Creative Feel June 2015

SA R36,90 (incl. VAT) - June 2015

THE NATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL GRAHAMSTOWN 2 - 12 JULY 2015

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Making music together.

The KZN Philharmonic will once again be the Resident Orchestra at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. The Orchestra will perform a symphony concert conducted by Bernhard Gueller featuring concertmaster Joanna Frankel.

Conductor Richard Cock will join the KZN Philharmonic for a Gala concert, two pops concerts that feature the music of Lorenz Hart and a children’s concert. Orchestra musicians will also present two chamber concerts throughout the festival.

SymPhONy CONCeRT Horizontal black and white logo SATuRdAy 4Th July, 7Pm, Guy BuTleR TheATRe Conductor: Bernhard Gueller Soloist: Joanna Frankel (violin) Hofmeyr Preludio e Umsindo Tchaikovsky Concerto, violin, Op. 35, D major Dvorák Symphony No. 8, Op. 88, G major

GAlA CONCeRT SuNdAy 5Th July, 3Pm, Guy BuTleR TheATRe Conductor: Richard Cock Bongani Tembe; Artistic director Soloists: musa Ngqungwana (baritone) Horizontal logo with blue background Sorin Osorhean (horn) “The KZN Philharmonic is committed to enriching the cultural life of South Africa’s diverse audiences by presenting world-class concerts and Boris Kerimov (cello) implementing education and community engagement programmes.” magdalene de Vries (marimba) Dukas Fanfare from La Péri waldteufel Espana The h(e)ART OF The mATTeR wiTh The BeST OF FRieNdS Glazunov Reverie for Horn and Orchestra Op. 24 mONdAy 6Th July, 2Pm & 7:30Pm, Guy BuTleR TheATRe Klatzow I am an African Conductor: Richard Cock Klatzow Tintinyane – A Story for Orchestra Soloists: magdalene minnaar (soprano) Horizontal logo with red background Tim moloi (tenor) Giménez La Boda de Luis Alonso - intermezzo Nicholas Nicolaidis (tenor) Glazunov Two pieces for Cello and Orchestra Op. 20 various arr moss Salute to Ol’ Blue eyes waldteufel Les Patineurs Valse (The Skaters’ waltz) Howard arr Cheyne Fly me to the Moon Gounod ‘vous qui faites l’endormie’ from Faust Ternheim arr Cheyne Quiet Night Sibelius Karelia Suite Hart arr van Dijk This can’t be love Gershwin arr van Dijk S’wonderful, S’marvellous Hart arr van Dijk My Funny Valentine ChAmBeR eNSemBle: menken A whole new world Th Th SuNdAy 5 July AT 7Pm & TueSdAy 7 July AT 3Pm black and white logo Horizontal Theile/weiss arr Cock What a wonderful world on a black background RhOdeS ChAPel willson arr Anderson 76 Trombones Conductor: Richard Cock Gordon arr Cheyne Unforgettable Soloists: Joanna Frankel (violin) Porter arr van Dijk I love Paris in the Springtime Violeta Osorhean (violin) Hart arr The Lady is a Tramp To maintain a consistent level in the reproduction of Cheyne this david Snaith (viola) Lloyd webber Memory mark, always use the electronic art provided on david Pinoit (cello) Hart arr van Dijk Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered http://www.nationalartsfestival.co.za/branding.

Annelize de Villiers (clarinet) Anka/Francois/Revaux My Way Stephane Pechoux (percussion) weillthe arrlogo Campbell Mac the Knife Do not recreate the logo. Always enlarge and reduce Jorge Renes lópez (percussion) 25 mm proportionally. The logo itself may not be reduced smaller minimum size Joshua Kim (percussion) than 25 mm in width.

Thando Nkangana (percussion) heROeS ANd VillAiNS ChildReN’S CONCeRT Ravel String Quartet, in F major mONdAy 6Th July, 5Pm, mONumeNT TheATRe Reich Drumming An exciting children’s concert that will include James Bond and Pirates of the Caribbean. it will last 55 minutes.

Bruce Gumboots

Bookings are available through the National Arts Festival at www.nationalartsfestival.co.za or contact 086 000 2004

Sorin Osorhean

Richard Cock KZN Philharmonic String Quartet

Tim moloi

SOme OF THe ARTiSTS APPeARiNG Richard Cock

wiTH THe KZN

Bernhard Gueller

Joanna Frankel

PHiLHARmONiC AT THe NATiONAL ARTS FeSTivAL

Nicholas Nicolaidis

Thando Nkangana

education and development initiative

The KZN Philharmonic Orchestra

EDITOR’S NOTE

W

Humour is…

hat a privilege to interview Pieter-Dirk

in charge; you know, “you can kill me, but I see you!” and

Uys! Having been a long-time devoted

not looking away, because once you don’t see or fear, it

fan of this South African icon, I was

becomes terribly hard, you will never confront it.’

completely taken by his personal charm, his outspokenness, his sharing of rather

personal experiences and his youthfulness. A great performer,

Happy birthday Pieter-Dirk Uys and may you have many more years of great humour to share with us.

On a personal note, I wanted to share with you that

using his scary insight into fellow humans to raise questions about topics like HIV and young peoples’ sexuality, about TB, ‘which is the next great worry; the rape of young girls; the big entitlement, which people are inheriting from their parents,’ South African politics and, of course, current affairs: cutting edge, topical and, as always, doing it with humour.

To celebrate his 70th birthday, Pieter-Dirk Uys is this year’s featured artist at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown and is also celebrating his 20th visit as a performer to the Festival since 1976. One would never think of him as an ‘elderly’ gentleman, a gentleman, yes, but never elderly or even middle-aged. He is incredibly fit, young and full of ideas and plans far into the future, both here and overseas. We should count ourselves really lucky to have such a strong custodian of our South African society.

As he explained, ‘I’ve learned to tell the difference between comedy and humour. Comedy is the joke. Humour is very seldom funny. Humour is what a friend of my mother said to me in 1957; I was bunking school and this woman

our name change has been incredibly well received and our

came to visit my mom... She was a school friend from Berlin,

supporters really like Creative Feel. It is quite a challenge

and had come out to SA to find some friends, because

to keep the Creative look but we think we got it right once

everybody had thought she was dead. And I was introduced

more with our quirky pink cover this month. We at least had

to her and my ma went to the kitchen, and I saw this woman

fun choosing a cover that was different, powerful and told

had something here, and I said, “what is that, is that a phone

a story, the story of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House retold by

number you have on your wrist?” She said, “Darling, if you

a Standard Bank Young Artist, Christiaan Olwagen. A story

phone this number, nobody will answer.” That’s humour.

that is as relevant and as topical as it was on 21 December

She laughed, not because it was funny, but because she had

1879 when it was first performed.

survived the horror. So my humour is to get people to laugh at their fear, and to confront their fear knowing that they’re

Enjoy

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Creative Feel /|June 2015 / 7 ALSO AVAILABLE: 1CD | 2LP DIGITAL

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PUBLISHER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Lore Watterson; lore@desklink.co.za COPUBLISHER & PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Chris Watterson; chris@desklink.co.za DEPUTY EDITOR Tamaryn Greer; tammy@desklink.co.za FEATURES EDITOR Natalie Watermeyer; natalie@desklink.co.za SALES AND MARKETING EXECUTIVES sales@desklink.co.za sales@creativefeel.co.za BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Mariapaola McGurk; mariapaola@desklink.co.za SPECIAL PROJECTS Fiona Gordon; fiona@desklink.co.za DESIGN Mxolisi Gumbi; mxolisi@desklink.co.za FINANCIAL DIRECTOR Debbi Gregory; debbi@desklink.co.za RECEPTION Angelina Ramano DISPATCH Khumbulani Dube SUBSCRIPTION & CIRCULATION Debbi Gregory; debbi@desklink.co.za Published by DeskLink™ Media PO Box 3670, Randburg, 2125 Tel: 011 787 0252 Fax: 011 787 8204 www.creativefeel.co.za www.desklink.co.za PRINTING ColorPress (Pty) Ltd © Copyright DeskLink™ Media The opinions in this publication do not necessarily represent the views of the publisher.

The Elder of Azania is a highlight on the National Arts Festival’s performance art calendar. The piece was created by Standard Bank Young Artist for Performance Art 2015 Athi-Patra Ruga, with video work by Ben Johnson, music by Nicholas Van Reenen and costume design by Unathi Mkhonto. According to Athi-Patra Ruga, ‘The Elder

of Azania is a slice from a moment, that of a mock-ritual – maybe of an Arcadian scene from Azania via the Claude Debussy/Ballet Russes

L’Apres Midi d’un Faun, borrowing on the mythological gravitas of the fauns interactions with the Maidens.’

CONTRIBUTORS: Nondumiso Msimanga; nondumiso.msimanga@yahoo.com Ismail Mahomed; ismail@nationalartsfestival.co.za Michelle Constant; michelle@basa.co.za Mark Strathmore; mstrathmore@outlook.com

Daniel “Stompie” Selibe, Yellow Fever, Mixed Media Portrait, 100x100cm

Look out for the Candice Berman Fine Art Gallery at TAF15 (16 – 19 July at Turbine Hall, Newtown).

Candice Berman Fine Art Gallery Shop 8, Riverside Shopping Centre, 319 Bryanston Drive, Bryanston, 2191 011 463 8524 / 084 843 8302 / info@candiceberman.co.za / candicebermangallery.com

Cover image: Christiaan Olwagen’s A Doll’s House featuring Jennifer Steyn.

cover story

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YOU’RE ONLY BORN ONCE

Joining a line-up of satirists at the National Arts

Festival 2015 is artist Iain ‘Ewok’ Robinson.

Creative Feel’s Nondumiso Msimanga spoke to

the multitalented artist about his work and the role of

youth activism.

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GRAHAMSTOWN CALLING

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A DOLL’S HOUSE

‘The play is ultimately about finding out who

you are.’ This is the essence of the play that

Lots of satire, tons of tributes, and plenty of

Christiaan Olwagen is directing as the Standard

premieres take to the Main stages of the National

Bank Young Artist for Theatre in 2015.

Arts Festival this July.

arts and culture

contents 50

MALCOLM PURKEY

A man of many titles, and talents, Malcolm

Purkey spoke to Creative Feel about his role

as Dean of AFDA Johannesburg and director of Craig Higginson’s The Imagined Land, making its

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CREATIVE ICON: PIETER-DIRK UYS

This year the National Arts Festival kicks off its

Arts Icon series with a celebration of the work of

world premiere at the National Arts Festival 2015.

Pieter-Dirk Uys and will be staging four of his

productions. Creative Feel’s Lore Watterson spoke

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DANCE AT THE NAF

An exciting line-up of local and international

dance works, dealing with a wide array of themes

and subjects, is set to appear at this year’s Festival.

Here are some of the highlights.

to South Africa’s most beloved satirist.

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DYLAN MORAN

The announcement that Irish comedian, writer and

actor, Dylan Moran would be taking to the stage

at the 2015 National Arts Festival caused elation

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A NEW DIRECTION FOR MIDM

amongst his thousands of South African fans, with

Under new artistic direction by Mark Hawkins,

social media lighting up in the days following.

the 37-year-old Moving into Dance Mophatong

10 / Creative Feel / June 2015

(MIDM) is currently in the process of evolving,

are producing a Day of the Giants, on Sunday 28 June

whilst still discussing social issues through

at the Goethe-Institut in Johannesburg.

enthralling movement vocabulary and cutting edge

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FRIENDS OF IFAS

A new Comite des Amis (Friends of IFAS) has been

appointed to assist the French Institute of

South Africa.

choreography.

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HISTORY WILL INSPIRE YOUR ART

This year’s visual arts line-up at the National Arts

Festival features new work by this year’s Standard

Bank Young Artist Kemang wa Lehulere, alongside

artists including Simon Gush, Michael Godby,

Themba Shibase, Keith Dietrich, Jodi Bieber and

Monique Pelser, while Lerato Bereng is the Festival’s

debut Featured Young Curator.

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A WORLD OF JAZZ

Local and international dazzling jazz acts from

around the globe: here are some of the highlights

that the programme for this year’s Standard Bank

Jazz Festival has to offer in Grahamstown.

lifestyle and entertainment 76

CINEMA NOUVEAU

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BOOK REVIEWS

79

CD REVIEWS

contents contributors 24

ARTLOOKS & ARTLINES

Artlooks & Artlines is a monthly column

68 A HUNDRED YEARS OF FRANK SINATRA

by Ismail Mahomed, Artistic Director of the

National Arts Festival.

December 12, 2015 marks the centenary of one of

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BUSINESS & ARTS

the world’s most popular singers: the legendary

Business and Arts is a monthly column by Michelle

Frank Sinatra.

Constant, CEO of Business and Arts South Africa

(BASA).

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DAY OF THE GIANTS – PIERRE BOULEZ AT 90

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LITERARY LANDSCAPES

Literary Landscapes is a monthly column written

To honour the French composer Pierre Boulez in

by Indra Wussow, a writer, translator and director of

his 90th year, Jill Richards and Waldo Alexander

the Sylt Foundation.

Creative Feel / June 2015 / 11

Unisa Stays in Tune

Classical pianist Sulayman Human

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Jazz pianist Kyle Shepherd. Photo Timmy Henny

he Unisa Music Foundation’s concert series

the way for the development of music among disadvantaged

and music competitions have long been one

youth across the country with many of our students having

of the university’s flagship cultural activities.

gone on to study at universities across the country and

Unisa’s International Piano Competition, first

also perform with some of the leading orchestras and jazz

established in 1982 has gone on to become

musicians in South Africa.

one of the world’s premier piano competitions taking its

The upcoming 5th Unisa National Piano Competition

place alongside several world class piano competitions such

in July is promising to once again raise the bar with the

as the Van Cliburn Piano Competition. Laureates from the

addition of a second style category. For the first time, a jazz

Unisa competitions have gone on to become world class

category will run alongside the classical category. The jazz

performers with prolific international careers, thereby

category was modelled after reviewing some of the world’s

solidifying Unisa’s standing in the international music

foremost jazz competitions including the Theolonius

competitions arena as one of the leaders in the field.

Monk International Jazz Competition and the Montreux

Coupled with Unisa’s competitions is one of the country’s

Jazz Competition, which is a part of the Montreux Jazz

largest community music engagement programmes. Since

Festival. The jazz category of the national piano competition

1998, a community music development programme has

will form the basis for the jazz category of the Unisa

been developed that has impacted thousands of children

International Piano Competition in 2016, which will also

who wouldn’t have access to music tuition otherwise.

include a jazz and classical category.

The extensive programme has evolved to include several

All rounds of the competition are open to the public.

ensembles, of which the UMF Wind Ensemble and UMF

Tickets for each session will be on sale at the door from 11

Symphony Orchestra are regularly showcased in concerts as

to 18 July in the Z K Matthews Great Hall on Unisa’s main

part of the UMF concert schedule. The programme is paving

campus in Pretoria. CF

12 / Creative Feel / June 2015

“WHAT A FANTASTIC SHOW. GREAT ART, GREAT FOOD AND IN A GREAT LOCATION - TURBINE HALL IS MAGNIFICENT.”

Turbine Hall I 65 Ntemi Piliso Street I Newtown Johannesburg

AFRICA’S MOST EXCITING CONTEMPORARY ART FAIR

Special projects include: Fresh Produce Young Talented Artists Curated Exhibition and Programme Emerging Painters: The Graduate Show Curated by Hentie van der Merwe The TAF & SYLT Emerging Artist Residency Award (Tasa) Johannesburg Art Gallery Exhibition an exciting exhibition featuring major 20 th century Modern American and European artists.

www.turbineartfair.co.za #TAF15 www.facebook.com/turbineartfair www.twitter.com/turbineartfair

CASTADIVA Boutique Hotel

Art, Beauty, Cuisine – Pure Delight

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he beautifully serene Casta Diva Boutique Hotel, on the northern slopes of the Magaliesberg Mountain in Pretoria, is a place to escape the madness of the everyday busy world.

If you are in search of a place to relax and enjoy some of

the natural beauty South Africa has to offer, book a room at this four star boutique hotel and spoil yourself with some affordable luxury. Not only do they offer accommodation, but there is also a restaurant on-site where your taste buds can enjoy a culinary adventure. The à la carte menus offer a A unique venue, nestled high on the Northern slopes of the Magaliesberg amidst peaceful and tranquil surroundings that offer stunning views and an unsurpassed setting of natural beauty and elegance in an oasis of peace and serenity in the city.

CHARISMA Restaurant

Guaranteed the true Decadent, Divine, Delightful fine dining experience, the perfect fusion between the magic of Casta Diva, fresh ingredients, a dedicated culinary team and the friendliest service of South Africa.

selection of dishes sure to still your hunger.

As they often collaborate with up-and-coming performers, you might be lucky enough to stay over when they have a show in the intimate Vissi d’Arte Theatre/Art Gallery. Or, perhaps you can attend one of the Sunday afternoon classical performances hosted in the elegant Charisma Restaurant. They have recently started hosting a series of Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool instrumental concerts where the young music students have an opportunity to perform in front of a live audience and show off their musical talents. These have been received with great enthusiasm from the community and, along with exposing the students, it also develops the love of the arts in the area.

In June there will be a Burlesque performance in the 70-seater theatre/art gallery which promises to entertain with some tongue-in-cheek humour. Glitter, music, dancing and singing – a perfect night out on a weekend.

The boutique hotel will soon be unveiling five more guest rooms which will bring them to a total of 27 rooms.

Each room is beautifully decorated with an individual touch and no unneeded clutter. Perfect for corporate guests who require a peaceful environment to ‘go home’ to at the end of the day, the tranquillity of the property will soon have you forgetting about the hustle and bustle of the office. Or, if you want to spoil that someone special, the beauty of the tropical garden will transport you to a magical place, without needing to take a ridiculously long journey to get there.

Functions

Visit their website today, www.castadiva.co.za, and book

Conferences

a room at Casta Diva Boutique Hotel. You could also like the

Concerts Restaurant Theatre Art Gallery

Facebook pages to stay updated on the special events they offer – Casta Diva The Place To; Casta Diva’s Charisma; and Casta Diva’s Vissi d’Arte.

Give yourself something special as winter tightens her grip on our country; visit Casta Diva Boutique Hotel – the one place where you can truly just… be. CF

67 Albatros Street, Ninapark, Pretoria Tel: 012 542 4449 | Fax: 012 542 3085 info@castadiva.co.za | www.castadiva.co.za 14 / Creative Feel / June 2015

012 382 6175/32/79 artsinfo@tut.ac.za | www.tut.ac.za

Faculty oF the arts

The Return of Hermanus FynArts This year’s Hermanus FynArts Festival celebrates art and artists, while the Winter School programme presents a wide range of interesting panel discussions and illustrated talks.

I

ntroducing a jam-packed line-up of music, the

The Festival also boasts an exciting series of one-off

opening concert will feature Ammiel and Avigail

literary workshops: Christopher Hope will give a three day

Bushakevitz as soloists with Camerata Tinta Barocca,

workshop entitled ‘The Novel: Where Fact Meets Fiction’,

a Cape Town based baroque ensemble. Also look

examining how facts provide food for fiction; Mike Nicol

out for Three Professors on Three Pianos, a première

presents ‘The FynArt of Murder’, a two-day workshop

for Hermanus FynArts, which features Francois du Toit

teaching the dark secrets of plotting and how to create

performing with Franklin Larey and Albie van Schalkwyk.

engaging characters; and Karin Schimke presents ‘What if a

Two main art events will anchor the visual arts: the

Poem were a House?’, a three-day workshop towards making

2015 Sculpture on the Cliffs exhibition is organised by Jaco Sieberhagen, with the theme, ‘Biodiversity’, while the

one’s poetry more inviting and habitable.

From this year on, Hermanus FynArts will recognise the

historic synagogue houses (In) The Nature of Things, which

diverse origins of immigrants to South Africa, kicking off in

engages with themes beyond the superficial beauty of

2015 with the Italian Connection. The fine art of food will be

the natural world, with artists independently curated by

celebrated throughout the Festival, including a gala dinner

Marilyn Martin, Melvyn Minnaar and Matthew Blackman.

at Bona Dea Private Estate in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley,

A combined exhibition by Diane Victor and Gordon Froud

and a Pop-up Festival Kitchen at the Windsor Hotel, where

called Second Lives (A repurposed title) and twelve local

top chefs will give twice daily demonstrations organised by

galleries hosting special exhibitions, are among those on

chef Garth Stroebel.

the FynArts Amble, which also offers the chance to meet

These are only some of the events on offer - to find

local artists. At the Windsor Hotel, the ceramic exhibition

out more visit www.hermanusfynarts.co.za. Bookings are

showcases the work of 22 well-known ceramicists and will be

through Web Tickets, and can be made on the FynArts

opened by Hennie Meyer.

website. CF

16 / Creative Feel / June 2015

The Art of the Brick

look forward to 75 original artworks: the sculptures were created by Nathan Sawaya and needed more than 1 million LEGO bricks.

The Art of The Brick aims to inspire artwork through unique art forms and has attracted millions of visitors worldwide in the US, Europe, Australia, Asia and now South Africa.

The Art of the Brick artist, Nathan Sawaya is excited to showcase his work for the first time in Gauteng. ‘This country is one of the most amazing places I have been to on my travels and I am thrilled to be coming back and bringing The Art of the Brick to Johannesburg,’ says Sawaya.

LEGO artworks include Sawaya’s most famous work to date; Yellow famously featured in Lady Gaga’s music video G.U.Y., as well as other sculptures such as the T-Rex skeleton constructed from over 80,000 LEGO bricks and measuring over six metres in length. In addition to this, visitors will see some of the world’s most famous artworks recreated with LEGO such as Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Van Gogh’s Starry Night and the Venus de Milo.

The Art of the Brick is full of LEGO, art and education experiences including video interviews with Nathan Sawaya, a PlayStation gaming area featuring LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, a LEGO building zone and many more fun activities

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for old and young to enjoy. he Art of the Brick®, the world renowned LEGO®

Tickets to the exhibition are available either online

art exhibit opened at TheZone@Rosebank on 3

at www.computicket.co.za or at the exhibition box office.

April and will run until 2 August 2015. The Art

Tickets cost R140 for adults and R95 for children under 18.

of the Brick is a world class exhibit geared for the whole

Entry for children under two is free. For school bookings

family, students and LEGO fans of all ages. Visitors can

please email Freya at freya@exporsa.co.za CF

WHAT’S ON @ WITS THEATRE, Braamfontein – JULY 2015 [Details are subject to change] 969 Festival 16 – 26 July 2015

graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada

17 – 25 July 2015

[and]

Highlights include:

We didn’t come to Hell for the Croissants: 7 deadly new stories for

Hirsch, a new play by Alon Nashman and Paul Thompson

consenting adults [presented by POPArt productions]

Hirsch chronicles the life of John Hirsch, a Hungarian

7 Deadly Sins, 7 writers and 7 new stories… Jemma Kahn and her

refugee, orphaned in the Holocaust at age thirteen, who

irreverent side-kick return in the eagerly anticipated sequel to the

found sanctuary in Winnipeg. His fierce talent and stormy

international cult hit The Epicene Butcher with stories that seduce

temperament won him acclaim as a brilliant theatre director.

the sinless and astonish the immoral. It’s unmiss-able, definitely not for children unless you are an awful parent!

Directed by: Lindiwe Matshikiza

Written by Mark Cassidy & Alon Nashman and based on the

Written by: Lauren Beukes, Tertius Kapp, Rosa Lyster, Lebogang

life of Franz Kafka.

Four years before his early death at the age of 41, Franz Kafka wrote a 50-page letter to his father. This letter, a mixture of home truths and self-analysis, provides a thrilling insight into the mind of this most idiosyncratic of great Jewish writers.

Both plays are performed by internationally acclaimed actor, director, producer and theatre creator Alon Nashman, a

august

Kafka and Son

Mogashoa, Nicholas Spagnoletti, Louis Viljoen and Justin Oswald Starring: Jemma Kahn and Roberto Pombo

Proudly African C

ape Town Opera has teamed up with some of SA’s leading creative artists to produce two proudly African works, which are being funded by the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund.

A young cast, which includes Magnet Theatre and UCT drama graduates, and some of the young Cape Town Opera members, have come together under the direction of Mark Fleishman to create a musical version of the Zakes Mda novel Heart Of Redness. Renowned composer and librettist Neo Muyanga found inspiration in the novel and adapted it into an opera. Movement direction is by Jennie Reznek and design by Craig Leo. Shortlisted for the prestigious Commonwealth Writers Prize, Heart Of Redness tells a story of South African village life against the backdrop of a notorious episode from the country’s past. Camugu, who left for America during apartheid, has returned to Johannesburg. Disillusioned by the problems of the new democracy, he travels to the remote Eastern Cape where, in the 19th century, a teenage prophetess named Nonqawuse commanded the Xhosa people to kill their cattle and burn their crops, promising that once they did so the spirits of their ancestors would rise and drive the occupying English into the ocean. The failed prophecy split the Xhosa into Believers and Unbelievers, dividing brother from brother, wife from husband, with devastating consequences. One hundred and fifty years later, the two groups’ descendants are at odds over plans to build a vast casino and tourist resort in the village, and Camugu is soon drawn into their heritage and their future.

The Merry Widow Of Malagawi is a light-hearted theatrical and musical exploration of diplomatic intrigue, capitalism and how people protect their wealth and selfinterests. The themes prevalent in Lehar’s early 20th century Viennese operetta, Die Lustige Witwe – womens’ suffrage, the growth of industrialism and the movement from rural to urban economies – mirror many contemporary situations on our continent. Acclaimed director Janice Honeyman will give this new production an upbeat and contemporary feel,

18 / Creative Feel / June 2015

SOuTh AFRiCA’S PREMiER OPERA COMPANY

PRESENTED BY CAPE TOWN OPERA iN COllABORATiON WiTh WAlES MillENNiuM CENTRE FUNDED BY

04-12 SEP ARTSCAPE

19-22 AuG ThE FuGARD ThEATRE

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14/05/2015 12:50

transferring the story to the upper echelons of society in the fictional African state of Malagawi. Tim Murray will conduct the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra, costume designs are by Birrie le Roux, set designs by Michael Mitchell, lighting by Mannie Manim and choreography by Sean Bovim. British soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn noted for her ‘gorgeously toned and rapturous’ singing (The Guardian) will sing the role of Hannah Glawari and South African soprano Filipa van Eck, noted in Opera Magazine for ‘spirited, playful and technically rock-solid, delicious performance,’ returns from the UK to sing Valencienne.

These projects were in part made possible by a grant of R5.7m to Cape Town Opera for the creation of new South

4 - 27 June 2015 Group exhibition curated by Les Cohn 155 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood Tel: +27 (0) 11 880 8802 Email: info@lizamore.co.za Gallery Hours: Tues to Fri 10:00-17:30 Sat 10:00-15:30

African productions from the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (NLDTF). CF

Creative Feel / June 2015 / 19

Gauteng Opera presents Verdi’s La Traviata Gauteng Opera is thrilled to announce that it will be performing its first full-length opera in concert, Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata on Saturday 6 June 2015 at the Wits Great Hall in Braamfontein.

Arjan Tien

Aubrey Lodewyk

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Poster art

he opera company, previously known as the Black

has all the elements of a great opera, from beautiful singing

Tie Ensemble, is presenting a concert version of

to drama and characters that will resonate with Gauteng

this heartbreakingly beautiful opera courtesy of

audiences. We as a company are very excited about this

funding from the National Lottery Distribution

opera because it will be proudly South African, living up to

Trust Fund (NLDTF).

This special one-off concert performance of one of the

our motto of “Opera for Everyone”.’

‘Furthermore, we are proud to be able to offer the

most popular operas in the classical repertoire is sure to

Gauteng opera-loving public a full-length opera again in the

be a sumptuous treat, with seasoned South African opera

form of this concert version of La Traviata,’ he adds. ‘We are

professionals such as soprano Bronwen Forbay (who is

planning more such productions while looking forward to

currently performing in America) and baritone Aubrey

the remainder of our jam-packed 2015 season.’

Lodewyk sharing the stage with Gauteng Opera soloist Phenye Modiane (tenor).

The soloists, as well as the Gauteng Opera Orchestra and Gauteng Opera Chorus, will perform under the baton of renowned Dutch conductor Arjan Tien. La Traviata will be sung in Italian with English surtitles.

According to Gauteng Opera’s Chief Executive Officer, Marcus Desando, ‘we chose to do La Traviata in concert as it

20 / Creative Feel / June 2015

Verdi’s opera is based on La dame aux Camélias, an 1852 play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas. The opera was originally titled Violetta, after its tragic heroine, and the libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave.

The story tells of Alfredo, a young nobleman, and Violetta, a courtesan, who fall passionately in love. Alfredo’s father disapproves of their relationship and convinces Violetta to leave Alfredo for the sake of his family’s

reputation. Alfredo is distraught and enraged, and publicly humiliates Violetta at a party. What no-one realises, however, is that Violetta is gravely ill…

Verdi was allegedly inspired to compose the opera after seeing the play during a visit to Paris in 1852. Like the play, he wanted his opera to be staged in modern dress, locating the story firmly in (his) present, but the authorities insisted that the production be set in the previous century.

When it debuted in March 1853 in Venice, the production was famously described by the composer as ‘a failure’, with the audience apparently unimpressed by the singing of the baritone and tenor. There was also some criticism regarding the role of Violetta, which was taken by a soprano felt to be too old and voluptuous to play a young and sickly

Phenye Modiane

consumptive. ‘Was the fault mine or the singers’?’ wrote Verdi regarding its failure. ‘Time will tell’.

When the production was staged (with some revisions) in May 1854, it created a furore (this time positive) and was considered a great success, largely attributed to the performance of Maria Spezia-Aldighieri’ in the role of Violetta. It went on shortly thereafter to Vienna and London.

In its day, La Traviata raised some hackles due to its ‘morally questionable’ content: in England, leaders of the church attempted to ban it, and the Queen refused to attend, ‘though the music, words and all, were not unheard at the palace,’ quotes Wikipedia. Nevertheless, it has gone on to become one of the best loved operas of all time.

Opera enthusiasts are urged not to miss this rendering of one of the world’s all-time greatest operas, with its many memorable arias and its famous ‘drinking song’, performed by the very best in local operatic talent. The concert version of La Traviata starts at the Wits Great Hall at 20:00 on 6 June, and tickets are available through Computicket. CF

La Traviata in Concert Wits Great Hall 6 June at 20:00

Bronwen Forbay

Funded by

Creative Feel / June 2015 / 21

22 / Creative Feel / June 2015

SUBSCRIBE CREATIVE FEEL MAGAZINE/CREATIVE FEEL & UK GRAMOPHONE MAGAZINE BUNDLE Either Creative Feel print/Creative Feel + UK Gramophone print bundle/Creative Feel digital Contact us: subs@creativefeel.co.za 011 787 0252

!Kauru Contemporary Art from Africa 4th Annual Exhibition

Brought To You By !KAURU. Curated by Thembinkosi Goniwe

21 May - 21 June Unisa Art Gallery, Pretoria

27 May - 12 June Gordon Institute of Business Science, Johannesburg

29 May - 30 June Museum Africa, Newtown, Johannesburg For more information contact debbie@kauru.co.za / +27 11 465 4993 www.kauru.co.za

FEATURED ARTISTS Kay Hassan, Berry Bickle, Ato Malinda, Blessing Ngobeni, Aida Muluneh, Anthea Moys, Ed Young, Steve Bandoma, Dana Whabira, Pierrot Men, Andrew Tshabangu, Nelisiwe Xaba, Mary Evans, Mohau Modisekang, Cyrus Kabiru, Florine Demosthene, Buhlebezwe Siwani, RaĂŠl Jero Salley, Breeze Yoko, Joel Mpah Dooh, Sikhumbuzo Makandula, Quinten Williams...

Towards Intersections. Proudly Brought To You By: 24 / Creative Feel / June 2015

Curatorial Note Towards Intersections explores conversations through artworks of contemporary artists from Africa and its diaspora. It illuminates intersectional ideas, experiences and potentials whilst reflecting on socio-political fluctuations, cultural affairs, historical shifts and aesthetic preoccupations. Motivated by the complexity of living and working under frustating yet exciting times in the twenty-first century, the exhibition is a probing mediation to establish seams and points of exchanges. It is a contact zone in which economic cultural transactions and intellectual perspectives are articulated from personal and socio-political interests.

Though emanating from the southern African region and taking place in South Africa, Towards Intersections understands the expansive reach of its tentative preoccupations without collapsing the singularities of each imaginative contributing force. Instead it seeks to forge relationships between South Africa, its’ neighboring and distant countries and African diasporas through creative mediations, dialogues and inputs. Thus its conception as an intersection in view of its call as a point of contacts, of momentary pauses, reflections, observations, yielding and civil interfaces. A space of influx, entries and exits, where contradictions are allowed, taken rather as dialetical requirements for the coexistence of both the known and unknown. It is a zone of negotiations, exchanges and exploration of democratic possibilities. As much as it is a place of colour, shapes, textures, decisions, possibilities and surprises, it is also a place of procedures, dark smoke, errors and thus unpredictabilities.

Although the concept of intersections is intentionally open for engagement and interpretation, artists are invited to present artworks that offer a critique of and lessons from history, artworks that reflect on contemporary complexities, artworks that project or imagine (chance) futures and utopias. The diversity of the artworks include two- and three-dimensional pieces, sculptural and video installations, recorded and live performances. These discrepant artworks come together as a constellation of subjects, objects and contexts both real or imagined, symbolic and literal, tangible and ephemeral. Their intersecting forms and contents make up an exhibition within which there are inextricably articulated aesthetics, politics and social concerns through visual and sound representations.

Thembinkosi Goniwe

Acknowledgements !Kauru Contemporary Art From Africa Annual Exhibition is initiated by Tshepiso Mohlala in Collaboration with the South African Department of Arts and Culture.

Abdulrazaq Awofeso: Behind This Ambiguity, Mixed Media, 2015

Artlooks & Artlines Artlooks & Artlines is a monthly column by Ismail Mahomed, Artistic Director of the National Arts Festival.

T

his year marks eight years of being at the helm

some previously uncharted seas. The eyes of the South

of the artistic programme of the National Arts

African arts sector were sharply focused on how we were

Festival. It has been a joyous ride. It is both

going to take the reins from Lynette.

inspiring and challenging to be an integral part of an event that has earned its reputation

While Lynette and I share many common values about the arts we were also cognisant that we came from two

as the barometer of South Africa’s arts scene. The National

different generations, two different communities and two

Arts Festival is undoubtedly a trendsetter for other South

different sets of experiences. Lynette acquired much of her

African arts festivals.

expertise with the previous State-subsidised Performing

In 2008, it was not easy to step into Lynette Marais’

Arts Councils. Given the history of the country at that time,

giant shoes. Here was a woman who, over 20 years at the

I was on the outside of the Performing Arts Council. I came

National Arts Festival, earned her stripes as one of South

to the Festival after honing my arts management skills in

Africa’s most formidable arts administrators. On her

the independent arts sector and after a stint as the Senior

retirement as Director of the Festival she was awarded

Cultural Specialist at the US Embassy.

three Lifetime Achievers Awards respectively from the Arts

Nevertheless, in the 80s when Lynette was appointed to

& Culture Trust, the Fleur du Cap Awards and the Naledi

the Festival, I attended the Festival as a curious audience

Theatre Awards. In addition, Rhodes University awarded

member. I spent much of my time seeing up to five or six productions a day. From the distance I got to know the forceful woman who wore knee-length skirts, low heeled

Sometimes, over a glass of wine, we both laugh about how when we’re both inaugurated as ghosts we’ll come down to tap our successors over the shoulders and to remind them not to forget about scheduling the ballet

shoes and who always had her hair tied into a bun like a ballet doyenne. From a distance, I passively inhaled the cigarettes that she chain-smoked. What I did not know at the time was that 20 years later, I would be succeeding her at the National Arts Festival.

Over the past eight years, Lynette has been one of those remarkable women whose writing always stays on the wall.

On the first night that I arrived in Grahamstown and after checking in to my guest house, I was greeted by a welcome pack with home-baked rusks, chocolates and a range of Woolworths-styled goodies that any city-dweller would long for when taking up home in Grahamstown. Over the years, I’ve learnt that ‘Lynette’s welcome pack’ is an integral part of

her an Honorary Doctorate in Law for her enormous contribution to South Africa’s cultural landscape.

The Board of Directors of the National Arts Festival

the Festival tradition.

In a fragile arts sector where a personal ego can often be larger than an epic opera, I have been fortunate to

replaced her with two men: CEO Tony Lankester to

have been brushed by Lynette’s humility and her ability to

administrate the corporate and governance aspects of the

engage with artists who come from humble community-

Festival and me to drive the artistic programme through

based backgrounds to those who have earned accolades

its deep seas and to navigate the Festival through new and

on international stages. Having worked with her over

26 / Creative Feel / June 2015

It is very rare in the South African arts sector that leadership succession is an integral part of planning to ensure the smooth transition of an organisation

an overlapping six months handover period in 2008, we realised just how much we shared in our artistic visions, our methodologies and our passion for the arts despite our enormously different backgrounds.

It is very rare in the South African arts sector that leadership succession is an integral part of planning to ensure the smooth transition of an organisation. The opportunity afforded to me to work alongside her for the first six months allowed me to be an observer of how her success can be emulated but it also was a wonderfully meditative period to contemplate the changes in the artistic programme that I wanted to bring about to add my own artistic signature to the Festival.

Over the past eight years, Lynette and I have enjoyed much laughter together. We have shared some of our anguish about funding challenges and some of the artistic risks that we have taken. We have sometimes whispered in soft tones about some embarrassing things that happen in the arts sector. We have been outraged by the fashion sense at some arts awards. We have been moved by the deaths of artists whom we have come to know over the years.

Sometimes, over a glass of wine, we laugh about how when we’re both inaugurated as ghosts we’ll come down to tap our successors over the shoulders and to remind them not to forget about scheduling the ballet. Or not to forget about having some light drama. Or, maybe even just not to forget that there is no such question as ‘But is it art?’

Over the years, we’ve learnt that in a complex country such as ours with such diverse artistic experiences, artistic expressions and artistic literacies that there is art for all seasons and art for all people.

As each Festival approaches, Lynette and I often sit together to wonder what the new baby is going to be like.

She is the doting grandmother proud that her lineage still grows. And I am the daddy, proud that we’ve done it one more time!

Let the bells ring loudly to sound in the birth of 2015 edition of the National Arts Festival. CF

Lynette Marais

Creative Feel / June 2015 / 27

Business & Arts Business and Arts is a monthly column by Michelle Constant, CEO of Business and Arts South Africa (BASA).

S

ongezo Zibi, the editor of Business Day,

attending were the silver surfers of the arts sector - arts

recently wrote an opinion piece in which

administrators, academics, board members and the occasional

he spoke of the Twittersphere as, ‘They’ve

businessperson. For them the debate focused on the

become convinced that tweeting is “doing

generational tension that technology and social media raise,

something” but actually it is just an emotional

as much as the disturbance it potentially proffers in the shift

investment without having to lift their bum up from the couch from which they are tweeting.’ It’s a brutally honest

and change of society and, closer to home, the arts sector.

But it is the ability to synthesise the disturbance and

insight on social media, and highlights a world that Zibi

tension in positive ways that appears to be missing from

says, ‘has become an orgy of self-gratification and mutual

much of the conversation around technology. Futurists who

class and prejudice reinforcement.’

promise us delicious insights into the, um, ‘future’ often

Interestingly it was this contemplation of the role of

can’t tell us how we should be using the technology in order

social media, and its vehicle of technology, which seemed to

to be effective citizens, as opposed to the class and prejudice

cause the most anxiety at the Business for the Arts Canada

reinforcement, that Zibi suggests it currently offers. So when

– Arts Summit in Toronto. Admittedly the majority of those

the futurists tell us about a future with self-driven Apple

28 / Creative Feel / June 2015

cars (for some), how will it change what we do as creatives in

that probably causes the most generational tension. The

a country that is diverse, lacks homogeneity and that has the

argument by many theatre administrators that young

highest Gini Coefficient in the world? The question remains

audiences must accede to conventional ways, refraining from

– How can we truly make change through the opportunities

tweeting, or engaging in social media in a live performance,

created by the changing world?

is a moot one. In a trade off of experience, rather we should

The shamans and mavens tell us that now is the time to be

ask, how do we shift the audience experience – so that

‘adventurous, innovative, multidisciplinary, and to find new

people who want to tweet, instagram etc. can do so without

ways of speaking.’ When they ask me ‘How bold is your vision

affecting the experience of the ‘pre-Internet brainers’?

in a changing time?’ it sounds depressingly glib. Even the

The pain it takes to produce a great work, the artist’s

creative push into the future, and the rattling of thoughts, like

journey in producing a powerful experience, and the

sabres, has become the trite corporate term ‘innovation’.

challenge of mediating that experience to support both the

Dan Habashi, Director of Brand Development at

artist and the audience in a new era of technology is worth

Instagram, and one of the speakers at the Toronto

noting. Perhaps it’s about reconstructing the traditional

Summit, described Instagram as the democratisation of

performance space and the audience space, rather than the

the visual world. But what does this mean for the artist.

art form itself.

If everyone can take and create a ‘beautiful’ photo – what

Sanjay Khanni, a futurist, and Keynote speaker at the

makes an artist? Are we in fact looking for an authenticity,

Summit, suggested that we need to start designing and

and is there a way we can draw this from technology and

thinking of different architectural spaces, ones that can

social media?

support what another speaker described as ‘mutant theatre’.

Habashi also jokingly spoke of missing his ‘pre-Internet

I would argue that in fact what we are designing is a space

brain’. It’s a brain that, depending when and where you

that, rather than mutant theatre, begins to support the

were born, you may never have experienced – and one

mutating and mutant audience. CF

Creative Feel / June 2015 / 29

Literary Landscapes Literary Landscapes is a monthly column written by Indra Wussow, a writer, translator and director of the Sylt Foundation.

2

015 marks the 40th anniversary of the Khmer

It is the arts that play an important role in overcoming

Rouge forces seizing power in Cambodia. When

that silence and confronting the Cambodians with what is

Pol Pot’s ultra-communist troops took Phnom

such an unwelcome part of their collective memory.

Penh, Cambodia’s capital city, few realised this would trigger one of the worst human tragedies

Rithy Panh is Cambodia’s most famous filmmaker, born in Phnom Penh in 1964. In his latest film The Missing Picture

of the last century. When the country was liberated by

(2013), he recounts his own and his family’s trauma during

Vietnamese troops three years and eight months later, the

the Khmer Rouge time. It was only thanks to good luck that

Cambodian genocide is estimated to have cost the lives of 1

he himself survived.

700 000 people – approximately 21 per cent of the country’s

The Missing Picture is an interdisciplinary masterpiece

population at the time. The subsequent civil war lasted

that makes use of the propaganda films of the Khmer Rouge

until nearly the end of the 1990s and turned this South-East

as a kind of background in which the clay figures, created

Asian kingdom on the Mekong River into one of the world’s

by artist Sarith Mang, are mounted and, in their suffering,

poorest countries. It was not until 2007 that a tribunal, supported by the United Nations, began its work of trialling senior Khmer Rouge officials for crimes perpetrated during the Pol Pot years.

The question is how a country can heal from this troubled past and how it is able to overcome the psychological effects that these traumatising years left on the survivors and their descendants.

The trials against the main perpetrators of the Khmer Rouge have come very late and it does not seem that they could trigger a process of healing through a real debate on what happened and how to integrate this past into the country’s identity. Too many of the people in power were part of that regime and have no interest in exposing evidence.

In a society that is more or less occupied with surviving and making ends meet, silence about the past seems to be the easiest way to move on. The parents want to spare their children the traumatic experiences they went through, and the children grow up amid a silence too loud to hear over.

30 / Creative Feel / June 2015

Roll Call, from The Buddhist Bug series by Anida Yoeu Ali, Digital c-print, 2014; Photo courtesy of Studio Revolt

brutally juxtapose this contemptuous landscape of supposed

performances investigate the artistic, spiritual and political

happiness and prosperity. Above this scenery there is the

collisions of a hybrid transnational identity.

voice of the survivor telling his story and thus integrating

Her long-term project The Buddhist Bug is an

oral literature into this most unusual setting. The film’s

interdisciplinary performance art born out of questioning

innovative artistic concept has already turned it into a

identity and the notion of otherness. It draws on the religious

milestone not just of Cambodian art, but art in general.

iconography of both Islam and Buddhism. It is a creation

Through his clay figures, Rithy Panh succeeds in making the

inspired by her personal inability to reconcile her fascination

crimes of the Khmer Rouges visible, thwarting those who

with Buddhism alongside her upbringing as a Khmer Muslim

had deliberately avoided leaving any visual documents of the

and also an attempt to capture a quickly changing Cambodian

regime’s oppression behind.

urban and rural landscape. Set amongst everyday people in

The Missing Picture visualises the horror of the Khmer Rouge time and gives the suffering and trauma a face.

Besides dealing with the traumatic past in his own work

ordinary moments, the Bug provokes obvious questions of belonging and displacement.

It is an otherworldly character, with bright orange ‘skin’

Rithy Panh founded the Bophana Centre in Phnom Penh.

the colour of Buddhist monk robes and a headpiece based on

It is a place to promote the Cambodian young film scene.

the Islamic hijab.

The centre has also gathered an archive of visual and audio

The metres and metres of textile act as skin, as a way

footage since Cambodian independence in 1953. This archive

for the surface of her body to extend into public spaces and

is accessible to everyone and enables scientific and artistic

habituating the in-between spaces that are so often neglected.

research of the past and its ramifications.

Another important figure in the Cambodian art scene

In her art works and her poetry Anida Yoeu Ali is developing stories and narratives that exist out of the conventional, that

is Khmer-American artist Anida Yoeu Ali, a Muslim Khmer,

depart the comfort zones of known spaces and ideas to enable a

who was born in Battambang in 1974 and grew up in exile

dialogue that contributes to a collective healing.

in the United States. She moved to Phnom Penh (once the

It is the scrutiny of the past that marks a departure

hometown of her father) in 2011 after residing outside of

into the future for many Cambodian artists today. How

Cambodia for over three decades.

the younger generation deals with the contradictions of

Ali is a versatile artist; her works span performance, installation, video, poetry, public interventions and

Cambodia’s reality today will be told another time.

Anida Yoeu Ali, who recently won the Sovereign Art Prize,

political agitation. In her art making, Ali is dedicated

will be the guest of the Sylt Foundation in January 2016 and

to interdisciplinary approaches, her installations and

will bring The Buddhist Bug to Johannesburg. CF

Campus Dining, from The Buddhist Bug series

by Anida Yoeu Ali, Digital c-print, 2012; Photo courtesy of Studio Revolt

Spiral Alley, from The Buddhist Bug series by Anida Yoeu Ali, Digital c-print, 2012; Photo courtesy of Studio Revolt

Creative Feel / June 2015 / 31

Creative Icon An audience with Pieter-Dirk Uys This year the National Arts Festival kicks off its Arts Icon series with a celebration of the work of Pieter-Dirk Uys, staging four of his productions: the world premieres of African Times and The Echo of a Noise; as well as his cabaret, Never Too Naked; and a once-only presentation of A Part Hate A Part Love. Three of Uys’s films will feature at the Film Festival: Farce About Uys; Adapt or Dye; and Skating on Thin Uys, which will be attended by honoured guest Evita Bezhuidenhout. Creative Feel’s Lore Watterson spoke to South Africa’s most beloved satirist.

Pieter Dirk Uys as PW Botha

32 / Creative Feel / June 2015

Lore Watterson: The first time I ever saw you was when

wife, I think she is fabulous. We still correspond, we still talk

Helen Suzman gave her last report back from parliament

to each other. But it’s a generation that – those old warriors

and there was ‘PW Botha’ walking in – presenting her with

are no longer there. It’s a new generation of ambitious,

a rose! Unbelievable... very impromptu and very convincing.

careless, hard-hearted people – like any politician in the

You have always done – are still doing – a lot of these

world, I suppose – and we are still treating them like the

spontaneous things

royal family, and we are making a big mistake. We should

Pieter-Dirk Uys: Yes, I do a lot of them. My instinct helps

kick them out when they make a mistake. I had a terrible

me, and suddenly I think, ‘this is the moment’... In 1994, when

feeling that within a week or two this country will go dark

the ANC government came in, and there were still all these

completely for two weeks. I think the whole system is

things named after Verwoerd – Verwoerd this, and Verwoerd

going to collapse. They can’t keep it going. They keep on

that – and Kader Asmal, the Minister of Water Affairs phoned

panicking, ‘we can’t keep the lights on’, and this and that.

me and he said, ‘I want Evita Bezhuidenhout to rename the

Then they always say, ‘yes but it’s the fault of apartheid’, I

Verwoerd Dam.’ I said, ‘absolutely’. So he flew me to the

keep on saying, ‘to blame apartheid for what they do wrong

Free State, and there was this whole ceremony, and Evita

here – they, being us, do wrong now – is like in the 1960s

Bezhuidenhout renamed the Gariep Dam... and that was also

blaming Adolf Hitler for the miniskirt.’

just on the spur of the moment. It was so extraordinary.

LW: You’re one of the few people who still address the LW: He was one of our great politicians, a man of integrity

problems of HIV/AIDS – nobody talks about it anymore.

and courage who always wanted the best for South Africa.

PDU: It’s very worrying. Look, we have a government

PDU: Kader Asmal. Ag ja, I love him. He was really

that gives testing and gives ARV treatment, which they

passionate, and a bit crazy – but wonderfully. And I love his

didn’t do under Mbeki; but the information is still not

Pieter-Dirk Uys as Ouma

Creative Feel / June 2015 / 33

Pieter Dirk Uys as Nowell Fine

there. I mean, we’ve got to talk to the ten-year-old boys

So my whole approach has developed: also talking about

and eleven-year-old girls about sex, because it’s going to

TB, which is the next great worry; the rape of young girls;

happen when they’re that age. Everybody thinks ‘oh, it only

the big entitlement, which people are inheriting from their

happens when they’re 19 years old.’ Excuse me, it doesn’t

parents; and the fact that they will never get a job that

happen only then. So I still go to the schools. Of course

they want, they will always work for other people. I say to

it’s not as desperate as it was in 2002, when there was no

them, ‘become your job now: you’re 16 years old, become

solution to AIDS; you would die. Now you don’t die. Now

your job, study, do what you want to do – if you want to be

I know that the children are even saying, ‘well, there are

a trapeze artist, go out and be the best before you’re 25.’

medications, we don’t have to take any precautions, we can

So that’s what one has to do. The reason I’m in theatre is

do it without condoms.’ And my point to them is to say, ‘you

because someone at school took the trouble to take me to

make the mistake of inviting the virus into your life, your

see something, and change my life.

life will change forever. Yes, you might lose your life, but have to concentrate on a regime taking seven pills every

LW: Where did Evita come from?

PDU: First of all, in the 1970s, when I started doing female

day. You cannot start your life as a middle aged person with

characters, it was against the law in those days for men to

pills in you, you’ve got to be out there, and rule the world.’

dress up as a woman, you were arrested. And I thought that

more horrendously, you will lose your health, and you will

34 / Creative Feel / June 2015

was pretty stupid. But as an actor I enjoy exploring different things... It’s part of my job. So the first one was Nowell Fine, my Jewish African, my kugel, in 1975; and then Evita started as a character in the late 1970s, when all my plays were banned and then I really couldn’t get a job in the theatre. Somebody on the Sunday Express, which was the Sunday newspaper said, ‘write us a weekly column, 100 words every week about the political thing.’ That was a great way for me to actually write material, but quickly, and not a long story; and once a month I wrote about this woman, this Tannie from Pretoria who would say ‘have you heard the latest scandal?” And of course the information scandal was on the way then… the editor of the newspaper said to me one day, ‘this woman that you write about, she says things that I’m not allowed to write about on the front page. This Evita’ – it was at the time of the musical, Evita Peroni. And so, when I did my first one man show in 1981, I put Evita in the show as a character, because people had already got to know her. And that’s where she started, as a character; but she just came at the right time. People enjoyed her, and I found out that because she doesn’t use bad language and she doesn’t blaspheme, she’s very family friendly – and the Afrikaners at the time were very easy to say, ‘oh, uses bad language, we can’t have her here.’

She’s been with me for over 30 years, and now she’s got a huge repertoire: she’s got a husband, she’s got children, she’s got grandchildren. Madiba loved her... so it’s very nice to know she’s got a life out there without me. People talk about her, not about me as her.

LW: Perhaps because you allowed her to age ?

PDU: She had to. She couldn’t just be glamorous and 40....

She’s got to be real, women must recognise the woman, and the men must forget the man... And I must diet for her, which I do – crazy, but she’s got to look good – people have got to say, ‘oh, Tannie Evita’s looking good, but she’s 80 this year.’ (I’m 70 and she’s 80, she’s always 10 years older).

[After Nelson Mandela was freed], he would phone me and ask for Evita: ‘bring Evita’. Even in his last years, Zelda would always phone when I was in Joburg: ‘Madiba wants you to come and have coffee with him’ and I would go to his office. It was like, all he needed was popcorn, he was waiting for the show. And we would laugh and hug, and it was just so great. His sense of humour...

LW: When you grew up, were you encouraged... would you perform at home?

PDU: Oh, we were allowed – it was wonderful, we had little concerts on a Sunday. We had them in our house sitting room – for some reason there was an archway with a curtain... and that was like a stage, so we drew the

A Part Hate A Part Love, Evita Bezuidenhout’s biography featuring Pieter-Dirk Uys. Photograph by Stefan Hurter

Creative Feel / June 2015 / 35

The many faces of Pieter-Dirk Uys

curtain and the grandmothers... the German granny and

Tuesday, and Uncle Andre the ballet dancer would come on

the Afrikaans granny would, on a Sunday afternoon, sit

a Wednesday and my mother would make Vienna Schnitzel,

and we’d do the concert... and it would always be great fun,

and we would have Goulash for dinner, and we were always

because we could go with a little box and collect money for

allowed to be there, as kids. And then my mum just said,

the SPCA, and one ouma would put in a shilling, and the

‘if you’ve got something to say, make sure you want to

other ouma would put in a shilling. And I remember, I’d

say it, don’t interrupt because you just want to be heard’.

just had my appendix out, at St Joseph’s Hospital run by

We would get bored after a while and went and listened

the nuns, and I loved the nuns, they were so sweet, so the

to the radio. There was never a case of ‘children must be

next concert we did, as Ouma Uys was Afrikaans Calvinist

out of this’. And I think that’s where we got the sense of

we put money – she said, this is for the animals’, I said, ‘no

experiences, where people would come from the Salzburg

it’s for the nuns’ – and she took her money back! (laughs).

Festival and tell us about snow, and Herr von Karajan, and

Catholics, no! So we always performed, and had fun. And

Leontyne Price who sang Aïda, and then someone would

I think a very important thing was my parents – this was

explain to us kids, ‘you know she’s a black negro woman

in the 50s, no television – they had friends round, there

who sings a soprano, she sings’ – and that’s also again, ‘ok,

was always conversation. Tante Erna would come on a

negro woman, can sing Verdi, that’s ok.’

36 / Creative Feel / June 2015

PIETER-DIRK UYS AT THE GRAHAMSTOWN FESTIVAL AND NATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL SINCE 1976 1976

God’s Forgotten (play) (with Wilna Stockenstrom, Christine

Basson, Lynne Maree, Michelle Maxwell, Blaise Koch dir: PD

Uys) Strike up the Banned! (revue) (with Wilna Stockenstrom,

Lynne Maree, Michelle Maxwell, Blaise Koch, PD Uys)

1977

Paradise is closing down (play) (with Val de Klerk, Christine

Basson, Melanie-Ann Sher, William Meyer/dir: PD Uys)

1980

Waiting for Godot (as actor in a play)

1986

Beyond the Rubicon (revue)

1987

Rearranging the deckchairs on the SA Bothatanic

(revue with Chris Galloway/dir: Ralph Lawson) Panorama

(play) (with Lynne Maree, Susan Coetzer, Richard van der

Westhuizen, Thoko Ntshinga/dir: PD Uys)

1989

Just like Home (play) (with Shaleen Surtee-Richards, Robert

Finlayson, Royston Stoffels, Paul Savage/dir: PD Uys)

1990

Satire in South Africa (Winter School talk)

1992

Die Vleiroos (play) (with Joey de Koker, Lynne Maree, Chris

van Niekerk, Theresa Cloete/dir: PD Uys) Paradise is

closing down (play: the gay version) (with Chris Galloway,

Pieter-Dirk Uys, Stephen Raymond, Randall de

my father was very determined we must win. ‘Sorg dat julle

Jager/dir: PD Uys)

wen!’ – ‘be sure to win!’ My mom would drive us to the

1993

Die Poggenpoel Sisters (revue) (musical director:

Eisteddfods, Tessie would play the piano and I would sing,

Godfrey Johnson)

and as we went there my mother would say to us ‘if you

1995

You ANC nothing yet (revue) Bambi Sings the FAK Songs

win, you get an ice cream. If you don’t win, you get two ice

(musical director: Godfrey Johnson)

creams!’ And I think that is an extraordinary philosophy.

1996

Truth Omissions (revue)

1999

Five nights in the Guy Butler from Evita se Perron

LW: I would say that you never got your two ice creams,

Tannie Evita Praat Kaktus (revue) Ouma Ossewania Praat

you have somehow always won and your audience and

Vuil (revue) Dekaffirnated (revue) Going Down Gorgeous (a

fans just love you, look at your line-up this year at the

kugel cantata with Nowell Fine) Noel and Marlene (musical

National Arts Festival!

play with Godfrey Johnson)

PDU: I’ve learned to tell the difference between comedy and

2000

For Fact’s Sake (revue) Concentration Camp (revue)

humour. Comedy is the joke. Humour is very seldom funny.

(musical director: Godfrey Johnson)

Humour is what a friend of my mother said to me in 1957; I

2002

Foreign Aids (revue) An Audience with an African Queen

was bunking school and this woman came to visit my mom...

(Winter School)

She was a school friend from Berlin, and had come out to

2003

Auditioning Angels (play) (with Clive Scott, Jo da Silva, Paul

SA to find some friends, because everybody had thought she

du Toit, Thoko Ntshinga, Nandi Nyembe/dir: Blaise Koch)

was dead. And I was introduced to her and my ma went to

2004

The End is Naai (revue) Damning with Faint Praise

the kitchen, and I saw this woman had something here, and I

(Winter School)

said, ‘what is that, is that a phone number you have on your

2007

Evita for President (revue) Bambi: Vile and Vunderful

wrist?’ She said, ‘darling, if you phone this number, nobody

(musical director: Godfrey Johnson)

will answer.’ That’s humour. She laughed, not because it

2013

Adapt or Fly (revue)

was funny, but because she had survived the horror. So

2014

An Audience with Pieter-Dirk EISH! (revue)

my humour is to get people to laugh at their fear, and to

2015

African Times (play) (with Ntombi Makhutshi, Peggy

confront their fear knowing that they’re in charge; you

Tunyiswa, Andrea Dondolo, Sue Pyler, Stefan Hurter/dir:

know, ‘you can kill me, but I see you!’ and not looking away,

PD Uys) A Part Hate A Part Love (revue) Never Too Naked

because once you don’t see or fear, it becomes terribly hard,

(musical director: Godfrey Johnson)

you will never confront it. CF

The Echo of a Noise (revue)

Never too Naked starring Pieter-Dirk Uys as Bambi Kellermann

My father was very strict, make no mistake – Eisteddfods,

Dylan Moran The announcement that Irish comedian, writer and actor, Dylan Moran would be taking to the stage at the 2015 National Arts Festival caused elation amongst his thousands of South African fans, with social media lighting up in the days following.

K

nown for his sardonic observational comedy,

1998 on How Do You Want Me? 1999 saw Moran appear in

almost poetic language, illustrative comedic

a small role in Notting Hill as Rufus the thief. In 2000, Black

scribbles and ruffle of black hair, Dylan Moran

Books launched, seeing Moran in the role of Bernard Black, a

has become one of the icons of Irish comedy

depressed, bitter, alcoholic, chain-smoking and misanthropic

of his generation.

bookshop owner. While the original idea for the sitcom was

Being an observational comedian, ‘Your material depends

Moran’s, the idea was brought to life with the aid of co-writer

completely on where you are in your life. I was talking last

and fellow Irishman Graham Linehan. Moran won the BAFTA

night about how I’ve reached the point in my life when I

TV Award for Best Situation Comedy twice for Black Books.

see something lying around the house, something stupid

Unfortunately the series only aired for three seasons, with the

like a burnt-out candle or a piece of rope, and I put it in my

last being released in 2004. In 2012, Moran appeared in the

pocket and think – that might come in handy. What sort of

episode ‘Awkward Age’ on the third season of Little Crackers.

apocalyptic scene am I awaiting the arrival of, in which this

2004 saw Moran appearing in his first major film role,

old piece of candle will become essential? What’s going on

playing David in the horror comedy, Shaun of the Dead,

in my brain?’

alongside Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Moran appeared with

Leaving school at age 16, Moran’s biography states that

Pegg again in 2007’s Run Fatboy Run. In 2005, he starred

he spent four years ‘drinking and writing bad poetry.’ He

alongside Steve Coogan in A Cock and Bull Story, which

also spent a week as a florist, ‘that particular phase of my

incorporates several scenes from Tristram Shandy. Moran

career wasn’t the longest I’ve ever had. I think I achieved

then played Pierce in the Irish black comedy A Film With

everything in the field in the space of a week.’ ‘I really didn’t

Me In It. The film was nominated for six Irish Film and

cope well with the idea of trying to make a living doing

Television Awards that year, one of which being Best Actor

something I didn’t want to do. I didn’t think I would last. Put

(Dylan Moran). He has also had roles in The Decoy Bride

me in an office and I’d end up in jail. I spent my whole time

(2011), Good Vibrations (2012) and Calvary (2014) – a Irish

thinking about writing. I draw parallels between people who

drama starring Brendan Gleeson and screened at the 2014

do this kind of thing and people who do sports. The same

Sundance International Film Festival and the 64th Berlin

obsession. My eyes open first thing in the morning and my

International Film Festival.

first thought, every day, is about work.’

Although he jokes that he got into comedy because he

Moran has recently been sharpening his deceptively rambling stand up in unusual places including Kiev, Moscow,

‘got sent a letter from the Government when I was eleven,’

Kazakhstan and St Petersburg. He has spent much of the last

Moran’s comedy career began in 1992 at Dublin’s Comedy

year touring the US whilst working on a TV pilot for ABC and

Cellar. Having received a positive reception, he continued

an appearance on Letterman.

on the comedy path, collecting the So You Think You’re

Festival-goers can experience Moran’s newest show Off

Funny award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1993. In 1996, at

The Hook in Grahamstown on his first visit to South Africa.

24, Moran became the youngest person to win the Perrier

The new show promises to deliver more of Moran’s unique

Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Festival.

take on love, politics, misery and the everyday absurdities

Moran’s career has continued on an upward trajectory, with the comedian landing his first major television role in

38 / Creative Feel / June 2015

of life all delivered with poetical panache. For any lover of comedy this is the must see show of 2015. CF

“I’m a very ordinary person who hangs out with my wife and children, that’s who I am. But there were nights early on when I walked offstage and I’d just done something I didn’t know I could do, like the funny equivalent of a triple salchow. The first time that happens, you think, oh right, so I am a god. I should adjust. I’d better get myself some really nice trousers”

Creative Feel / June 2015 / 39

You’re Only Born Once

Joining a line-up of satirists at the National Arts Festival 2015 is artist Iain ‘Ewok’ Robinson. Creative Feel’s Nondumiso Msimanga spoke to the multitalented artist about his work and the role of youth activism.

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he National Arts Festival has once again taken a bold step to face the problems of South Africa head on. In a press release announcing the line-up for the Festival, a year after its landmark 40th anniversary commemoration

last year, Ismail Mahomed (Artistic Director) has elected to use the arts’ unique voice to stand up and agitate the polemics of the country. It is a celebration of the right to speak that allows for debate and deliberation over the issues; with the ultimate hope of sparking a dialogue that can engender some change. Iain ‘Ewok’ Robinson, an artist of various talents, stands among an exciting bill of satirists that re-vision what used to be the category called Featured Artists. The bold announcement states: ‘Satire and freedom of expression will seize centre stage at this year’s National Arts Festival.’ And, Ewok’s YOBO promises to bring a distinct flavour to the main stage. A play on the infamous YOLO (You Only Live Once) slogan touted by American rappers and youth all over the world, Ewok takes the reckless abandon philosophy of YOLO and subverts it to ‘You’re Only Born Once’. In a language that speaks directly to the young vocabulary, he hopes to make a unique impact through what he calls ‘youth activism’.

Ewok is a Dramatic Arts graduate from the University of KwaZulu-Natal who is also a renowned graffiti artist, a spoken word artist and a hip-hop activist. A Durban resident and artist, he is keenly aware of the problems underlying South African society; as the city of Durban came into the spotlight recently because of the horrors of xenophobic violence. His impulse for the spoken-word-audio-visualtheatre satire, YOBO is an image that is familiar throughout

40 / Creative Feel / June 2015

the streets of South Africa’s cities: the homeless. He and his wife (with whom he is working on this piece) were particularly struck by the seemingly schizophrenic rants of homeless men who endlessly roam city streets. The men shout across the road at invisible foes that they are fearless to tell exactly how they feel about the transgressions the homeless have incurred at their hands and, usually, with various expletives to make their anger heard. Like rappers have become known for being enviably able to speak their minds in a youthful society that is increasingly socially aware, Yobo – like a rapper ‘hobo’ – can say what politically correct adults do not. This intrepid voice becomes the protagonist of Ewok’s piece and the daring vote that he casts into this year’s Festival of arts activism.

‘The arts need to challenge and provoke,’ declaims Mahomed. The National Arts Festival has put its money where its mouth is by placing Pieter-Dirk Uys, Chester Missing and Loyiso Gola on the line-up alongside Ewok.

Ewok believes that ‘we all have a part to play.’ He sees the big picture as a socioeconomic crisis borne from unfinished business that the nation has not taken full responsibility for.

For him, the xenophobia and Rhodes debates are linked to issues of worth; that were created by the greed of the past.

He takes ‘an unashamedly white South African perspective’ to interrogate matters of privilege and responsibility as social ills that can create schizophrenic symptoms. Using a writing style that interpolates spoken word and dramatic monologue with an original score complemented by livevideo manipulation – where his wife acts as a kind of disc jockey who controls the action – projected onto various surfaces as well as the actor’s body, YOBO is an agitation directed at the senses. The audience travels through the simultaneous realities of a semi-schizophrenic man with landscape imagery articulating his internal world and fastpaced visuals as the barrage of reality.

Ewok repeatedly refrains that ‘if we can admit… privilege’ then the responsibility becomes clearer. As a white male, he recognises a tendency to want to divert from issues around race, even in his own parents. ‘If we can admit…’ he reiterates, ‘to be able to say that race doesn’t matter, “why can’t we be colour-blind”, is a white privilege’ then white consciousness can begin. During the Xenophobic attacks when people feared for their lives, he observed: ‘at the end of the day when we drive into the suburbs we don’t have to deal with this stuff… It doesn’t affect us in the way that it affects the poorest people.’ The social pressures can drive anyone mad, he notes, as he thinks on Yobo walking the streets of poverty, talking to the ether. Ewok states, young artists finally feel they have purpose – activism. CF

Iain ‘Ewok’ Robinson in YOBO. Photography by Marcello Maffeis and Caroline Burne

Creative Feel / June 2015 / 41

A Doll’s House

‘The play is ultimately about finding out who you are.’ This is the essence of the play that Christiaan Olwagen is directing as the Standard Bank Young Artist for Theatre in 2015.

A Doll’s House featuring Jennifer Steyn

42 / Creative Feel / June 2015

T

he classic text that Christiaan Olwagen is adapting for the modern South African stage at the National Arts Festival is A Doll’s House.

It is the satirical and cheeky pink image that dons the cover of Creative Feel this month. The

dolled up real-life woman is tied at her hands and ankles: an object to be manipulated and toyed with. But, Olwagen’s doll is a contemporary take on the masterful, highly-successful Henrik Ibsen play; she has for her accessories the tools that it takes to step out as an independent woman in the present world. She comes with make-up, purse, mirror – the expected implements of today’s woman, and women in the previous centuries, but this doll also carries a hot pink gun.

It is clear that this human doll will be full of surprises when she breaks free from her plastic packaging. This is what Olwagen means when he says that A Doll’s House is about discovering a core to being. When a man is confronted by a real woman and not the imaginings of a live toy like those he may have been able to predict and control as a child, it tests who he is. In the incubator that is the family home, they become a mirror for how the world is still playing by the same old rules; even in a new context.

The Standard Bank Young Artist Award (SBYAA) is ‘a big honour, and its daunting in a way,’ says Olwagen. It is also a kind of journey for an artist to rediscover who they are. The opportunity to put their creative work under a microscope and reassess what they have been doing is not a privilege that most artists in South Africa get the opportunity to experience.

Olwagen is aware that the life of moving from one festival to the next hardly allows for this deepening introspection and he is warmed by this tribute. Recognising the significance of the award for growing artists he articulates: ‘It is such an amazing platform for young artists to actually present work at the Festival. I get to create. It’s not just a trophy.’ For someone who has already gathered quite a collection of trophies for his work, it is a special endowment to receive the SBYAA. The joy of the award for him is not only in its surprise – for the 27-year-old actor and director did not see the award coming – but the means to produce art is an immense gift.

His sheer shock and simultaneous elation is palpable when the sure-spoken man stammers and stymies saying, ‘It still sometimes… It still… It takes some taking in.’ The first person he told about the award, only five minutes before it was presented to him, was his mother. And with a strong belief in family and self-knowledge, it made sense to him to present the play that he had been ruminating over for years when the chance came: A Doll’s House.

His discovery since receiving the Young Artist Award has been his apparent focus on classic texts for a South

2015 Standard Bank Young Artist for Theatre Christiaan Olwagen.

Photographs by Adam McConnachie

Creative Feel / June 2015 / 43

African audience. He is emphatic that he does not only and

and make sure that as a society we aren’t slipping back

will not only work with canonical works. He has enjoyed

into old roles.’ His first directorial effort as a 14-year-old

learning from the renowned works. ‘Those stories are

boy in high school was for House Plays when he directed

tried and tested,’ he ponders, ‘in a way the story becomes

Misconception of a Fairy Tale. It was in grade 9 when he put

irrelevant because people already understand the story on

on this play, a far cry from the calibre of work that he now

a certain level.’ He is interested in what those universal

displays, but a significant start toward being the artist he

truths mean today; what they look like now; and what

is today. He collaged different fairy tales to make a modern

they speak to the recurrence of the past. With the feminist

version of the fairy tale mould. The play seems so silly to

undertones of the play where a mother chooses to leave

him now but it is interesting to see how he began to direct.

her family and home during a time when wives were seen

He sees it now as his initiation into the appropriation of

as the unthinking trophies of their husbands – mere pretty

texts that define enduring values.

dolls in two-dimensional moulds – Ibsen presented a

Set next to his previous re-visioning of Edward Albee’s

female character who is always on stage except at the end.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf and his upcoming adaptation of

She seems to be a simple sponge with child-like needs

Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, it would seem that even while

until she is challenged and she realises that she is also a

he says his intrigue with redoing mature texts is ‘difficult

challenge to herself as she is shifted from the comfort of

to assess from a psychological standpoint,’ that there is

playing the prescribed feminine role. Olwagen iterates

a distinct theme. What is retained in current values from

that it is ‘important for us to always reassess our conduct

the old tales is a useful point of investigation. It helps to

44 / Creative Feel / June 2015

understand contemporary society better when one observes that the woman who was seen as a doll in 1879 is seen as just a different kind today.

Family is crucial to Olwagen. What he hopes to leave behind when he leaves the world is a family filled with love.

This is essentially what his work investigates: the things that have ‘ultimately destroyed relationships’. For A Doll’s House it is economic and social pressures. He describes it as, ‘a modern tragedy.’ With a strong feeling that the need to climb the socioeconomic ladder makes people cold and fosters neglect, he believes that the play is a testament to the things that erode relations between people in a home; and consequently the world, as a macrocosm. He says, ‘I’m really excited about this play.’ He is interrogating relationships at all levels and is fascinated by how ‘nothing is new.’

Olwagen’s fascination with what is dated goes to the heart of his interest with relationships and family. In a self-written play Dogma, which won him Kanna Awards for Best Production and Best Debut Production, he questioned the canon of organised religion in relation to his parents’ relationship following his father’s Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis. With this play he examines relationships through a different lens. It is a kind of inverse-appreciation for the positive aspects of the family structure; the love and support that comes from being in a family with good relations.

‘We’ve started to neglect those ideas of family and being true to yourself,’ Olwagen believes. It is not an easy combination of ideas. But, for Olwagen it is a seamless symbiosis that as he starts to dream bigger as an artist he also seeks to fulfil his big dream of being a husband and father.

Having been mentored by Marthinus Basson in his honours year at Stellenbosch University, Olwagen matter-offactly says that Basson surmised that the SBYAA for Theatre was going to him this year. After, ‘he congratulated me and I think he’s proud,’ Olwagen says.

The ecstatic element of the award is that it carries enough clout to last beyond even the presentation of the play at the National Arts Festival. He gleefully stammers once again saying, ‘Yes, yes, yes definitely… You get to dream big.’ Young artists are encouraged to be more fully who they are in the greatest reaches of their capabilities.

This is the true win. The award acknowledges an artist’s abilities, sometimes beyond the artist’s own realisation of their potential and it creates a space for the artist to live out this reverie by making their visions come to fruition. In a sense, the play that Olwagen will put on at the Festival is an enactment of the award’s essence also. It is ‘ultimately about finding out who you are’ as an artist and seeing how far you can go if you continue to invest in your art. CF

Creative Feel / June 2015 / 45

Grahamstown calling Satire, tributes, and plenty of premieres take to the Main stages of the National Arts Festival this July.

Three Blind Mice featuring James Cairns, Albert Pretorius and Rob van Vuuren. Photograph by Dani Bischoff and Jon Keevy

46 / Creative Feel / June 2015

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his year’s Festival foregrounds satire – ‘the use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.’ According to

the Festival’s Artistic Director, Ismail Mahomed, ‘in taking a strong advocacy and agitating angle, this year’s programme not only honours South Africa’s constitutional right to free speech, but also creates opportunities for South Africans to do what they do best – engage passionately and honestly about life in our country.’

As such, Pieter-Dirk Uys is featured as the Festival’s debut Arts Icon – and who better, after more than 30 years spent turning the worst of the country’s foibles into comic gold? If you’re looking to laugh in the face of corruption, collapse and disease, Uys is your man (and, in the form of his most famous alter-ego, your woman). Festinos will therefore be able to catch the world premieres of Uys’ newest works, African Times and The Echo of a Noise; his cabaret, Never Too Naked; and a single presentation of A Part Hate A Part Love.

Beloved stateswoman and Ouma, Evita Bezhuidenhout will also make an appearance when she attends the film festival, where Uys’ films Farce About Uys; Adapt or Dye; and Skating on Thin Uys are to be screened.

Further adventures in satire come from Chester Missing, ‘one of the country’s toughest political analysts’ and puppet advocator of ‘National Tell a Politician They’re Lying Day’.

Missing relates the personal story – not of Chester, but of his ‘sidekick’ and ventriloquist, Conrad Koch, who recently butted heads with Steve Hofmeyr.

Also making its world premiere is multiple award winning author and playwright Craig Higginson’s latest play The Imagined Land. ‘Misanthropic Irish comic’ Dylan Moran brings Off the Hook to make its South African premiere at the Festival, while Durban-born rapper and spoken word activist Iain ‘Ewok’ Robinson debuts YOBO – meaning, ‘You’re Only Born Once’. (Both are featured elsewhere in this issue).

The Big Bad Wolf theatre company, which comprises the talents of the hysterically funny and hardworking James Cairns, Albert Pretorius, Rob van Vuuren, and Tara Notcutt, presents Three Blind Mice. This is the same team that created The Three Little Pigs, which premiered at the 2012 Festival and then went on to perform internationally to much acclaim, drawing on a script of which the team says, ‘we didn’t write it, so much as read newspapers.’ Described as ‘a gritty journey into the heart of South Africa’s judicial and penal systems,’ Three Blind Mice should be worth watching, if the Big Bad Wolf’s other efforts are anything to go by.

From Cape Town’s Baxter Theatre Centre comes a remake of

I Have Life. Clayton Boyd as Tiaan Eilerd who brings Alison (played by Suanne Braun) to safety

Creative Feel / June 2015 / 47

Born in the RSA, written by Barney Simon and the original cast, here directed by Thoko Ntshinga (who formerly played the role of Thenjiwe in the first production). Born in the RSA tells the stories of several characters of different races and ages living under apartheid, and received rave reviews when it played across the USA in the mid-1980s (the New York Times described it as ‘that rare political drama with the power to make participants out of history’s voyeurs’). This 2015 staging is produced by Lara Foot, and commemorates the 20th anniversary of the death of beloved playwright and director Barney Simon, cofounder of the Market Theatre – South Africa’s first multiracial theatre and cultural centre.

While Born in the RSA pays homage to a local theatre legend, Hirsch, which has garnered reviews as ‘a fantastic,

Also making its world premiere is multiple award winning author and playwright Craig Higginson’s latest play The Imagined Land

Another Great Year for Fishing. Image by Clara and Wies Hermans

passionate and informative piece of theatre, well written and brilliantly performed,’ celebrates the life of a Canadian one. Hirsch recounts the story of John Hirsch, a Hungarian refugee orphaned by the Holocaust, who went on to win acclaim as a brilliant theatre director, ‘an original and an originator, a galvanizing cultural force in Canada and across the continent.’

From established theatre luminaries to the up-and coming, this year’s Standard Bank Young Artist for Theatre, Christiaan Olwagen uses the platform provided to him by the award to take on Henrik Ibsen’s three act play A Doll’s House, which tackles themes around marriage, social roles, autonomy and identity. Meanwhile, last year’s winner Greg Homann makes a return to the Main when he teams up with Ralph Lawson to stage A Voice I Cannot Silence, a tribute

48 / Creative Feel / June 2015

Poskantoor featuring Lynelle Kenned

to Alan Paton and another tribute comes in the form of

requiring some adept impromptu handling of students by

Dutch-South African collaboration Masote’s Dream, which

the terrifying title character – an unstable and intimidating

chronicles the story of Michael Masote.

control freak.

Another Good Year for Fishing, is written, conceived

And then, a man, or rather, ‘a hairdresser, a father,

and performed by Tom Struyf, with dancer Nelle Hens

a son, and a sofa.’ The Cenotaph of Dan wa Morira was

in ‘a play about the power of stories and images, mass

commissioned for last year’s Wits So Solo festival, where it

communication and indoctrination... how to lead a normal

received good reviews: it ‘celebrates real skill in its writing,

life in an ever-changing society.’ This makes its South

collaborative engagement and performance… if you have

African debut at the Festival, as does Miracle in Rwanda,

known loss in any of its multifarious permutations, it will

in which Leslie Lewis Sword plays several characters to

touch you deeply.’ It stars Tony Miyambo as a son who

tell the story of Immaculée Ilibagiza. Ilibagiza survived

seeks to hold on to the memory of his father after he loses

the Rwandan genocide by hiding in the small bathroom of

him to a stroke.

a local pastor with several other women for three months – bleak subject matter, but this one woman show has

There are also a number of productions aimed at the whole family, including True Confusion – aimed at older

Hamlet featuring Jeremy Richard, Dean Balie, Marcel Meyer, Matthew Baldwin, Nicholas Dallas and Callum Tilbury

been described as ‘a dramatic triumph’, ‘seamless’, and

children – which asks ‘who decides what is right? What

‘captivating piece of theatre’.

happens when we disagree? How much can you disagree

I Have Life is based on Marianne Thamm’s book about

and still be friends?’ Red Earth Revisited is a puppetry play

Alison Botha’s survival against overwhelming odds, and

that harks back to the historical events of the Xhosa cattle

adapted by Maralin Vanrenen with a view to shifting

killing in the 1850s. Finally, in Tea, two old childhood friends

attitudes to women. Similarly, Christo Davids directs

meet after a long time, resulting in a ‘treacherous twosome

an adaptation of Woman Alone, Dannalene Noach’s

tea party in which friendship, competitive drive and sexual

autobiographical account of being imprisoned in Saudi

attraction leads to a bewildering, psychopathic climax.’

Arabia following an accusation of sorcery.

From heroic women to a rather less savoury one: Miss

‘The arts need to challenge and provoke,’ says Mahomed of the line-up. ‘South Africa’s satirists, cartoonists,

Margarida’s Way is directed by Pieter Bosch Botha and stars

commentators and court jesters need, now more than ever,

Patricia Boyer, who recently won a Naledi award for her

to be given the opportunity to be the public voice, the

role in The Miser. Brazilian Roberto Athayde’s dark comedy

conscience, of the nation.’

transforms the audience into a class of pupils under the control of the autocratic Miss Margarida, famously

So, once again it’s time to pack warmly, polish up your hip flask and head for the Grahamstown hills. CF

Creative Feel / June 2015 / 49

clockwise from left to right :: CHERAE HALLEY performs in WHAT THE WATER GAVE ME by Rehane Abrahams :: JADE BOWERS :: Photo by Dotji Photography :: ALBY MICHAELS :: KIERON JINA :: Photo by Tyron Janse van Vuuren :: ASHRAF JOHAARDIEN :: CHERAE HALLEY :: Photos by Jan Potgieter

UJ ARTS & CULTURE PRESENTS EVOLUTION X

ON THE ROAD

50 / Creative Feel / June 2015

PAYING HOMAGE TO THE FOUNDATIONS AND LEGACIES THAT GAVE BIRTH TO UJ ONLY A DECADE AGO, EVOLUTION X IS UJ ARTS & CULTURE’S PERFORMING ARTS PROGRAMME FOR 2015. WITH SIGNATURE PRODUCTIONS, PROJECTS AND COLLABORATIONS, RANGING FROM HALLMARK CLASSICS TO CUTTINGEDGE CONTEMPORARY WORKS, EVOLUTION X IMAGINES A JOURNEY FROM THEN TO NOW, AND INTO THE NEXT TEN YEARS. When Ashraf Johaardien relocated from Cape Town to Johannesburg in 2005 there was a merger among the former Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), Technikon Witwatersrand (TWR) and the Soweto and East Rand campuses of Vista University. (Prior to the merger, the Daveyton and Soweto campuses of the former Vista University had been incorporated into RAU.) So 2015 marks a tenth anniversary milestone, which, as synchronicity would have it, he shares with the University of Johannesburg where he has been Head of Arts & Culture since 2011.

“UJ fosters ideas that are rooted in African epistemology and it is poised to become a PanAfrican epicentre for global intellectual inquiry and scholarship,” says Johaardien, “with ‘Rethink.

Reinvent’ as our X-axis, and Darwin’s theory of evolution as our Y-axis, we have plotted the creative co-ordinates of an arts and culture programme that not only celebrates ten years of arts and culture excellence – but looks back at where we come from and ahead to where we want to be,” he explains.

Taking EVOLUTION X ON THE ROAD, the following works are presented at the National Arts Festival:

Jina, has been commissioned to devise with the student finalists from the 2014 UJ CAN YOU DANCE? competition. Jina envisages a celebratory performance piece, incorporating dance, video, and sound design that will explore the toyitoyi as a form of cultural expression, “reborn and remixed for 21st-century South Africa”.

HORROR STORY by Greg MacArthur and directed

by Alby Michaels for the Student Theatre Festival in Grahamstown is a South African premiere featuring UJ students Ebenhaezer Dibakwane and Sheraad Jacobs as two 16-year-olds living in the suburbs of Johannesburg. In the play the two teenagers attend the screening of a brutally graphic horror film based on true events. Growing obsessed with the movie, they decide to make a pilgrimage to the site where the actual murders took place to uncover the truth behind the myth.

Presented in collaboration with Jade Bowers Design and Management, Neil Coppen’s TIN BUCKET DRUM features Warona Seane and Matthew MacFarlane, and is directed by ACT impact Award winner for 2014, Jade Bowers.

A fresh twist on the traditional conventions of African storytelling, the play follows the story of Nomvula, a spirited child born with a revolutionary heartbeat into a cruel and silent dictatorship.

UJ Arts & Culture produces and presents world-class student and professional arts programmes aligned to the UJ vision of an international university of choice, anchored in Africa, dynamically shaping the future. Venues include the UJ Arts Centre located on the Kingsway Campus comprising the 436-seater Arts Centre Theatre, Art Gallery, dance studios and choir rooms; the Experimental Theatre also located on the Kingsway Campus next to the Sanlam Auditorium; the 180-seater Con Cowan Theatre and dance studios on the Bunting Road Campus and cultural offices on the Soweto and Doornfontien Campuses. Venues also serve as receiving houses for professional South African and international productions, concerts, exhibitions, conferences and cultural events. For more information please visit www.uj.ac.za/arts.

WHAT THE WATER GAVE ME by Rehane Abrahams was the recipient of a Silver Ovation award at the 2014 National Arts Festival and is a Naledi Awards nominee for Best Production: Cutting Edge. Aptly described by Robyn Sassen as “a beautiful tale of spice, horror and colourful fish,” this solo work weaves the worlds of four characters and a storyteller together into a redemptive and transformative theatrical experience. The production, featuring Cheraé Halley, is directed by multi-award-winning Jade Bowers. #TOYITOYI is a student dance work, which new UJ Arts & Culture Associate Choreographer, Kieron

Creative Feel / June 2015 / 51

Malcolm Purkey A man of many titles, and talents, Malcolm Purkey spoke to Creative Feel about his role as Dean of AFDA Johannesburg and director of Craig Higginson’s The Imagined Land, making its world premiere at the National Arts Festival 2015.

A

ctor, director, playwright, drama lecturer, theatre administrator, professor and dean, Malcolm Purkey has played an influential (and sometimes controversial) role in the South African theatre and

arts scene since he and fellow artists and intellectuals formed the Junction Avenue Theatre Company in 1976. At its height, the Company consisted of arts luminaries such as William Kentridge, Ari Sitas, Steven Sack, Patrick Fitzgerald and Pippa Stein. Purkey was also involved in the founding of Wits’ School of Dramatic Art in 1975 and designed the stage for the Nunnery Theatre. Following the completion of his master’s degree at State University of New York at Binghamton (having received a Fulbright Scholarship), Purkey joined the Wits Drama School as a lecturer, becoming Professor in 2000. In 2004, Purkey joined the Market Theatre as Artistic Director and became Dean of AFDA Johannesburg in 2014.

In his various roles, Purkey has directed and/or facilitated some of the country’s most influential and loved theatre productions. Some of these include The Fantastical History of a Useless Man (1976), Randlords and Rotgut (1978), Travesties (1978), Will of a Rebel (1979), Security (1979), Ilanga lizophumela abasebenzi (1980), Jumpers (1980), the immensely successful Sophiatown (1986), Speed the Plow, Duet for Onein (1994) and Love, Crime and Johannesburg (1997).

Purkey’s move to AFDA and return to crafting the next generation of theatre-makers, actors, performers and filmmakers appears to be a happy fit for both.

Celebrating 21 years this year, AFDA (The South African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance) was founded in 1994 by Garth Holmes, Bata Passchier and Deon Opperman. Although regularly thought of as solely a film school, AFDA also consists of a performance school, a television school and a school of business innovation

52 / Creative Feel / June 2015

Malcolm Purkey. Images courtesy of the Market Theatre

and enterprise. Specialities within the film school include

Higginson play The Imagined Land, which Purkey is directing

screenwriting, producing, directing, animation directing,

at the 2015 National Arts Festival.

cinematography, production design or costume, make-up

Craig Higginson is an internationally acclaimed writer

and styling. Students of the television school can receive

whose plays have been performed and produced at the

specialities in TV scriptwriting, TV production, post-

National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the

production or technical. The performance school, which has

Trafalgar Studios and several other theatres and festivals

recently been revitalised, allows students to specialise in

around the world. In Higginson’s new play, The Imagined

screen acting, stage acting or musical performance. All of the

Land, a famous Zimbabwean novelist is about to undergo

schools’ specialities see students working towards practical

brain surgery. Her daughter, a literary critic studying in

knowledge and creating portfolios relevant to their sector.

America, is coming home to Johannesburg to take care of

Those hoping to enter the business side of the sector can

her. A young biographer – also originally from Zimbabwe –

study a bachelor of commerce in either business leadership,

arrives at the front door, requesting to write the biography

marketing and sales, finance or business management.

of the woman who changed the course of his life. The

AFDA’s alumni have presented works from Pune in India

Imagined Land is a new state of the nation play for our

to the Berlin International Film Festival in Germany, and

troubled, troubling times. How do we represent ourselves

continue to be recognised in their home country (with a

through narrative? How do we represent each other? Is it

record number of South African Film and Television Awards

true – as Oscar Wilde claimed – that all criticism is a form

(SAFTA) nominations for 2015) and internationally. AFDA is

of autobiography? This gripping, witty, sexy, heady drama

the first and only African film school to win the best foreign

draws on echoes from the lives of Doris Lessing and Nadine

student film Academy Award in 2006 and was a runner-up in

Gordimer – but soon evolves into a timely meditation on

2013. In February this year, the school was identified by i-D

some of the central dilemmas of our time. Under direction

Magazine as one of the top ten off-the-grid art, design and

by Purkey, the production features a dynamic cast including

fashion schools in the world (the only school on the African

the legendary Fiona Ramsay and the newest, brightest stars

continent to make this list).

in the South African theatre scene Nat Ramabulana and

Although Purkey spends his days ensuring the

Janna Ramos Violante. The Imagined Land promises to be as

Johannesburg campus (other campuses include Cape Town,

challenging and ground breaking as Higginson’s Dream of the

Durban, Botswana and now, Port Elizabeth) runs to the high

Dog and The Girl in the Yellow Dress.

standard that AFDA has built, part of his role as Dean is to

Festival-goers can look out for The Imagined Land on the

continue ensuring quality performance, theatre, television

Main Programme, as well as AFDA Johannesburg’s to4rm

and film is created, both by AFDA students and faculty

(directed by Prince Lamla) and AFDA Cape Town’s musical

as well as himself. One such example of this is the Craig

theatre piece Open Mike. CF

Creative Feel / June 2015 / 53

Dance at the NAF An exciting line-up of local and international dance works, dealing with a wide array of themes and subjects, is set to appear at this year’s Festival.

Here are some of the highlights.

Le Sacre

N

o newcomer to the National Arts Festival,

John Neumeier, Chief Choreographer and Director of the

Luyanda Sidiya appears this year as the

renowned Hamburg Ballet, and esteemed as one of the

Standard Bank Young Artist Award Winner

greatest choreographers of his time. Spring and Fall is

for Dance, which puts him centre stage.

performed to the music of Antonin Dvorak’s Serenade for

Sidiya will present the debut of Siva (Seven),

Strings in E major, and made its debut at the Hamburg

which draws upon the human drive for connection and

State Opera in 1991. Le Sacre – The Rite of Spring,

belonging: ‘As human beings tangled in our own disorder,

originally known as ‘The Great Sacrifice’ – is based on Igor

disruption, and disassociation we constantly yearn for that

Stravinsky’s vision of a young girl whose sacrificial dance

which guides us to completeness, to oneness. We are in

brings about the return of spring. (The original ballet is

constant search within ourselves, in others, and all around

said to have caused ‘riots on the streets of Paris’).

us, for connectedness and peace,’ reads the introduction to

Moving into Dance Mophatong also presents a double

this new work. Siva (Seven) will be performed by members of

bill. Ngizwise is choreographed by MIDM’s multiple

Vuyani Dance Theatre.

award winning Sonia Radebe, in collaboration with

At the other end of the dance spectrum, Cape Town

Jennifer Dallas, the founding artistic director of KEMI

City Ballet, which celebrated its 80th birthday last year,

contemporary dance projects in Canada. This ‘[uses]

presents a double bill, both featuring choreography by

spoken words, as well as deft manipulations of the

54 / Creative Feel / June 2015

workaday set pieces... [to] reveal intimate stories of South

be a black, African father may be unattainable.’ During

Africa under apartheid, woven from the voices of the

her two months with the Tumbuka team, they set about

‘born free generation’. The second work to come from

exploring Zimbabwean movement and identity to create

MIDM, entitled Man-longing is ‘an exploration into the

a 50 minute work performed to live music. A portrait

dark and sinister world of human trafficking’ through

of my father debuted at this year’s Dance Umbrella in

which choreographer Sunnyboy Motau hopes to highlight

Johannesburg, where Robyn Sassen rated it as one of the

the danger of falling victim of this evil. According to an

event’s ‘unequivocal jewels’.

interview with Motau several years back, the impetus

Coming from Europe to make its South African debut

for this work came from a personal loss, when his uncle

is Jan Marten’s Sweat Baby Sweat, which begins with the

vanished: ‘I want to create awareness around this very

relationship between a man and a woman, and uses this as

The Last Dance /POINTE with Mamela Nyamza and Nelisiwe Xaba

real, dreadful industry. People disappear without a trace

the basis for an exploration of ‘the symbiosis of storytelling

in big cities; families meet with dead ends all the time.’

and abstraction... in which composed music and projected text

Zimbabwe’s much-celebrated Tumbuka Contemporary

take an important role next to the moving composition.’ Also

Dance Company returns to the Festival with A portrait of

choreographed by Martens is The Dog Days are Over, in which

myself as my father, choreographed by Nora Chipaumire.

he makes his performers... jump. This is inspired by a 1958

Chipaumire is based in New York, but returned to

quote by photographer Philippe Halsman: ‘When you ask a

Zimbabwe to work with the country’s leading dance

person to jump, his attention is mostly directed toward the act

company for this piece, an examination of masculinity, the

of jumping and the mask falls so that the real person appears’.

black African man, fatherhood and the ‘Zimbabwean self’.

Using this apparently simple conceit, Martens has, according

In her artist statement regarding the work, Chipaumire

to the Dutch press, succeeded in conjuring ‘a mesmerising

writes that it ‘is a portrait of a man, who is nothing but a

choreography of nothing but jumping, strength and geometry.’

man of his time. I have given him boxing gloves so that

Last but very far from least, local dance powerhouses

he has a fighting chance. I have put him in a boxing ring

Mamela Nyamza and Nelisiwe Xaba tackle ‘arts funding,

to do battle with himself, his shadow, his ancestors, the

demographics and political correctness’ (according to

industrial gods and that merciless tyrant: progress. To be

a recent press release) – a potentially fertile realm for

a black male may be challenging in the 21st century. To

thought-provoking work, in today’s dance scene. CF

Creative Feel / June 2015 / 55

MIDM in Grahamstown

Under new artistic direction by Mark Hawkins, the 37-year-old Moving into Dance Mophatong (MIDM) is currently in the process of evolving, whilst still discussing social issues through enthralling movement vocabulary and cutting edge choreography.

Photographs by Xavier Saer. Styling by Yvette Irvin and accessories from Piece

T

o touch is to feel. Whether it be merely the skin

than to physically connect with the world. Cities are crowded

of the other person or an emotional reaction, a

with people who create cacophonous noises, smells, tastes,

touch sensitises the body to its own dermis and

sights and textures. But if one takes time to listen and see, they

allows a person to become aware of themselves

can realise that it is actually people who buzz around their

and the feelings that this awareness carries.

overwhelmed daze. People, Motau recognises as having had

Sunnyboy Mandla Motau seeks to re-engage the senses by making his audiences more fully conscious of the plight of

hopes for a better life amongst the flickering lights.

In Man-Longing Motau choreographs the real. He is

human trafficking. It is a skin-tingling fact to consider that a

‘trying to portray real scenes of things that are happening

human being can be taken from their life and dreams; packed

in this world. We went to Noord, Bree…’ Motau ruminates.

away and sold like ordinary cargo. In a world inundated by

The work travels to the National Arts Festival (NAF) this

hashtags and memes of daily atrocities it becomes comfortable

July as one of two pieces featuring Moving into Dance

to wall up in flats and houses or hide in cellphone boxes rather

Mophatong (MIDM). ‘I am proud to be part of a company

56 / Creative Feel / June 2015

whose work is being shown on the Main Festival stage after

an early morning rehearsal. At 8am they walked past women of

having six Standard Bank Young Artists Award winners for

varying ages in either scanty clothing or standing fully naked

Dance coming from MID and sharing a stage with this year’s

on the street. As a male, he was a sought after object: the man

winner, Luyanda Sidiya,’ says Motau.

who would satisfy their longing for money. The cast had to

MIDM has undergone significant shifts in the past year

cancel the rest of their rehearsal that day. Motau stammers

as it revamped its management team. Mark Hawkins joined

when he tries to find the words to articulate the sensation and

Moving into Dance Mophatong in 2014. Recently appointed

simply says, ‘Once you see it and feel it, you carry it.’ In the Bag

as the new Artistic Director, Hawkins, who has an impressive

Scene of Man-Longing where the women of the cast are grabbed

CV notched up over the past 30 years, is excited to take up the

from large checked plastic bags with zips, a butcher holds the

artistic helm at this exciting time. Sensitive to the history of

women as though they were empty flesh; without the self-same

MID and insistent upon building on the extraordinary legacy

need of financial freedom that he uses them to obtain. Motau’s

of Sylvia Glasser, Hawkins says, ‘I look forward to focusing the

contribution to the NAF, which promises to pack a punch and

artistic direction of this immensely important dance company,

shake audiences from sociopolitical passivity, is a macabre

while at the same time looking after its historic repertoire,

impression of musings on the material world.

by actively identifying new opportunities for growth and

The performers are dancing into a poem created by Motau,

performance possibilities locally, nationally, within the SADC

as he begins his pieces by writing poetry. To this text he has a

region and of course internationally.

mostly original composition of sounds recorded from city noises

‘MIDM has always been about community and social

to undertone the dancer’s words; which create what he calls

issues,’ Nadia Virasamy (CEO and Director of Education)

a ‘text-scape’. Man-Longing has shifted with the new dancers’

states. Man-Longing traces the desires that cause people

input bringing fresh textures to the story. It has also grown

to pursue the city without any knowledge of what one will

because of issues like those highlighted by #BringBackOurGirls

precisely do when they get there.

and a renewed sense of urgency to make people more aware of

‘Imagine if this was your mother, your sister,’ Motau sighs.

the daily crises of human-trafficking. Motau seeks to connect

He speaks about the feeling that he was mere meat when he was

with NAF audiences in a new dialogue around these issues. But,

clutched by a naked prostitute on Mooi Street. He had taken

perhaps his greatest goal is sensitisation because he still feels

the cast to experience what it is like to walk the street during

that people are afraid to touch. CF

Creative Feel / June 2015 / 57

History will inspire your art This year’s visual arts line-up at the National Arts Festival features new work by 2015 Standard Bank Young Artist Kemang wa Lehulere, alongside artists including Simon Gush, Michael Godby, Themba Shibase, Keith Dietrich, Jodi Bieber and Monique Pelser, while Lerato Bereng is the Festival’s debut Featured Young Curator.

58 / Creative Feel / June 2015

W

ith several solo exhibitions, some 50 group

and subject matter, displaying a concern with boundaries:

exhibitions, a spate of prestigious awards

‘portals between the living and the dead, the past and the

and six residencies to his credit, it’s easy to

present; segregation, discrimination and identity.’

see why Kemang Wa Lehulere won the 2015

Wa Lehulere’s exhibition as Standard Bank Young Artist

Standard Bank Young Artist award for the Visual Arts. As

is entitled Dreamer Imaginist: History will Break Your Heart.

such, the ‘performer, photographer and filmmaker’ headlines

The show is curated by Lerato Bereng, the Festival’s first-

the visual arts line up at the National Arts Festival this year.

ever Featured Young Curator, a festival innovation that turns

Wa Lehulere gained experience in drawing, painting and

the spotlight on this important, and often-undervalued,

sculpture through a visual arts course at CAP (Community

aspect of the art scene. Currently employed by the Stevenson

Arts Project), before directing his attention towards new

gallery, Bereng was one of five young curators in CAPE’s

media and film, particularly ‘works which dealt with identity

Young Curator’s Programme, an assistant curator for Dada

politics, because I could relate [to them]’. He is a cofounder

South?, and is a former member of the curatorial board for

of the Gugulective, and is concerned with increasing art’s

Focus 10, a biennial held in Basel, Switzerland.

reach, taking it into the townships and making it more accessible. Wa Lehulere’s artworks span a range of media

In addition to Wa Lehulere’s work, Bereng will curate Simon Gush’s Red, which takes as its focal point

Kemang wa Lehulere. Photograph by Adam McConnachie

Creative Feel / June 2015 / 59

2015 Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art Kemang wa Lehulere Soweto. Orlando West Swimming Pool, Orlando 2009. Jodi Bieber. Digital print in pigment inks. 112 x 84cm 60 / Creative Feel / June 2015

a red Mercedes-Benz 500SE that the National Union

of early colonial encounters at the Cape in South Africa...

of Metalworkers South Africa presented to Nelson

informed by a set of trials that took place during the 1700s,

Mandela in July 1990. The car was constructed by the

and in particular by the atrocious sentences that were

workers during their free time, using parts supplied by

meted out for transgressions against a social order in which

the factory management; yet only a few months later,

these people found themselves.’

the relationship between workers and management

Also on show is a solo exhibition of work by young

collapsed. Red ‘looks at the symbolism of the car and what

contemporary artist Themba Shibase, who appears to

it represented to the workers, and... the unique series of

have his gaze fixed on the present and future (with its

events surrounding it.’

roots in the past). According to SMAC Gallery, Shibase

Like Gush’s Red, the work of Jodi Bieber, Monique

‘interrogates current political and social issues within

Pelser and Keith Dietrich all invoke aspects of history, be it

a pan-African context... Employing a unique and fresh

recent, distant or personal. Bieber’s Between the Darkness

visual language, Shibase addresses large and generation-

and the Light, comprises a selection of her work between

defining issues, such as: leadership; post-colonial and

1993 and 2004, incorporating both independent series and

‘post-dictatorial’ power structures; masculinity, identity,

some of her earlier press photography. According to the

gender and gay politics; as well as the complex challenges

Goodman Gallery, the exhibition ‘explores the twilight that

facing a young aspirational generation grappling with

[Bieber] experienced in the decade following the advent of

culture and heritage within a rapidly changing global

democracy in South Africa.’

and digital world.’ Shibase already has a number of solo

Pelser’s Conversations with My Father shows a more

exhibitions behind him, and has been a finalist in both

personal confrontation with the past, combining the artist’s

the Spier Contemporary Art Awards and the MTN Young

photographic prints with found photographs and a digital

Contemporary art awards, suggesting that he is an up-

photographic installation, all focusing on her father’s

and-coming artist worth watching.

involvement with the police force.

So, while the Venice Biennale contemplates ‘all the

Dietrich’s Fragile Histories, on the other hand, looks to a more distant past, as it narrates ‘the tensions and textures

Monique Pelser. Soldier 2013 20 x 25cm digital print

Soldier 2, 2013 20 x 25cm digital print

world’s futures’, Grahamstown turns its artistic gaze to the events that get us there. CF

Soldier 3, 2013 20 x 25cm digital print

Soldier 4, 2013 20 x 25cm digital print

Creative Feel / June 2015 / 61

The closer you are, the more you feel. Let the arts move you forward at The National Arts Festival, 2 – 12 July 2015

A World of Jazz

Local and international dazzling jazz acts from around the globe: here are some of the highlights that the programme for this year’s Standard Bank Jazz Festival has to offer in Grahamstown.

62 / Creative Feel / June 2015

David Helbock Trio

A

s always, Standard Bank Young Artist Award winners, both past and present, play an active role throughout the Jazz Festival. The latest addition to this musical elite is pianist and composer Nduduzo Makhathini, who grew

up surrounded by music from across the cultural spectrum, in a family that treated music as a special healing gift.

Makhathini went on to study at the then Natal Technikon (now UKZN) before embarking on a professional music career that led to stints in the bands of Zim Ngqawana, Simphiwe Dana, Carlo Mombelli, Feya Faku and Themba Mkhize, as well as performances in Europe, Britain and the United States. In African tradition it is believed that people don’t die but multiply; after their passing they continue to live as aphanzi, the ancestors, or ‘the ones from the ground’.

Thus, in his concert entitled Listening to the Ground (3 July at 17:00 at the DSG Hall), Makhathini pays homage to those musical legends who have contributed to the great legacy and history of South African jazz, thanking them for their protection and guidance. Foremost among these is jazz giant Bheki Mseleku, who shared with Makhathini his view of spirituality and how it connects with what we play and the people we become; and so Makhathini honours Mseleku with Tribute (7 July at 19:00, DSG Hall).

Other Standard Bank Young Artists making (multiple) appearances include the rapidly ascending Bokani Dyer and Kesivan Naidoo. Dyer returns from his extensive 2014 European tour, where he united with the four gifted representatives of the Swiss jazz scene who now play alongside him in Grahamstown (2 and 4 July at 17:00, DSG Hall). Similarly, Naidoo and his band, Kesivan & the Lights, who played last year in Carnegie Hall to a standing ovation, now reprise their performance for the Festival on 5 July at 22:00 at the DSG Hall – with the addition of two Swedish guests who were central to Naidoo’s original 2009 Lights band.

Naidoo pops up again, along with fellow Young Artist Kyle Shepherd, to perform with Carlo Mombelli and the Storytellers on 2 July at 19:30 at the DSG Hall. This act has played sold out concerts over the past year, earning much critical acclaim. Composer/bassist Carlo Mombelli is known in South Africa for his cutting-edge voice-like playing style, and vocalist Mbuso Khoza is described as ‘incredible’.

Plenty of South African musical heavyweights appear in the mix this year, including Ray Phiri, whose career both as solo artist and with platinum-selling bands like Stimela has seen him become a household name in South African jazz circles. Catch him on 10 July, 19:00 at the Monument.

The closer you are, the more you feel. Let the arts move you forward at The National Arts Festival, 2 – 12 July 2015

Carlo Mombelli and Kesivan Naidoo

Pianist Don Laka (10 July at 21:00, 11 July at 12:00 at the

Dave Reynolds – South Africa’s leading steelpan player, a

DSG Hall) has been performing and composing for nearly

SAMRO Award-winning composer and acoustic guitarist – to

four decades, continuously building the ‘Kwaai-Jazz’ brand

fuse world music, Caribbean soul and South African jazz,

– an eclectic musical fusion of classical, traditional, modern

with an underpinning of African traditional instruments.

and jazz – as well as releasing six award-winning albums,

They perform on the 7 and 8 July at 17:00 at the DSG Hall.

most of which achieved gold or platinum sales status.

Vocalist Lindiwe Maxolo appears with her band, the

Pops Mohamed is South Africa’s leading indigenous-

Lindiwe Maxolo Quintet on 9 July at 17:00, DSG Hall, to

contemporary-crossover artist, playing kora (African harp),

perform songs from her debut album titled Time; while

mbira (thumb piano), Khoisan Bow and various percussion

vocal and trombone artist Siya Makuzeni, known for her

effects. He has released 37 albums in his career, won

experimental, edgy, but pure intonation, collaborates with

multiple awards, recorded with the Khoisan people in the

hip young South Africans and a legendary Swiss saxophonist

Kalahari, and toured globally with the likes of Andreas

on 5 July at 17:00, DSG Hall. Makuzeni is followed by the

Vollenweider and Baaba Maal. Here he collaborates with

talented, up-and-coming Benjamin Jephta at 19:00.

64 / Creative Feel / June 2015

Kesivan Naidoo

South African born guitarist Vuma Ian Levin uses his music

Jazz School at the Stockholm Conservatory, guitarist Ola

in an attempt to interrogate conceptions of identity, nation,

Bengtsson to perform as the Amandla Freedom Ensemble on

culture, being and power both globally and in post 1994 South

4 July at 23:30 at the Auditorium.

Africa, drawing on popular music, jazz, western art music and

Moving further afield, several exciting artists head

the full array of South African musics, and celebrating the

to Grahamstown from across the continent, including

musical tropes of the historically disempowered ‘African Other’.

the world-acclaimed Zimbabwean singer/guitarist Oliver

Levin appears alongside a fantastic international array of his

‘Tuku’ Mtukudzi, who boasts a career spanning more

classmates from the Amsterdam Conservatory on 5 July at

than 35 years and 50 original albums (nearly all of them

21:30 at the Auditorium.

best-sellers), and which has seen him performing on

Mandla Mlangeni’s Amandla quintet ‘wraps elliptical

leading stages on five continents. His music incorporates

melodies in three-part horn harmonies, rich with impasto,

traditional mbira patterns, popular Zimbabwean ‘Jiti’

swinging like broken chandeliers,’ according to the Jazz

style, mbaqanga inflections and traditional Korekore

Times. He is joined in Grahamstown by the Head of the

drumming patterns to create a music genre of his own:

Creative Feel / June 2015 / 65

The closer you are, the more you feel. Let the arts move you forward at The National Arts Festival, 2 – 12 July 2015

Boulevard Blues

‘Tuku Music’. (10 July at 17:00 and 11 July at 21:00, both

his mentor, Herbie Hancock, as ‘a musical painter’, Loueke

at the DSG Hall).

combines harmonic complexity, soaring melody, a deep

Multi-award-winning Nigerian jazz guitarist Kunle Ayo is

knowledge of African folk forms, and conventional and

increasingly one of Africa’s most celebrated guitarists, who

extended guitar techniques to create a warm and evocative

is greatly in demand for his dazzling live performances. Ayo

sound of his own. Little more needs be said about the

has six albums to his name and leaves his fans inspired and

technical virtuosity and musical diversity of this world-

full of positive energy after every performance. Catch him on

class guitarist than to list some of the musicians who have

11 July at 17:00, DSG Hall.

called him to work with them over the past decade: Terrence

A big hit for the Festival this year is guitarist Lionel

Blanchard, Herbie Hancock, Angelique Kidjo, Dianne Reeves,

Loueke – born in Benin but now a resident of New York

Cassandra Wilson, Wayne Shorter, Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts, Charlie

and naturalised American – who has studied at some of

Haden, Richard Bona, Nathan East, Sting, Brian Blade,

the world’s most prestigious schools of music, which led

John Patitucci, Terri Lyne Carrington, Kenny Garrett, Roy

him to appearances on a series of high-profile recordings

Hargrove, Santana and Gretchen Parlato. In Grahamstown,

and the creation of critically acclaimed albums. Praised by

he performs with some of South Africa’s best jazz musicians,

66 / Creative Feel / June 2015

Lionel Loueke

including Concord Nkabinde, Siya Makuzeni, Marcus Wyatt,

Parisian drummer André Charlier and pianist/organist

Shane Cooper and Ayanda Sikade (3 July at 19:30 at DSG

Benoit Sourisse have had a long-standing career playing

Hall; 4 July at 22:00 at DSG Hall).

together. Over more than 20 years and 1 000 concerts,

From Africa on to Europe: Catch ‘one of the most creative

Charlier and Sourisse have deepened their musical

and fearless saxophonists of the moment’ (according to The

relationship and their friendship, playing alongside

Times), and one of Holland’s most important saxophone

Didier Lockwood, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Kenny Garrett, John

players, Yuri Honing, with his quartet on 2 July 22:00 at the

MacLaughlin, Toots Thielmans and many more.

DSG Hall, and 3 July 21:30 at the Auditorium. His album Seven – recorded with Paul Bley, Gary Peacock and Paul Motion – received the Edison Jazz Award in 2001 and in 2012

Hear them perform on 3 July at 22:00 at the DSG Hall, and 5 July at 22:00 at the SB Jazz Cafe.

The Stockholm Jazz Orchestra is one of the world’s

he was awarded the Boy Edgar Prize, the most prestigious

premier contemporary Big Bands, made up of leading jazz

jazz prize in the Netherlands. Honing’s new album Desire

soloists with their own career and band. When they get

was released at the beginning of 2015, drawing influences

together as the SJO, their focus is on demanding ensemble

from Jazz, Baroque music and Contemporary music.

playing and lyrical improvisation. They made their first

Creative Feel / June 2015 / 67

The closer you are, the more you feel. Let the arts move you forward at The National Arts Festival, 2 – 12 July 2015

Concord Nkabinde appearance on the Grahamstown stage exactly ten years

all over Europe. He has also been a member of the famous

ago, and their ongoing collaborations with and influence on

Norrbotten Big Band since 1997. He leads a fascinating

South African musicians have transformed the country’s jazz

collaboration between European and South African

landscape over the past decade. They appear twice at the

musicians on 3 July 19:00 at the DSG Auditorium.

Festival: on 4 and 5 July at 19:30, both at the DSG Hall.

One of the SJO’s longest standing members is Johan Hörlén,

The Bjaerv Encounters (4 July at 22:00, Cafe) celebrate the big sound of the tenor saxophone, a central component

regarded as one of Sweden’s leading jazz alto saxophonists. He

of the history of jazz. There is a long tradition of setting up

is also lead alto of the famous WDR Radio Big Band in Cologne,

tenors together, from the collaborations of John Coltrane

Germany, and a well-established band leader in his own right.

and Hank Mobley to Sonny Rollins and Coleman Hawkins to

Catch him in collaboration with renowned Finnish drummer/

the ultimate sax summit of Dave Liebman, Michael Brecker,

pianist Jukkis Uotila on 3 July at 22:00 at the Cafe.

Joshua Redman (and Joe Lovano). At this year’s Festival,

Also from Sweden, trombonist Peter Dahlgren is

Karl-Martin Almqvist, one of Europe’s best and most in-

regarded as one of the strongest young modern jazz voices

demand tenor sax soloists (now permanently employed by

in Europe. In 2004, he starred in the EBU Jazz Orchestra, an

the Danish Radio Big Band) shares the stage with Robert

international big band consisting of selected musicians from

Nordmark, his SJO compatriot, with a killer rhythm section.

68 / Creative Feel / June 2015

Dave Reynolds and Pops Mohammed

Getting a chance to guest with these two Swedish tenors

with classical and pop music, only discovering jazz well into

with huge sounds and massive experience is the rapidly-

their professional music careers. The cathartic beauty and

improving young South African tenor, Sisonke Xonti.

freedom of jazz sparked a new direction for them and they

From the little Austrian village of Koblach comes

both completed master’s degrees in the Jazz Department of

pianist David Helbock, described by Roland Spiegel of

the Royal Conservatory in Brussels, Belgium, returning to

Bavarian Radio as ‘one of the most exciting players of the

Taiwan in 2002 as professional jazz musicians and active

young European jazz scene.’ He has received two awards

jazz educators and founding the Taipei International

and the audience prize at the world’s biggest jazz piano

Summer Jazz Academy & Festival in 2004. They take to the

solo competition, the Montreux Jazz Festival, as well as

Auditorium stage on 4 July at 19:00.

Austria’s most important prize – the Outstanding Artist

Not enough? Then catch local chart toppers such

Award, in 2011. He has toured extensively with the Dave

as Thandiswe Mazwai, Beatenberg and Mi Casa; check

Helbock Trio, who will perform on the 6 July at 19:30 at

out the next generation of jazz talent at the plethora of

the DSG Hall.

performances by school and youth jazz bands; and end your

And then to the Far East: Violinist Chi-pin Hsieh and pianist Kai-ya Chang are Taiwanese musicians who grew up

evenings chilling at the nightly jazz jams or taking in the Boulevard Blues. CF

Creative Feel / June 2015 / 69

A Hundred Years of

Frank Sinatra December 12, 2015 marks the centenary of one of the world’s most popular singers: the legendary Frank Sinatra.

T

he son of Italian immigrants, Francis Albert ‘Frank’ Sinatra started out singing for tips at age eight. He was expelled from high school long before graduating, and earned his keep for some time by working as a delivery boy

and then a riveter, also singing professionally while still a teenager. In 1935, his mother talked him into joining what then became the Hoboken Four, an amateur singing group that managed to win a six-month contract performing across the United States.

In 1939, Sinatra signed a contract with Harry James, with whose band he released his first commercial album, From the Bottom of my Heart. Soon after, Tommy Dorsey invited him to join his band, which vastly increased Sinatra’s public visibility (his contract, however, awarded Dorsey a third of his lifetime earnings in the entertainment industry, until Jules C Stein eventually bought him out of the contract for $75 000. An unfounded rumour that Sinatra’s mob connections had brought this about was ultimately to inspire the film, The Godfather).

When Sinatra’s solo career commenced with The Voice of

of which saw Sinatra being awarded Lifetime Achievement Awards from The Recording Academy and the Screen Actors

Frank Sinatra, he was the original teen idol, the heartthrob of

Guild, as well as the Kennedy Centre Honours – where then

a multitude of near-riotous, screaming ‘bobby-soxers’, at a

President Reagan noted that Sinatra had ‘spent his life casting

time when most music was marketed at adults. Sinatra went

a magnificent and powerful shadow’ – the Presidential Medal

on to a career notable both for its broad range of appeal – he

of Freedom, and the Congressional Gold Medal.

was popular with all ages, and across races – and, despite the

Alongside his many musical and film achievements,

inevitable ups and downs, its longevity: over the course of

Sinatra earned himself a colourful reputation for his

six decades, he released more than 1 400 recordings, scoring

lifestyle. He was known as a ‘ladies man’ with four marriages

31 gold, nine platinum, three double platinum and one triple

to his name, including fairly short-lived marriages to the

platinum album from the Recording Industry Association

glamorous Ava Gardner and a young Mia Farrow, as well

of America. Sinatra also starred in more than 60 films and

as longer marriages to his first wife, Nancy Barbado (with

produced eight motion pictures. More than a decade and a

whom he had three children) and his last wife, Barbara

half after his death, ‘Ol’ Blue Eyes’ continues to be one of

Manx. He was a founder member of the Rat Pack, the often

the greatest selling musical artists of all time, having sold

emulated stars of the original Ocean’s 11, and although he

in excess of 150 million copies of his albums worldwide. All

did not serve during the Second World War, supported the

70 / Creative Feel / June 2015

“a friend to me has no race, no class and belongs to no minority.

My friendships are formed out of affection”

war effort and performed for the troops through a number of USO tours. He was also continually dogged by shadowy rumours of alleged links to organised crime, and was apparently plagued by depression, once describing himself as an ‘18 karat manic depressive’.

Perhaps less well known, however, is that throughout his life, Sinatra was a tireless campaigner towards racial desegregation and equality, writing for Ebony magazine that ‘a friend to me has no race, no class and belongs to no minority. My friendships are formed out of affection, mutual respect and a feeling of having something in common.’

After his death, columnist for the Chicago Tribune, Laura Washington described Sinatra as ‘a white mega star who promoted civil rights for African-Americans at a time when few whites, and certainly not the prominent and wealthy, even acknowledged we existed.’ Wikipedia notes that he ‘often [stepped] in to demand apologies for a racist incident and abolishing of Jim Crow policies before he would fulfil his show contract... and led his fellow Rat Pack members and Reprise label mates in boycotting hotels and casinos that refused entry to black patrons and performers... [He also] often spoke from the stage on desegregation and repeatedly played benefits on behalf of Dr King and his movement.’ His contribution to the fight for civil rights for African Americans ultimately earned him a Lifetime Achievement award from the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP).

A true showman, Sinatra continued performing until only a few years prior to his death. In 1995, he made his last televised appearance, singing ‘New York, New York’.

He died in 1998, but continues to be honoured as one of the greatest singers of the 20th century. CF

Creative Feel / June 2015 / 71

Day of the Giants – Pierre Boulez at 90 To honour the French composer Pierre Boulez in his 90th year, Jill Richards and Waldo Alexander are producing a Day of the Giants, on Sunday 28 June at the Goethe-Institut in Johannesburg. Creative Feel asked Jill Richards for more information about this special event.

A

ccording to Deutsche Grammophon, few

the performance of Modern music – and remained their

musicians ever make a significant difference

director until 1967. Boulez began his conducting career

to their art form. Pierre Boulez, a towering

in 1958 with the Südwestfunk Orchestra in Baden-Baden,

figure in the history of modern music, has

Germany. From 1960 to 1962 he taught composition at the

done so as composer, performer, author and

Music Academy in Basel. As a composer, conductor and

thinker, challenging convention and creating a body of work

teacher, Pierre Boulez made his mark on the music scene as

that is destined to influence musicians and connect with

a visionary young leader of the avant-garde. He preached

audiences for generations to come. His work as teacher and

a compelling artistic message, one constructed out of the

founder of such leading musical institutions as the Ensemble

ruins of two world wars, in which he called for a complete

Intercontemporain, IRCAM and the Lucerne Festival Academy

revolution in musical composition and the creation of a new

has also been of the highest importance to the development of

musical language. In 1967, Boulez famously suggested, with

contemporary classical music.

provocative humour, that the most elegant if most costly

Pierre Boulez, born in the Loire region on 26 March

solution would be to burn down the world’s opera houses

1925, first studied mathematics, then music at the Paris

in order to replace tired traditions with enlightened clarity

Conservatory (CNSM), where his teachers included Olivier

and the spirit of reason. Although he subsequently softened

Messiaen and René Leibowitz. In 1954, with the support of

his attitude and went on to become a leading conductor

Jean-Louis Barrault, he founded the Domaine musical in

in both the opera house and concert hall, his mission to

Paris – one of the first concert series dedicated entirely to

introduce audiences to music rooted in ideas of expressive

Pierre Boulez ©Deutsche Grammophon

72 / Creative Feel / June 2015

freedom, psychological complexities and the noblest of

mind via his music is a profound and wonderful process.

human aspirations has remained at the heart of his creative

I played his Structures Livre II for two pianos (with French

output. As a composer, conductor and teacher, Pierre Boulez

pianist Dimitri Vassilakis) at the Messiaen Festival at La

has made a decisive contribution to the development of

Meije in France. That was on the occasion of this 85th

music in the 20th century and inspired generations of young

birthday, so I’m very happy to be playing the Second Sonata

musicians with his pioneering spirit. His recordings have

on this 90th birthday!

earned him a total of 26 GRAMMY Awards and vast numbers of other prestigious awards.

I will also be playing it at the New Music Indaba in Bloemfontein in July, and now that it’s in my repertoire I hope this is just the beginning. Every performer knows that

Creative Feel: Not only will you explore Pierre Boulez’s work for the audience, you will actually perform some of his work for the very first time ever in South Africa?

Jill Richards: Yes, as far as I know these will be the first local performances of the three works we are going to play:

the more often you play a great work, the better it gets.

CF: You will be also featuring the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen and the American John Cage because of their close connections to Boulez?

Anthèmes for solo violin and live sound processing, Domaines

JR: It’s so interesting that these three composers – all

for solo clarinet and the Second Piano Sonata. We will be

different, massively important and pioneering – were pretty

introducing the works and talking about how they are made,

much contemporaneous.

what to listen for and what makes them so special. People only need to bring along their ears and be happy to listen.

The correspondence between Boulez and Cage is fascinating. This dates from the late 1940s to the early 50s.

I’ve been immersed in the Second Piano Sonata for

There was much warmth between the two, which gradually

months now, and I’m completely in love with the piece. It’s

cooled as Boulez began to see the huge difference between

super difficult, and is definitely one of the big challenges in

their compositional styles. Cage was intent on removing

the piano repertoire, but engaging with Boulez’ beautiful

himself from the compositional process in terms of directing

Jill Richards. Photograph by Chris Saunders

Creative Feel / June 2015 / 73

the structure, while Boulez controlled the structure very

CF: The event will include other performances, talks, video

tightly indeed. Boulez met Stockhausen when he was

material and discussions. You said, ‘we plan to make a day

teaching at the Darmstadt summer courses and once

that is informative but informal. We like to connect with the

declared, ‘Stockhausen is the greatest living composer, and

audience and make it understandable – and also fun!’ What

the only one whom I recognise as my peer.’

else can the audience expect on the day?

CF: Could you give us a comparison of these ‘Three Giants’, in musical terms?

JR: They all had very profound influences on 20th century

JR: Lots of interaction! We would really like to discuss with people their thoughts and feelings about what they hear.

Audiences matter just as much as the performers and the composers. We will have a ‘Speakers Corner’ where people

music, and were all geniuses in their different ways. Pierre

can comment on the composers, the performances, voice

Boulez was intent on forging his own strong and unique voice,

their own views, heckle – and be heckled! Discussion will be

which is like no other, and still sounds fresh and remarkable,

firmly encouraged. I really believe that music is something

despite his having a relatively small output. Cage opened up

that belongs to everyone, and as performers, our job is to

music in an astonishing and beautiful way. He used chance

share that magical sound space where we can inhabit a world of feelings, integrity, fantasy, delight and beauty. We are also hoping to get the audience involved – nothing stressful or scary, but as something both fun and meaningful.

People won’t need to have masses of musical knowledge, or understand the concert conventions. My experience has often been that those with less knowledge are the best listeners: they have fresh ears, and are able to take in the music more directly.

Another special aspect will be the ten-speaker array for Anthèmes, the solo violin work. They will be specially rigged for the concert, and Wits University lecturer Cameron Harris will be doing the live electronics.

We are very excited at having four young Johannesburg composers, Diale Mabitsela, Samora Ntsebeza, Victoria Hume and Felicity Mdhluli write new works specially for this event.

They will be writing in response to aspects of Boulez’ music, and in particular the three works that Waldo, Morné and I will be performing. This will be a really special part of the day.

CF: You said that such an event is really only possible in Johannesburg – because of the vibrancy of the city, the people.

Jill Richards and Waldo Alexander. Photograph

by Chris Saunders

JR: Yes! I love this city because of its people, who are not only warm and friendly – they are curious, interested and

interesting, and open-minded about new experiences. There operations (from the I Ching) to structure some of his

is so much happening that’s new in the arts world here, and

compositional processes. He is also known for “preparing”

people do go out and experience it. Joburgers aren’t scared!

the piano – putting all sorts of hardware like nuts, bolts and

And my experience with the previous concerts of new classical

screws between the strings – which gave a wonderful array of

music events that I’ve put together here is that people really

new sound colours. Stockhausen is another clear voice who

engage with contemporary music. It’s not surprising that

transformed 20th century music, from musical happenings

Johannesburg is considered a really hip happening city. CF

and serialism and was an early exponent of electronic music.

I think that ultimately what connects them all is the

Sunday 28 of June, Goethe-Institut, Johannesburg. This event

strength of their convictions in what they wrote – they

is generously supported by the French Institute of South Africa

believed in their composing work in passionate and

(IFAS), the Goethe-Institut and Prosound. Performers: Jill Richards

sometimes spiritual ways.

(piano), Waldo Alexander (violin), Morné van Heerden (clarinet).

74 / Creative Feel / June 2015

Friends of IFAS A new Comite des Amis (Friends of IFAS) has been appointed to assist the French Institute of South Africa.

‘I

t is essential that France strengthens its interaction and consultation with key players in various sectors of South African society,’ says French Ambassador HE Elisabeth Barbier regarding the establishment of the Friends of the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS).

According to Mandie van der Spuy, who has had a long association with

IFAS over many years and who has been asked to serve as the committee’s first Chairman, ‘the French Institute felt that closer insight and advice would be beneficial to reach a greater understanding of their South African audiences and stakeholders. The committee is tasked not only to advise on measures to improve marketing practices and expand audiences but to provide an external and objective opinion on IFAS’s activities as well as to broaden its networks.’

‘It is a consultative committee, of an advisory nature,’ she emphasises.

‘It cannot dictate in any way to the management of the Institute, nor does it become involved in the day-to-day running of the organisation or in any major decisions that need to be made.’

The committee members have been selected carefully to represent as broad a range of endeavour as possible, in order to assess IFAS’s programming from different perspectives. Members may also be asked to provide input and counselling on more general matters be they legal, academic, media or business related.

‘I am indeed honoured to have been asked by the Ambassador and the Director of IFAS to steer this committee in its inaugural phase. It is precisely the diversity of backgrounds and expertise as a group of South Africans involved in all spheres of society that is necessary to assist IFAS in keeping abreast of developments that may have an impact on its activities,’ Van der Spuy said.

The committee comprises eleven members, all on a voluntary basis, with the French Ambassador as Honorary President represented by the Cultural Counsellor or the Director of IFAS. In addition to Van der Spuy, the members are Philip Botha (lawyer), Michelle Constant (CEO of BASA), Prof Federico Freschi (Executive Dean of the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture of the University of Johannesburg), Mandla Langa, (author and journalist), Percy Mabandu (journalist), Pansy Mekwa (General Manager: Strategy at Total South Africa), Thabo Molefe (radio/TV presenter and DJ), Jackie Motsepe (Chief Operations Officer at KwaZulu-Natal Film Commission), Elinor Sisulu (author), and Nicholas John Tee (lawyer and President of Alliance Française of Johannesburg). CF

Creative Feel / June 2015 / 75

STANDARD BANK YOUNG ARTIST AWARD WINNERS NEVER STOP MOVING FORWARD

Scenes from Marikana – The Musical courtesy of the State Theatre

‘T

hese were real people,’ Aubrey Sekhabi,

real stories behind the headlines. When the play opened

Artistic Director of the State Theatre

at the NAF, it received mixed reviews but it got people

and director of Marikana – The Musical,

talking. By the time it wrapped up at the Festival, it was to

says about the multi-Naledi award

standing ovations.

winning play. He is as excited now,

Sekhabi says that what the audience sees now is draft

about the play’s return season at the State Theatre in

eight of the play. He has continued to refine it since he first

July, as he was nervous about its premiere at the National

spent that sleepless night paging through the numerous

Arts Festival (NAF) in July last year. The 1998 Standard

stories that needed to be told. It was not an easy decision

Bank Young Artist Award winner for Theatre called Ismail

to stage the play. He toiled over how to tell the tale that

Mahomed (Artistic Director) frantically in the months

had been on high rotation in the news; without seeming

leading up to the 40th anniversary of the NAF to revise his

like he was further exploiting the lives that had suffered

proposal for the Festival. Sekhabi spent sleepless nights

through the real-life occurrence. When the miners at

reading and revising the narrative that would be his best

Marikana tried to fight the conditions of their employment,

work yet. Nominated for 13 Naledi awards, Marikana – The

and the politics surrounding their contracts, the end

Musical spoke to the need to tell South African stories in

of the strike dealt a blow that was unprecedented in its

a new way that questions the politics and articulates the

harshness. Thirty-four men died. And many more were

76 / Creative Feel / June 2015

adversely affected, including the wives and children of

exercise a similar discipline in his work. He ruminates on

those men. The play begins with a song that sears through

his discussions with Thabo Rapoo (Naledi Award winner

the auditorium and immediately tunes the audience into an

for Best Choreography and Standard Bank Young Artist for

austere atmosphere that is unlike most musicals. The stage

Dance 2009) that he wanted the moves to be kept close so

is empty – devoid of the form’s usual spectacle. Sekhabi

that ‘it almost gives it a ritual feel.’

describes the opening and ending of Marikana – The

Marikana – The Musical is a macabre ritual that somehow

Musical as the stage opens up from the ground, to reveal

still manages to make the audience feel uplifted. Sekhabi’s

the bodies behind the sombre song, as a belly; a cruel belly

aim was, ‘We should cry about it and fix it. We have to coexist.

with an insatiable appetite.

We’ve got to solve our problems.’ When the cast – dressed

When Sekhabi read We are Going to Kill Each Other

in outfits that are exact replicas of the Marikana miners’ –

Today: The Marikana Story, he was struck that ‘Once it

sing ‘Panga. Panga’ it is an awkward laughter that becomes

opens it tells you that 3 000 men gathered on that hill

cathartic in its humour but then turns intensely grave when

and… and it tells you that 34 of them will never sing

the first murder occurs. Now, after the recent blemish on the

again.’ So, Sekhabi had the actors come out from under the

face of Africa with the violence of xenophobia, Marikana –

stage at the beginning and then, after the massacre, the

The Musical is as an indictment on how the problems have

dead bodies are swallowed back into the belly in an eerie

not been fixed. Ending with the stories of the wives, sisters

silence. What Sekhabi wanted to create was ‘a tribute’. In

and mothers who were left behind, Marikana – The Musical

Grahamstown during the NAF, he proudly recalls being

is a reminder of the toll of violence. Twenty-one years of

at Pick ‘n Pay and hearing people in another aisle talking

democracy need more work. But Sekhabi’s 21 years as an

about the stories in the play. It was crucial to him that

artistic director prove that dedicated work can lead to the

the play not be about spectacle but, as he says, ‘There’s

culmination of years of experience in excellence; if one is

justice to the story and justice to the art.’ So, even though

committed to continually working at it.

the musical format was the best way to recreate the state

Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for Drama

of heightened existence that took place in those days of

2011, Neil Coppen’s inventive take on Animal Farm was also

the miners sitting on a hill and singing while the unions

acknowledged at the Naledi Theatre Awards, receiving the

and police and various other players in the discussions

nod in the categories Best Production for Young Audiences

hustled and bustled below them, Sekhabi sought to

and Best Ensemble. CF

Creative Feel / June 2015 / 77

5 Flights Up Director: Richard Loncraine Starring: Morgan Freeman, Diane Keaton, Cynthia Nixon, Carrie Preston Forty years ago, young artist Alex Carver (Korey Jackson) bought a run-down, two-bedroom apartment in a sketchy part of Brooklyn for himself and his wife, schoolteacher Ruth (Claire van der Boom). Today, their neighbourhood is very hip and their apartment worth a small fortune. For their part, the now-retired Ruth (Diane Keaton) and still-painting Alex (Morgan Freeman) haven’t changed – they are still as much in love as ever. But they have let Ruth’s niece Lily (Cynthia Nixon), a real estate agent, list their property to see what the market might bear. Then fate twice intervenes on the eve of their open house. First, a big rig abandoned on a bridge is rumoured to be a possible terrorist attack, sending the media into a frenzy, and snarling traffic and people’s attitudes about living in New York. Closer to home, however, there is an even more troubling and very real problem: Dorothy, the Carver’s beloved ten-year-old dog, is suddenly having trouble standing and walking. While they debate what might happen to Dorothy, the Carvers open up their home to a bizarre collection of would-be owners, simultaneously amused by the spectacle and quietly troubled by the prospects that this big change might actually happen.

AT CINEMAS 19 JUNE 2015

BOOK REVIEWS

The Dream House

By Craig Higginson Publisher: Picador Africa ISBN: 9781770104105

A farmhouse is being reproduced a dozen times, with slight variations, throughout a valley. Three small graves have been dug in the front garden, the middle one lying empty.

A woman in a wheelchair sorts through boxes while her husband clambers around the old demolished buildings, wondering where the animals have gone. A young woman – called ‘the barren one’ behind her back – dreams of love, while an ageing headmaster contemplates the end of his life. At the entrance to the long dirt driveway, a car appears and pauses – pointed towards the house like a silver bullet, ticking with heat.

So begins The Dream House, Craig Higginson’s riveting and unforgettable novel set in the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal. Written with dark wit, a stark poetic style and extraordinary tenderness, this is a story about the state of a nation and a deep meditation on memory, ageing, meaning, family, love and loss.

The Raft

The Churchill Factor

The Buried Giant

By Fred Strydom

By Boris Johnson

By Kazuo Ishiguro

Publisher: UMUZI

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Publisher: Faber & Faber

ISBN: 9781415207369

ISBN: 9781444783025

ISBN: 9780571315031

On Day Zero, humankind collectively lost

On the eve of the fiftieth anniversary

The Romans have long since departed,

its memory. The collapse of civilisation

of Winston Churchill’s death, and

and Britain is steadily declining into ruin.

was as instantaneous as it was inevitable.

written in conjunction with the

But at least the wars that once ravaged

For a man named Kayle Jenner, confined

Churchill Estate, Boris Johnson

the country have ceased. The Buried Giant

by a regime to a commune on a remote

explores what makes up the

begins as a couple, Axl and Beatrice, set

beach, all that remains is the vague and

‘Churchill Factor’ - the singular

off across a troubled land of mist and rain

haunting vision of a son...

brilliance of one of the most

in the hope of finding a son they have

That, and a wooden raft. It is a raft that

important leaders of the twentieth

not seen for years. They expect to face

will set Kayle on a journey across a

century. Taking on the myths and

many hazards - some strange and other-

broken world to find his son. Braving a

misconceptions along with the

worldly - but they cannot yet foresee how

landscape of elusive encounters, a maze

outsized reality, he portrays - with

their journey will reveal to them dark

of other people’s dreams, and muddled

characteristic wit and passion - a

and forgotten corners of their love for

memories, Kayle will discover more

man of multiple contradictions,

one another. Sometimes savage, often

than just his lost past. He will discover

contagious bravery, breath-taking

intensely moving, Kazuo Ishiguro’s first

the truth behind Day Zero – a truth that

eloquence, matchless strategising,

novel in a decade is about lost memories,

makes both fools and gods of men.

and deep humanity.

love, revenge and war.

80 / Creative Feel / June 2015

CDs – new and exciting The latest releases to suit all tastes

LED ZEPPELIN - PHYSICAL GRAFFITI 40TH ANNIVERSARY DELUXE Warner 8122795794 This deluxe edition of the group’s sixth studio album arrives 40 years after the original debuted on February 24, 1975. As with the previous deluxe editions, Physical Graffiti has been newly remastered by guitarist and producer Jimmy Page and is accompanied by a disc of companion audio comprising previously unreleased music related to the original release.

Certified 16 times platinum in the US, the commercial success of Physical Graffiti was equaled by its critical reception. Generally regarded as one of the greatest double albums of all time, the original 15 tracks represent a creative tour de force that explores the band’s dynamic musical range, from the driving rock of ‘Custard Pie’ and an acoustic arrangement of ‘Bron-Yr-Aur’ to the Eastern raga of ‘Kashmir’ and funky groove of ‘Trampled Under Foot’.

The companion audio disc has seven unreleased tracks, including rough mixes of ‘In My Time Of Dying’ and ‘Houses Of The Holy’, as well as an early mix of ‘Trampled Under Foot’ called ‘Brandy & Coke’.

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE –

TIM MCGRAW – SUNDOWN

ANNA NETREBKO –

KINTSUGI

HEAVEN TOWN DELUXE

TCHAIKOSKY IOLANTA

Atlantic 10397

Universal Music 060253799881

Deutsche Grammophon 4793969

Kintsugi is the eighth studio

This album has produced two singles

Why Iolanta? Anna Netrebko does

album by American indie rock

in advance of its release: ‘Lookin’ for

not really know what to make of

band Death Cab for Cutie on

That Girl’ and ‘Meanwhile Back at

a question like this. The answer is

Atlantic Records. Recorded at

Mama’s’, the latter of which features

actually very straightforward: ‘it’s a

Eldorado Recording Studios, in

backing vocals from McGraw’s wife,

wonderful opera. In Russia everyone

Burbank, California, Kintsugi

Faith Hill. McGraw has stated that,

knows the work. Untypically of

is produced by Rich Costey,

‘I think it’s a good microcosm of

Tchaikovsky, it has a happy ending.

and is the first Death Cab for

what my 20 or so years in music

And it has glorious, carefree music. I

Cutie album to feature an

have been, in a lot of ways. You can

was amazed to discover that no one

outside producer. The album

certainly hear parts of my career

outside Russia knows the opera,’ the

title is derived from kintsugi, a

throughout all of these songs, as

singer said in an interview in 2012. A

type of Japanese art involving

well as the future and where my

good three years before that, she had

fixing broken pottery, and as a

music is headed. To me, the title

sung the title role in Tchaikovsky’s

philosophy of treating breakage

of the album is all about that time

final stage work for the first time in

and repair as part of the history

where you stop doing what you

public, making her debut in the part

of an object, rather than

have to do, and start doing what

at the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden

something to disguise.

you want to do.’

in 2009, a memorable performance.

Creative Feel / June 2015 / 81

encore Short. But you will always find an inspirational book or two and Buddhist wisdom is my favourite.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I would have more patience towards my own abilities and strengths.

Sometimes I am in too much of a hurry.

Name one thing you think would improve the arts and culture industry in South Africa.

There is a lot of dialogue about the government taking a bigger role in creating sustainability in our creative industry - even if that is crucial, what I think will improve this industry, is for those of us that are in it and administrators to start thinking like businesses, and not charity cases.

What is your most treasured possession?

I want to say my phone, as it allows me to interact with the world and also stores more books than my bag can carry.

Marcus Desando is currently CEO for Gauteng Opera, a position he has held now for almost two years. Desando’s career started as a singer and he has sung in more than 80 productions, was nominated for best actor in a musical for his role in Phantom of the Opera and has directed, to date, more than 20 operas, variety and gala concerts in South Africa and internationally.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

Going through life not knowing what your true purpose is and not even trying to find out.

What is it that makes you happy?

Giving. I believe that in giving, not just money to charity, but being able to give of anything in life to whomever, is the greatest blessing and that makes me very happy.

Describe a defining moment in your life.

When I was offered the position of CEO for Gauteng Opera by my

Name three artworks that you love and why.

board. I, for the first time, felt that I could now drive my vision

I will talk about opera, as it is truly my love and my joy so my most

for opera in South Africa and I took on the responsibility that was

favourite and loved operas are:

placed on me with determination.

Attila by Giuseppe Verdi because it is one of the most bel canto like operas he wrote, even though dramatically it is very stark, it has for

What projects will you be busy with during 2015?

me the most beautiful music.

2015 for Gauteng Opera is a year for solidifying the work we have

Le nozze Di Figaro by W. A. Mozart and this purely for its perfect

started in 2013 and so for the company we are working at making

combination of theatre, drama and music. It is a dream for any

our presence in Gauteng and South Africa known. Our next project

director to tackle this masterpiece and I hope to do so one day.

is La Traviata in concert with wonderful South African artists and

Rigoletto, also by Giuseppe Verdi, because it was the one opera that

exciting new up-and-coming voices. Our main season will be at the

I truly believe transcends all ages and genres in terms of music and

Soweto Theatre called Cula Mzansi (a collection of three modern

human emotion.

and new South African operas) and of course two more variety concerts between August and November. I have also been invited to

Name one artiste you would love to meet.

Cape Town later in the year to direct two brand new operas for Cape

Mr Peter Sellars, a truly great American director for his really

Town Opera and UCT.

effortless interpretation of opera.

Name one goal you would like to achieve in the next twelve months.

What are you reading at the moment?

To lose ten kilos and my beer belly! Seriously, it is to re-launch our

I am reading quite a few books at a time, but the one I am really

academy here at Gauteng Opera, to keep working on creating those

enjoying again is a biography of Chris Hani titled Hani: A Life Too

wonderful artists we need to keep our theatres alive.

e

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Forward

Creative Feel / June 2015 / 83

TM

HORROR STORY

by Greg MacArthur

DIRECTED BY ALBY MICHAELS REHEARSAL ROOM . 10/07 19:00 . 11/07 16:00 (SOUTH AFRICAN PREMIÉRE) UJ STUDENT DRAMA PRODUCTION

TIN BUCKET DRUM

by Neil Coppen

DIRECTED BY JADE BOWERS ST. ANDREW’S HALL . 08/07 12:30 . 09/07 16:30 10/07 22:30 . 11/07 20:30 . 12/07 12:00 UJ PROFESSIONAL PRODUCTION

#TOYITOYI

CHOREOGRAPHED BY KIERON JINA CENTENARY HALL . 08/07 10:00 . 09/07 12:00 09/07 21:30 . 10/07 16:00 . 11/07 19:30 UJ STUDENT DANCE PRODUCTION

WHAT THE WATER GAVE ME

by Rehane Abrahams

DIRECTED BY2015 JADE BOWERS 84 / Creative Feel / June

ST. ANDREW’S HALL . 06/07 12:30 . 07/07 18:30 08/07 22:30 . 10/07 16:30 . 11/07 14:30 UJ PROFESSIONAL PRODUCTION