Wiekie Wonder
Fifi die Vleipadda en Pollie Palmiet woon in die Vleiland, maar hulle is bekommerd, want Boeboes die Breker het ‘n nare plan. Hy gee vir niks en niemand om, behalwe vir sy eie plesier nie. Sy nuutste gier is om ‘n motorfietsbaan te bou, regdeur die Vleiland! Miskien kan Fifi en Pollie hom keer as hy kan verstaan hoekom die vleiland belangrik is. Of dalk is al wat hom kan keer sy vrees vir paddas.
Ubom! is back with THE WANGAI! directed by Andrew Buckland and Noxolo Donyeli. This Lorax-inspired story is a dazzling, clever and action-packed theatre adventure for the whole family! It is an electrically charged, zany, multi-coloured, and flavoursome story of friendship, difference, adventure and magic! Taking inspiration from Nobel Peace prize winner, Wangari Maathai, who spoke for the trees, Ubom! creates a little hero, “The Wangai”, who goes on an ecological adventure with the earnest desire to protect his luscious Eastern Cape habitat from an eager young entrepreneur whose eyes are too focused on ‘Commercial Success’ without regard for the extraordinary natural balance of the environment.
Germinating and growing out of local Eastern Cape history, ecology, culture and contemporary world views the result is a vibrant, exciting theatre work which can be accessed and enjoyed by children and adults from a wide range of cultural backgrounds.
And so the wondrous manipulation of language, rhythm, character and fantastical locale which so characterizes Dr Seuss’s work is honoured in a version of the story that offers the possibility of a world inhabited by people and creatures who care for each other and for the planet on which we depend.
The story of Fiona and Andromeda who travel from the confines of the inner city to outer space and back… Along the way they encounter an Elephant that changes them and allows them to see the world differently and perhaps a little more.
A Day in the Desert is a collaboration between Jenine Collocott (The Snow Goose, Sunday Morning, Dirt, High Diving) from South Africa and Barbara Draeger from Germany. They studied together at Helikos International School of Theatre Creation under master pedagog Giovanni Fusetti – who is particularly renowned for his clown work. It was here that the first seeds for A Day in the Desert were planted. Jenine and Barbara then teamed up with the internationally awarded writer Nick Warren (Sunday Morning, Dirt) who came on board as dramaturge.
This performance deals with global warming as a cause of climate change. The presentation is interactive, entertaining, fun-filled and suitable for children, teenagers and adults. It integrates creative dance, song and dramatisation, which seeks to “edutain” and makes information about global warming accessible and easy to understand. Research has shown that using innovative teaching tools, means that learners are more likely to remember and internalise the subject matter.
The presentation explores the causes, effects and solutions or ways of minimising global warming, in order to save our tomorrow. It will educate people about the role they can play in saving our planet. The presentation also shows how each person can help through changing everyday habits which contribute to Global Warming.
The presentation is a clarion call to every individual to save tomorrow.
A new play by Craig Higginson
First commissioned by the National Theatre, London, for the 2012 Connections Festival
Directed by Malcolm Purkey
Production Design Neil Coppen
Little Foot was first commissioned by the National Theatre, London, for the 2012 Connections Festival. Craig Higginson is one of ten writers from around the world participating in this prestigious festival, and Little Foot is to be performed at the National Theatre prior to the 2012 Olympics. The National Theatre has generously agreed to allow the Market Theatre, in association with the Grahamstown Festival, to put together a South African production of their own – a production that will be an extended version of the original play.
This powerful and poetic new South African play is situated on a farm in the Cradle of Humankind, where much of the world’s pre-human remains have been found. It takes the audience down into the vast network of caves where the three-million-year-old hominin Little Foot was discovered. Out of sheer co-incidence, the production will be released at the same time that Little Foot’s remains will finally be freed from the rock. It has taken thirteen years to extract the hominin’s calcified bones, using brushes and dentists’ drills.
In Higginson’s play, we experience the caves through the eyes of a group of young South African university students – who went to school together and are having a reunion on New Year’s Eve, exactly a year since they last saw each other. One of them (Wizard) brings along a new girlfriend from England (Rebecca). He wants her to meet his oldest friends, not suspecting that a terrible trap is being set for him. What starts as a practical joke soon leads to a series of events that appear to have tragic consequences. As the students delve deeper into the caves – and we travel ever deeper into their psyches and their shared histories – a Chorus of ancient hominins steps through the walls of the caves. The play finally dramatises the coming together of our most primal and contemporary identities
Little Foot draws on Greek theatre, Philosophy, Palaeontology and South African mythology to create a powerful portrayal of modern relationships. Not only does the audience come to a deeper understanding of their common ancestry, but the play powerfully illustrates how the best and the worst of us has its roots in the ancient past, and how these two capacities are carried through into our contemporary democracy.
Since we first learned to control fire, light has been used to satisfy our best and our worst impulses as a species. It is what we do with the light handed down to us that we define ourselves. The theatre – which provides a darkened space into which we introduce light for the telling of our stories – is surely the perfect place to explore these themes and concepts.
For this production, writer Craig Higginson and director Malcolm Purkey are collaborating with Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year award-winner Neil Coppen to create a multi-media event that will include a composer, videographer, sound designer, sculptor, editor, choreographer, as well as a lighting, costume and set designer. Huge cloths will be used to create different spaces and textured surfaces, as well as being used for surfaces for video projection and shadow puppetry. The Chorus will be created using masks, sculpture and projection. In both content and form, this promises to be a unique piece of storytelling that will redefine the boundaries of contemporary South African theatre.
Previous collaborations between writer Craig Higginson and director Malcolm Purkey include the internationally acclaimed plays Dream of the Dog and The Girl in the Yellow Dress – both originally produced by the Market Theatre.
Performers
- Dylan Nicol Horley
- Jenna Dunster
- Phumzile Sitole
- Khayelihle Dominique Gumede
- Glen Biderman-Pam
- Mlondolozi Bradley Zondi
- Chorus – Kyla Davis, Jaques de Silva, Sibulele Gcilitshana, Peter Langa, Sello Sebotsane
TACTICS is a collection of daring short plays written by young South African writers who have worked with The Framework.
Five short plays are performed by performers, they will play different parts, and the plays will be performed in a different order to create a completely new whole. In keeping with the Framework’s ethos, no two performances will be the same.
All the plays are multiply cast, allowing the actors to play different roles each time. Both actors and audience formulate relationships and meaning afresh at each showing. To this end, the actors have been Framework-trained, but not rehearsed, so that they have to thrash out their virgin choices before the audience.
The Framework’s team brings this new, totally edgy, intersection between text and performance in a style that demands the following of the performers: Play yourself, play the best part of yourself, don’t ever apologise and play to win.
An environmental theatre production which deals with the issues of global warming.