Drama for Life Festival launch gets people talking about sex, actually
August 21, 2010 – Tonight drama students, academics, playwrights and the public gathered on an outdoor terrace at the Wits Theatre for the provocative launch of the 2010 Drama for Life Sex Actually Festival.
The Festival, now in its second year, aims to get people talking about the sensitive topic of sex. In our society sex is seldom addressed in public forums and this Festival hopes to change all that by raising the thorny issues around sex using drama, comedy, dance and film.
Through the performing and visual arts the Festival seeks to find creative and sustainable ways of building capacity in HIV and AIDS education and prevention.
The opening ceremony was a fun and entertaining mix of performances that included the SKY Gumboot Dancers who got the ceremony off to a stomping start with the crowd clapping and singing along.
Miss Diversity, a fabulous drag queen, was the master of ceremonies for the evening and brought a measure of glamour and glitter to the evening. Her naughty humour helped to launch some of the more saucy issues that the Festival hopes to address in the coming week.
She said: “I love sex actually, every intricate detail of it. The more people talk about it the more they can do [to prevent the spread of HIV].”
Head of the Division of Dramatic Arts, Warren Nebe, said at the official opening: “I think we all know that in South Africa and Africa funding for HIV and AIDS is being reduced. This is not the time to be keeping quiet but the time we should be talking.”
After thanking the DFL team he said: “This Festival is going to ask you all to wake up a little bit.”
His welcome address was followed by Pholokgolo Ramothwala, an HIV and AIDS activist and online HIV-positive blogger who implored people to get tested for HIV and take responsibility for their sexual health.
Ramothwala said: “We shouldn’t be scared to talk about HIV and sex. Most of us get HIV from sex. When we talk about sex we must talk about the risk.”
DFL Patron and Constitutional Court Judge Edwin Cameron addressed the crowd and encouraged the guests to be courageous in addressing the complex issues around sex and HIV. He congratulated Wits University and Drama for Life for creating a public space where issues of discrimination and intolerance could be addressed.
He said: “South Africa is an island of tolerance on a continent beset by intolerance and discrimination.”
He explained that heteronormative behaviour and the suppression of discussions about sex had lead to an epidemic that was worse here than anywhere else in the world. He said: “One way to confront [HIV and AIDS] is to place it where it starts, which is with sex.”
He concluded by commending the Festival team for an imaginative programme that “lifts the silence on an epidemic and examines where it is in our lives”.
Both of the main speakers brought to the fore the importance of speaking about the tough issues of sex and HIV and AIDS and the role that sex plays in our understanding of HIV and AIDS and how the disease is addressed on the African continent.
Deep Fried Man, a musical comedian, then performed a humorous account of the complete history of sexual activity that got the audience laughing and cheering for more. Using witty one-liners, Daniel Friedman, aims to broach topics of sexuality, gender differences and the complexities of HIV and AIDS in innovative ways.
Following the opening of the Festival guests were invited to watch PJ Sabbagh’s Deep Night. Deep Night is a contemporary dance production that looks at the role of HIV and AIDs in our lives. This challenging production uses multimedia and dance in a stream of consciousness format to explore love, lust and longing.
In addition guests got the opportunity to enjoy the innovative photography exhibition Through Positive Eyes, which focuses on the importance of empathy in HIV and AIDS interventions. Guests also viewed the Sex Machine exhibition and the impressive Keiskamma Tapestry.
Disebo Letanta, a third year geology and chemistry student at Wits said: “I think the Festival raises important issues in a way that is not too preachy but in a casual way. We can’t continue to shove things under the carpet and so we need to talk about sex.”
Drama for Life Scholar, Kitso Masi said: “I think what I appreciate is the honesty. In reality we have to be open about sex in order to address HIV and AIDS.”
In addition to the exciting drama festival there is a film festival running this week.
The film festival is being run in conjunction with The Bioscope, Joburg’s only independent cinema, and will be screening movies that deal with some of the thorny issues surrounding sex and intimate relationships.
For a full programme visit the Festival page.