By Tanya Maswaure
With her face still freshly smudged and energy seeping through her pores, Sophie Joans took a break from her on stage antics to share valuable antidotes about her love of the National Arts Festival. With adrenalin still pumping from her latest performance, AÏo, Joans spoke about her craft, passions, and everything that goes into her clownery.
Sophie Joans, a character who wears many hats, literally and figuratively, has much to offer with her wits and smarts. By profession, she is a clown, improviser, comedian, puppeteer, actor and playwright. Her portfolio is artistically extensive, and her experience goes beyond the NAF, yet she still holds a very special relationship with the Festival and Makhanda.
“I have been at the festival every year since 2013…and I intend to be coming for the rest of my life because I love this place,” she said.
Sat beside her trusty lava lamp, amongst her theatrical props that were scattered across the stage, Joans reflected on her previous performances.
“My first kind of debut at the Festival was ÎLE, which Rob Van Vuuren directed, and I do love that. I’ve almost played it 100 times now, and it’s been so fun to fall in love with the show and get to know it really well. I could do it in my sleep,” Joans said.
However, she also confessed that ÎLE is one of her most demanding performances yet.
“Because it’s physically demanding and it’s emotionally revealing and it’s something about opening yourself up to strangers, It’s very liberating and wonderful. And you feel very connected,” she said.
ÎLE was a massive success at the Festival, where it won The Gold Standard Bank Ovation in 2022 and was widely adored across South Africa. Her first solo continues to open doors for her as she has just been touring internationally, namely at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. ÎLE led the way for AÏo, but Joans revealed that they could not be more different.
“The show that I’ve just finished now is AÏo, it’s in a sentence, ‘The Internet, as expressed through the body of one woman’, and I was inspired to do it because I have been thinking a lot about how theatre is the last art form that is AI proof because they can make art and they can type things but AI can’t be alive, in-person and in front of a live audience. The show is a car crash of that idea,” Joans said.
Evidently excited about this new venture, Joans shared that this is her favourite show to perform to date, and she is not slowing down. At this festival, she is also participating in several other projects, including Dog Rose, directed by Jemma Kahn and starring both Joans and Anthea Thompson, and Raunchy Renditions, an interactive comedy. Raunchy Renditions is under her production company, Spark in the Dark. Regardless of her busy schedule, Joans shared that she will still be visiting other shows and spending time with other artists
“I’m staying in a house with a bunch of other artists, and they’re really lovely and really cool. And I just like spending time with other artists, chatting and connecting. It’s a very social event. You get to meet people and connect, and it’s nice,” she said.
“I love the festival. I love all the people who come out and the audiences who come and see wild things like this. I love the people who put their most beautiful, vulnerable and wonderful stories on stage and the magic we see in South Africa… if this isn’t heaven, I don’t know what is,” Joans said.
When asked what’s next for Sophie Joans, her response was simple and direct, “Anything and everything!” and with her track record, we have no doubt about it.
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