Broken Vessel

A story of loss, love and hope. A young girl is missing. A distraught mother searches for her and the brother is locked in the house to keep him safe. The community rallies together and the hilarious neighbour joins the search.

This show is dedicated to all the missing children in our country.

Jade Bowers (2016 Standard Bank Young Artist, Naledi Theatre Awards Best Director for Scorched) and Ameera Patel (Naledi Theatre Awards Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Scorched) join forces to present ‘Black’. Based on CA Davids’ 2014 novel ‘The Blacks of Cape Town’, Gold Standard Bank Ovation Award-winning writer/director Penny Youngleson has written an adaptation for stage which intricately balances the poetry and pain of discovery, of unpacking history and the drama of family politics. Accomplished actress Patel tackles her first one-hander, under the directorial hand of Bowers, and with musical composition and accompaniment by Daniel Geddes.

While based abroad, historian Zara Black (Patel) learns via an officious but vague letter from the South African government, that documents once sealed and implicating her father in an act (which, while not clearly defined, was committed against the anti-apartheid movement decades earlier) will soon be released to the public. The resultant unearthing of her own past begins with Isaiah Black – the grandfather that ‘started it all’ when he stole a handful of diamonds from one of the world’s largest diamond mines in Kimberley. This act, however, is overshadowed by what the family considers his far greater crime – concealing his (mixed) race to escape the harsh realities of the mines before abandoning his mother and ultimately changing his name. His choice of surname is not without irony; because having been classified as mixed, he had passed as white, but had given rise to a line of coloured children and grandchildren. His granddaughter Zara finds herself alone and displaced in New Jersey, caught up in the excitement of an American election of a new and historic president, while trying to make sense of South Africa of the past and present: constructing a history for herself and her family from fragmented recollections and family lore.

Does anyone have any idea what the impact of the pandemic of HIV and AIDS is having on our children and their family life? How does one approach this sensitive subject? Did you know that a live theatre show like, Tand’ Impilo can open up a safe space to discuss the subject and this forum can save lives?

Patchwork is South Africa’s first professional show created just for 1-4 year olds. It was developed through intense research with the age group, to develop a theatrical language that meets our audience eye-to-eye, mind-to-mind. The show is designed to engage and delight the senses and imagination, promote empathy and create a bonding experience for children and their caregivers. Told through the languages of physical theatre, puppetry and live music (by Pedro The Music Man) the show is accessible to children of all languages and backgrounds.

Patchwork unfolds around a bed: the place where the comfort of home meets the strange world of dreams. In this world pillows become creatures learning to fly, a sheet dances with a life of its own, a teddy and a lamp makes best friends, and the proverbial cow jumps over the moon (as do the sheep and the dinosaur)!

The whole experience is carefully orchestrated to both calm and delight, making sure no little ones are left behind. ‘Patchwork’ promises to be a one-of-a-kind first theatre experience.

Patchwork is an experiential rather than educational show, however it will engage children on concepts such as bedtime, friendship, music, big and small, losing and finding. It will also stimulate imagination and creativity, and engage empathy and focus.

MEMORY is a story for all ages that speaks about the universal impulse of loving animals.

They say that somewhere in Africa the elephants have a secret grave where they go to lie down, unburden their wrinkled gray bodies, and soar away, light spirits at the end.

Robert R. McCammon

MEMORY is a truly African story. It has been created for a purpose to allow the public into why man has hunted/hunts the elephant. Using equal demographics and four part harmonies to original music throughout the show, MEMORY has been well received by all aged audiences especially for the well-known Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s highly detailed animal passion images. It is like going to a real life zoo in the safe space of the theatre.

When an 8 year old girl loses her beloved half brother to a car accident and she is forbidden from attending his burial because of family rivals; that moment changes how the rest of her life unfolds. By sixteen she struggles to relate to her peers and people placed in her path because she is trapped in the past. She begins to communicate with her late brother through letters she writes to him in her diary and through trying to “tap into death”, she writes him stories of how her life has been without him and wonders whether things would be different if he was around. We see her at her happiest when she is in a realm between life and death. The society perceives her as suicidal and a danger to herself but she does not really want to die. In the midst of fighting for her life her biggest wish is that she could somehow run away from life while her brother runs away from death and they could meet each other halfway, to sit at the edge of the world and confide in one another. Everyone has come to a point in their lives where they have questioned whether they would be better off in the spirit realm or if they should fight for just one more day in the physical world – Running is about that very reality.