The National Arts Festival's ASSITEJ Family Fare platform this year features 12 productions. The wonderfully wacky and energetic musical theatre troupe BATIDA, from Denmark, will be bringing a robust outdoor production to the Main Festival – Ouverture – as well as a production to the Fringe, A Man Called Rolex.
The National Arts Festival's ASSITEJ Family Fare platform this year features 12 productions. The wonderfully wacky and energetic musical theatre troupe BATIDA, from Denmark, will be bringing a robust outdoor production to the Main Festival – Ouverture – as well as a production to the Fringe, A Man Called Rolex.
A humorous family production, it deals with freedom of speech and thought, and what happens to people’s minds during a dictatorship.
From the Netherlands, DJT de Reus brings Maarten Sparrow Flies Out, a highly visual and engaging production for 4+.
It takes the form of a thrilling road-movie about the quest of a sparrow called Maarten to find a beautiful and very rare flower.
An exciting collaboration between Well-worn Theatre, Jungle Theatre and Seka Theatre (Zambia) will result in The Baobab, an outdoor physical theatre experience in the Botanical gardens for the whole family.
It deals with the sacred baobab tree as a shared symbol of ecological empathy and indigenous African heritage and explores the fundamental question of our relationship to nature today.
Other productions include, for the 0-6 age group, Colours of the Rainbow with Princess and Frog, a delightful not-quite fairy-tale where imagination transforms the everyday into the fantastic.
Come hop, sing and dance with Princess and Frog as we learn the colours of the rainbow and make friends along the way.
Double the Fun is a delightful interactive double-bill from Cherry the clown, aka Adi Paxton, and Fishy Flippers is a clowning treat, full of slapstick antics and a charming story of friendship discovered.
Memory (7+) tells the story of why humanity kills the elephant, with powerful physical performances evoking the animals; Get Kraken (10+) is a tale of high adventure with poachers, plucky heroes, ice-cold villains, breath-taking battles and a sea monster bigger than your imagination.
Narrative Dreams is an evocative story about growing up, being alone and finding friends for 10+.
Written by Lereko Mfono and directed by Omphile Molusi, the play takes us into the worlds of two young boys who want to be kings, like their namesakes – David and Morena.
Being Norm, performed by Richard Antrobus, is not part of the Assitej line-up, but it is part of the Family Theatre genre in the Fringe.
Being Norm demonstrates the daily struggles in the life of the character Norman, through the techniques of graphic mime, vocal effects and physical clowning.
Norman got his name through being exceptionally average – yet he is so normal that he becomes anything but average.
The show comes recommended as being captivating and very funny.
Antrobus is a former Standard Bank Ovation “Encore” Award winner, as well as being on the Mail and Guardian 200 Young South Africans list in 2013.
Antrobus grew up in Grahamstown and graduated from Rhodes University.
He is the Artistic Director of the Grahamstown-based OddBody Theatre Company.
He is also the creator of the Phezulu Project – a programme allowing unemployed Grahamstown performers to learn arts such as stilt-walking, gumboot dancing, poi, juggling and balloon manipulation.
These local performers showcase their new skills as part of the street performances of the National Arts Festival.
This is the 10th year Antrobus appears on the Festival stage.
Back to the ASSITEJ line-up, for the 15-plus age-group is the moving A Girl Called Owl starring Briony Horwitz and written by Jon Keevy.
This quality and thought-provoking theatre piece looks at a young girl's experiences as she leaves behind childhood in a small-town environment.
Oatlands is the main venue for ASSITEJ SA activities, but Vicky’s and Memory Hall also carry productions as satellite venues.
Other family fare at the 2014 Festival includes the Tianjin Art Troupe, who will showcase their acrobatic dexterity in a spectacular show.
Mime and comedy is at the heart of the non-verbal production Splash, sponsored by the Embassy of Spain – a hilarious show about three people who embark on a sea journey and find themselves caught in a series of fun, antics and adventure.
‘Ilifa’ – The Inheritance is a lively, interactive and highly entertaining family theatre show.
It will bring to life a richly themed story of self-discovery and the unveiling of a great inheritance.
Inspired by the 40th anniversary of the National Arts Festival and the 20th anniversary of South Africa’s constitutional democracy, Lunchbox Theatre will use dance, song, physical theatre and interactive storytelling to unite the themes central to these events in a colourful, engaging and multilingual performance piece that appeals to an audience of all ages.
Script and direction is by Stuart Palmer with choreography and songs devised by the cast.
