SA Season at Wits Theatre Complex
July 29, 2010 – From July 29 to August 14, the Dramatic Art division of the Wits School of Arts and Wits Theatre will present 58 performances of 9 plays in 4 venues, including works by Barney Simon, Percy Mtwa, Bongeni Ngema, Athol Fugard, Reza de Wet, Paul Slabolepszy, Gcina Mhlope and others.
The season will be framed by a retrospective of music, a series of panel discussions, films, an exhibition about human rights defenders by Speak Truth to Power, and an evening with internationally acclaimed playwright and human rights activist, Ariel Dorfman.
“South African theatre in the late 1970s and 1980s was not simply about protest, but rather about the witnessing of a diverse range of human experiences – experiences inflicted by a heinous system of oppression with excruciating pain – and a rigorous analysis of the complexities of our past, of how apartheid systematically embroiled and wounded all those born of this land,” says Warren Nebe, curator of the season and head of Dramatic Art at the Wits School of Arts.
Programme details for the season are as follows:
IN CONVERSATION WITH ARIEL DORFMAN
July 30
Wits Main Theatre
17:30 for 18:00
In this official opening of the SA Season, hosted together with Nelson Mandela Foundation, Dr John Kani reads from Nothing but the Truth, followed by a reading from Ariel Dorfman’s Delirium and a facilitated discussion with Dorfman, Kani and Nadine Gordimer.
BOPHA! by Percy Mtwa
Directed by James Ngcobo
July 29 to August 7
The Nunnery
Percy Mtwa came out of a generation of storytellers in the ‘80s who were able to look at human stories as more than just writing about apartheid. Bopha! explores what was happening in South Africa in the ‘80’s through the conflict between a father and son. Young Zwelakhe and his father paint the landscape of that time, showing how simple people were affected by the monster that apartheid was.
WOZA ALBERT!by Percy Mtwa, Mbongeni Ngema and Barney Simon
Directed by Pusetso Thibedi
July 29 to August 7
Wits Amphitheatre
This satirical story, that also captures hope for a better a future, looks back to an era which can be referred to as the South African nightmare, when people were faced with a task larger than their own lives. It allows us to look back and laugh at the absurdity of justifying one human’s oppression of another. What would you do if Jesus Christ were to pay you a visit … today?
BORN IN THE RSA by Barney Simon and Company
Directed by Warren Nebe
August 2 to August 7
Wits Main Theatre
A moving portrait of how past horrors, and particularly the state of emergency, have left their stamp on blacks and whites alike and shaped the question mark that is now the country’s future.
DIEPE GROND by Reza de Wet
Directed by Gys de Villiers
Designed by Jenni-Lee Crewe
August 4 to August 14
Wits Downstairs Theatre
Incest. Obsession. Love. Murder. Against a landscape of religious fervour and sexual oppression, a brother and sister desperately cling to one another for comfort and safety. When their innocence turns to incest, they turn to murder. An intruder arrives and another murder follows …
“I was lucky enough to be in the production of Diepe Grond at the Market Theatre in 1986. Lucille Gillward was the director and I can still hear her voice. I played the character of Grové, but now, directing it, I see so many more layers. To direct and act in a classic is a great opportunity. It has been an awesome experience to work with young actors who are so hungry to learn. They have challenged me to do my best and kept me on my toes with their vigour and commitment. I salute them!” – Gys De Villiers
THE MOTHER OF ALL EATING by Zakes Mda
Directed by Makhaola Ndebele
August 4 to August 14
Wits Amphitheatre
The Mother of All Eating is a one-man satire that explores pervasive corruption, or “eating”, now synonymous with state officials who unashamedly enrich themselves through government deals and funds. The play centres on the Principal Secretary of State, who is corrupt to the core, and has thoroughly enriched himself within the ranks of his government. He is the main figure involved in a recent government tender deal gone wrong. The deal turns bad and comes back to haunt him and his family, threatening their lives and causing their extravagant lifestyle to come to an abrupt end. Set in Lesotho in the 1980s, this timeless classic by Zakes Mda exposes the materialistic greed, the destructive mindsets and tragic effects behind government corruption.
STATEMENTS AFTER AN ARREST UNDER THE IMMORALITY ACT by Athol Fugard
Directed by Vanessa Cooke
August 5 to August 14
The Nunnery
This play was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre in 1974 and was subsequently produced by the Space and the Market Theatre. The play is an indictment of the inhumanity of authoritarian regimes through a compassionate examination of the relationship between two ordinary people whose love for each other breaks the law. The play provides intimate insights into life in apartheid South Africa without using political theory to make its point.
SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE PALACE by Paul Slabolepszy
Directed by Greg Homann
Designed by Heidi Hoffer
August 10 to August 13
Wits Main Theatre
“Directing Saturday Night at the Palace has reminded me that apartheid conditioning is signposted on the most basic vocabulary we still choose to use.” – Greg Homann
Saturday Night at the Palace is Paul Slabolepszy’s most successful and critically acclaimed play to date. First staged in 1982, the play is a disturbing reminder of how a system can turn the most harmless of men into monsters. The action takes place outside a roadhouse somewhere near Benoni. The audience meets three frustrated working class individuals: a waiter, an aspiring soccer player and a motorcycle fanatic. Against the backdrop of a world that has disempowered them, the interaction becomes increasingly volatile as they are forced to question their personal dreams and aspirations. Under Greg Homann’s skilled directorial hand, guided too by international theatre designer Heidi Hoffer, this new staging of Slabolepszy’s iconic play from the ‘80s promises to be an unforgettable encounter.
HAVE YOU SEEN ZANDILE? by Gcina Mhlophe
Directed by Masasa Mbangeni
August 10 to August 14
Wits Amphitheatre
Set in the South Africa of the 1960s, Mhlophe’s play tells the story of Zandile, who is taken to live with her matriarchal family in the Transkei, where she must deal with issues of white dominance, rural hardship and black female repression. The play has toured all over the world to great acclaim.
SUIP! by Oscar Petersen and Heinrich Reisenhofer
Directed by Cheraé Halley and Rahiem Whisgary
August 6 to August 14
Site-specific performance [Dulce Roof]
Under the inebriated and comedic mask of five “bergies” living on a street in Cape Town, Suip! confronts us with the dark histories and lives of these seemingly simple characters. Their wit, wisdom and hopelessness reveal the real people under the dirt and muck, the people struggling to survive and build a life in post-apartheid South Africa. Lacking a fully-formed identity, heavily reliant on alcohol, these characters perform for us on the side of a road, inviting us to experience their culture by way of storytelling, their colloquial and blunt form of a mixture of Afrikaans and English, as well as through their songs.
The Wits Theatre SA Season is presented in collaboration with the Apartheid Archive Project, Wits Transformation Office, Carnegie Foundation, Constitution Hill and Speak Truth to Power, and is supported by the Arts and Culture Trust in association with Nedbank Arts Affinity.
Tickets are available from http://www.strictlytickets.com and are priced at R60 (full price) and R35 (discount price for Wits staff, pensioners, block bookings of ten or more, and students).
Tickets can also be bought at the door for R65 (full price) and R40 (discount price for Wits staff, pensioners, block bookings of ten or more, and students).
Light meals and a full cash bar can be enjoyed in the snack bar situated in the Wits Theatre Foyer. Covered parking in the adjacent Senate House (the entrance to which is on Jorissen Street) ensures peace of mind.
To read a review from the Citizen newspaper on the upcoming programme download the PDF here