French bears, spectacular Chinese street parades and human zoos are coming to spaces in Grahamstown along with this year's National Arts Festival.
French bears, spectacular Chinese street parades and human zoos are coming to spaces in Grahamstown along with this year's National Arts Festival.
Audiences will be able to immerse themselves in an exciting and adventurous array of performance art presentations that will be offered from stages, in museums, galleries and unusual public spaces (taxi ranks, libraries, car parks), and also in places which, up to now, haven't been used as conventional festival spaces.
The innovative and cutting-edge group of performance artists are headlined by Steven Cohen who is no stranger to the European festival circuit but will make his first appearance on the Grahamstown Festival stage together with Nomsa Dlamini, his 90-year-old co-performer in The Cradle of Humankind.
Brett Bailey’s Third World Bunfight company has maintained its position at the forefront of South African performance throughout its 16-year history, and has a strong international presence. Tickets to his Grahamstown performances typically generate the highest demand, and this year should be no different.
His production, Exhibit A, will explore the theme of human zoos where, between the mid 19th century and the Second World War, people from the non-Western world were exhibited like animals. Presented as part of the French-South Africa Season, the Cien Non Nova Theatre Company will make its South African début with two productions: Vortex and Afternoon of a Foehn.
Both are highly innovative pieces of work which utilise an artificial wind chamber to delicately and magically manipulate plastic dancers. Audiences can expect to see provocative works from many other acclaimed performance artists, including the likes of Mauritian-born architect, artist and performer Doung Anwar Jahangeer; Standard Bank Encore Award winner and Rhodes University drama Masters student Gavin Krastin; conceptual artist Randolph Hartzenberg and new media artists Gerald Machona and Athi-Patra Ruga.
There will be free performances on each of the 11 Festival days as a part of the Public Art programme, aimed at entertaining family audiences. Presented as part of the French-South African season at the Festival, Nounouche – The Sideshow will stop at a number of places, catching the public by surprise and inviting them to step inside and play with the big, friendly bear.
Lunchbox Theatre will weave a bit of storytelling magic to help a wedding party challenge a group of greedy developers to conserve the natural environment, in The Tree Show. The China Fujian Art Troupe of dancers, acrobats and musicians work together to play Chinese instruments in a spectacular way that will mesmerise their audiences.
Festinos can also take a bus journey from the Drostdy Arch and be entertained by taxi-styled praise poets and singers en route to a site-specific performance at one of Grahamstown’s most historical sites, St Philips Mission School.
The Festival will end with colour and frivolity in a street parade, where anyone with an ounce of enthusiasm can join a throng of giant puppets, stilt-walkers and 25 cartoon characters parading through the streets.
