Layers and Light, Exhibition Venue: Hand Made Coffee Cafe Old Gaol By Ndalo Mbombo Five years of boiling leaves, storing pots of rusty metals and experimenting has led to the Ingrid Schudel’s very first exhibition titled Layers and Light. The medium of Layers and Light is eco-printing, a process full of surprises, mistakes and accidents that leads to textured, layered and autumn-themed, multicoloured prints made through a natural dyeing process. For Schudel, who works in science and environmental education, eco-printing has been a hobby up until now and it’s something she first got involved in while living in Greece in the…
Author: Ndalo Mbombo
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Creator of the smallest milky way you will ever find, John Smit resurrects dead proteas. Giving them a new life, transforming them into small diamond dust grand swirls. “There is a story that goes with it. When the flower and magnet combine, it grows a stem and turns into a galaxy,” he said. When Smit isn’t spinning his infinite creations, he is juggling multicoloured juggling clubs, bringing smiles to the Village Green visitors. Words: Ndalo Mbombo Photo: Dideka Njemla
Serurubele/ Butterfly Heart, Theatre for children and young audiences Venue: Glennie Hall Next Performance: Saturday 5 July 14:00 Review By Ndalo Mbombo The stage is littered with multicoloured butterflies, dressed in what I recognise as ugqabsi [skipping rope]. In comes Neo dressed in a light blue knee-length dress stitched with butterflies on the pockets, she catches a butterfly and watches it as it soft-lands on her arm. Friends Neo and Mosa (played by Lalu Mokuku) spend their days playing all kinds of games, giggling and admiring all the beautiful butterflies in their butterfly garden. We watch the purity of love the…
Beggared SA, Theatre Venue: Black Power Station Review & Interview By Ndalo Mbombo “Humour is a coping device” said Sean Higgs discussing his performance in the one-man play, Beggared in SA. Based on a true story, he and director Gideon De Wet began writing this piece 15 years ago. It was De Wet who advised Higgs to write, documenting his experiences on the trajectory from life as a privileged white South African male, to becoming homeless, encouraging him that this was rich material for creating theatre with in the future. “Write, write everything down, you are a writer.” The show…
By Ndalo Mbombo & Thubelihle Mathonsi Temperatures lifted and the weather is decidedly warmer than the first weekend of the Festival. On this sunny winter’s day, there are vendors converging to fill up the normally vacant space on Church Square, spilling over into the cordoned-off streets with vibrant and colorful fabrics from all over Africa. Each stall luring shoppers into making a purchase – who can resist beautifully stitched African prints? “Siphila ngethmba everytime sifika apha but when comparing this year to the other festivals lonyaka is better — ingomso liyatshinstha alifani ne zolo” Sibonokuhle, is from Hlalani township, here…
Umbhobho – The Red Pipe, Theatre for Young People Venue: Rehearsal Room, Monument building Next performance: Wednesday 2 July 20:00 Review By Ndalo Mbombo “Bhuti ndiyeke, ndiyeke uzayi gqawula le penti le penti” is a song most of us sang while playing umshinxi ekasi. In this play, situated in the haunting context of statutory rape – the song sings of horror. Tshepiso (played by Mbali Mkhabela) and Liyema (played by Asamela Chauke), two teenage girls, invite us into their experience of a reality so familiar to young girls in South Africa. The director, Siphosethu Mankai, calls us back to our…
Profile, Dance & Physical Theatre Interview & Review By Ndalo Mbombo Among the artists on this year’s NAF program was Oscar Buthelezi. The award-winning physical theatre practitioner and dancer has been performing since the early age of six years. Buthelezi joined a Cue reporter in the shade under the bustling leaves just outside the Rhodes Drama Department – to share his valuable insight on dance, physical theatre, the Festival, the importance of the arts and the vulnerability of being a creative. Growing up in a household where his father had to be more present than his mother could be because…
By Ndalo Mbombo The spirit of collaboration continues to create moments of advocacy for social change. In a collaborative effort, the Library and Archives Services (LAS), the Department of Correctional Services and the Department of Languages facilitated an activity-packed book club competition. Eight clubs representing the six municipal districts of the Eastern Cape participated in a friendly competition that put competitors’ general knowledge of their province to the test. Over two days, book clubs from Ndlambe, Port St Johns, Mhlontlo, Dr Beyers Naude, Makana and OR Tambo gathered in contest. Participants included Gr 10 and 11 learners, members of the…
By Ndalo Mbombo
Molora. Physical Theatre Venue: St Andrews Hall Next Performance: Friday 27 June 18:00 Review By Ndalo Mbombo Echoes of powerful prayers fill the dark as audience members file in, witnessing a chorus of four women standing over the grave, “Ngenelela Yehova” takes me to my very own moments of prayer, as I seat before what would soon drive my senses wild with fear, anticipation, anger, bewilderment, a shared desire for vengeance and a yearning for forgiveness. I catch my tears as they slide down my cheeks while Clytamnestra (played by Beata-Bellé Wessie) tells the tale of the sorrow she endured…