In a very hot country a man lived with his wife and son, Slindelo, in a little hut, which was surrounded by grass and flowers. They were all perfectly happy till Slindelo stopped helping around the hut and started playing dirty tricks on everyone.
Slindelo and his bones
This is a tale that shows the cruelty of life, and how if you don’t respect life or don’t have a direction, you will not succeed. It tackles themes like abortion, unprotected sex with multiple partners, peer pressure, irresponsible teenage parenting, school drop outs and the importance of education in life.
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.
- It is low cost: there is no set, no costumes, no lighting and no sound equipment. The performances can take place in any simple performance space, without having rehearsed in that space.
- Props are provided by the audience who are asked to bring things to give to the performers. These are supplied to the actor at the moment of necessity at the beginning of the act or scene – whatever they may be: a blow-up dolphin, an Alice-band, a laptop, a sock etc.
- Each actor has prepared two or more roles. Which of the two (or more) he or she will perform on the night is decided by a game of chance five minutes before the show.
- A multi-venue production style that revisits classic and other texts, in which the performance is informed by the venue, audience engagement and the performers themselves. No two shows are alike.
- The productions use adapted text, which is contextualised during performance. This makes it entirely of the moment. Its spontaneity allows each performance to be uniquely relevant for each audience and venue.
Narrative Dreams is a nostalgic and beautiful piece exploring two very different childhoods, which share, despite their differences, a sense of isolation and loneliness. Narrative Dreams tells the coming of age story of two boys from different worlds, Morena and David, who puzzle their way through the tumultuous, playful years of childhood life in search of friendship, acceptance and wholeness. As they grow into adolescence David and Morena try to make sense of the world into which they are moving. They face challenges that accompany their journey and start to ask questions about whether they will be able to realise the dreams of their childhood.
Molalatladi is chosen by his villagers to be the new leader of the village after defeating the Ogres that terrorized and oppressed them for years. He wants to lead his village and create a better life for them but Ogres plant a seed of greed in his head. This leads to his downfall.
A play targeting Grade 6-12 learners, ages 13-18. Issues addressed are teenage pregnancy, peer pressure and alcohol abuse.