the role of the audience in making meaning.
Abrahamse Meyer Productions achieved international recognition for their two previous Shakespeare productions presented at the Festival – The Tragedy of Richard III (2010) and Shakespeare’s RJ (2011). Bringing Shakespeare’s most romantic of romantic comedies to life on a luxury African game lodge, their new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is sure to be the sort of dramatic treat that audiences have come to expect of this duo.
