DFL Company Laboratory SA Season August 16-20
- August 20, 2011
August 16 - August 20, 2011
DFL Company Laboratory SA Season “Exploring the Personal Archive: Diversity in Conversation” presents ITSOSENG and SALAAM at Wits Theatre Complex.
ITSOSENG
Written and performed by Omphile Molusi
16-20 August (Times- 20h00)
19 August (Time-13h00)
Amphitheatre
Itsoseng, written and performed by Omphile Molusi, deftly balances comedy and tragedy in the story of a young man, his love for his childhood sweetheart and his yearning for change amid the politics of township life during and following apartheid in South Africa. We who are naïve enough to think that the end of apartheid’s legalized oppression would bring with it harmony and understanding, but learned differently. Itsoseng, the name of Molusi’s South African township, still awaits the “miracle” of the new democracy of 1994. With the stunning power of his frenetic desperation, Molusi chronicles his generation’s disappointment and his township’s impotence to avail itself of the changes. In his heartfelt, heart-rending story of devotion to the girl he loves amidst an Itsoseng static, unchanging political climate, he portrays multiple desperate characters. Running, jumping, laughing, singing from comedy to tragedy in his intensely emotional performance, he captures the horrifying reality of post-apartheid South Africa. Yes. Post-apartheid. Yes. Post-Nelson Mandela.
SALAAM
Written and Performed by Ashraf Johaardien
Directed by Jade Bowers
Performative Stage Hands: Jessica Glendinning and Ashalin Singh
16-20 August (Times-19h00)
20 August (Time- 15h00)
Downstairs theatre
Salaam is pure theatrical magic. In 2002, the play was awarded the inaugural Spier-PANSA Jury Award. Almost ten years and at least as many productions later, SALAAM has been performed to more than 50 000 people across South Africa as well as in the USA and the Netherlands. The multi-layered narrative tackles a range of cultural issues and moves fluidly through multiple timeframes to focus themes of identity, history and group belonging through the lens of personal memory.
Playwright and performer Ashraf Johaardien, commands the stage like a conductor, effortlessly weaving storytelling, comedy and pathos into compelling and engaging theatre. In the process Johaardien offers audiences a powerful reflection on the joys and dilemmas of being caught between East and West.
The tenth anniversary production of SALAAM is directed and designed by Capetonian Jade Bowers. Bowers is an emerging director and designer who graduated from UCT with a BSocSci in 2009. She is currently doing postgraduate studies at Wits. Jade was the Festival Director for WALE 4.0 Festival at Wits earlier this year. She has worked also worked production manager, lighting designer and stage manager.
Johaardien grew up in Cape Town and at the age of fifteen he was awarded a Prince of Wales scholarship to study at the United World College of the Atlantic in the UK. He went on to study at UCT and his other plays include Coloured Son X (1998), Happy Endings Are Extra (2003), Miracle (2004), Stripped (2005) and a stage adaptation of K. Sello Duiker’s The Quiet Violence of Dreams (2008).
