By Langelihle Elsie Skade
The 2025 National Arts Festival, hosted in Makhanda, Eastern Cape, featured national and international works that provoked thought, happiness and sadness. It was a platform for artists and the audience to connect and engage, sharing cultural experiences. There are many faces behind the Festival preparations, such as producers, directors, the technical crew, and various sponsors. One of the faces behind the Festival is Rucera Seethal.
Since 2020, Rucera Seethal has been the artistic director of the National Arts Festival, and this year, she and the artistic committee were very specific in the kind of productions they sought. She said that they were interested in productions involving work and labour, the nature of work now, and the future of work.
“There were some productions which spoke to this, particularly Magic Maids, one of our international works. It looks at the domestic labour of women, the exploitation of that, and how it plays out in different countries. Another work which was well received in the first week of the Festival is Izithukuthuku: The Tattered Soul of the Worker, from VAP Dance Academy. It is a big ensemble, percussive and moving. Many audience members were touched quite deeply as it brought the movements of labour and the sounds of labour into the work,” said Seethal.
The Talent is also an international work highlighted by Seethal, looking at human voice and the co-option of voice, the loss of voice, and how AI generates voices, artwork and images. These are the three plays which included themes which Rusera Seethal highlighted as significant at the Festival. A Festival like the NAF took months, even up to a year to prepare. International works take between 18 and 24 months to put into place. Even though this is the case, Rucera Seethal wished they could have added more time to preparations, and she would have loved a much larger audience.
“It’s always a lot of work, and we could do with more time. There are several stages in terms of working with the fringe and the main, and many teams are assisting. This sentiment is also echoed elsewhere in other parts of the sector. We also hoped to have more people come to the shows. Our audience is getting younger, and this has an impact in terms of what you are programming and what people want to see. But you know, it is lovely to see it get going. The momentum built over the week, and the rain did not even seem to dampen it too much,” said Seethal.
What made the National Arts Festival special to Seethal was the responsibility to put together a culturally diverse program. It was the ability to create a programme that brought people from all over the world together.
“It’s that balance between where you have works on the programme that are, on the one hand, a kind of representation of the conversation and the talent and the ability across the country, which is a huge ambition, and, you know, across the main programme and the fringe, we hopefully speak to that. On the other hand, looking for works where there is a strong audience response. Works like Salt, or the circus – Malo and the Moon-Maiden – had people entertained. At the same time, we had works that are artistically on the edge, that are provoking, that are challenging and inspiring, an artistic conversation to other artists and audience. I think we achieved a lot, we have had that balance. I know that they had a good response.”
Overall, the National Arts Festival was a success. It had its ups and downs, but there was unity in diversity.
