The DFL Company Laboratory presents the SA Season “Exploring the Personal Archive”
August 12 - August 13, 2011
The Drama for Life (DFL) Company Laboratory presents the SA Season “Exploring the Personal Archive”, curated by Warren Nebe, at The Wits Theatre Complex this August. SA Season 2011 focuses on the rise of solo works that emerged in recent years. It is host to four acclaimed professional performers and writers who have shaped significant stories into original pieces of theatre. This season of solo performances represent four diverse, humane voices that emerged in the post-apartheid landscape. A conversation about diversity is facilitated through the staging of these diverse voices.
From August 12 - August 13, 2011 Rajesh Gopie performs “Out of Bounds”.
Acclaimed Rajesh Gopie’s “Out of Bounds” takes place in South Africa both during and after Apartheid, from 1972-1999. While it is not an overtly political play, it cannot be divorced from the politics of its time. The story of Lal and his family takes place in a world where each racial group was kept separate from each other, each rigidly defined and isolated into a hierarchical pyramid with whites on the top. The Nationalist Government controlled where you went to school, which jobs were available and even what beach you could sit on. As a result, each community, without exception, has inherited its own wounds and its own psychosis. With the advent of democracy in South Africa, after so many years of struggle, theatre artists such as Rajesh Gopie realize that it is the personal rendering of these stories that dignifies and heals not only the individual, but also the country. Durban, a coastal city, on the east coast of South Africa was founded by the English and is still referred to as the last outpost. To this day it has a reputation of four strong and proud cultures that do not easily mix. However the younger generation, be they Colored, Zulu, Indian or White, has a sophisticated multicultural awareness with which they negotiate the complications of present day South Africa.
Times:
12 August (13h00 and 19h30)
13 August (19h30)
Downstairs Theatre