Curated Programme leads Arts Festival into new era

AS the National Arts Festival commemorates 50 years, the Curated Programme reflects on universal themes that rang true at the founding of the festival and all subsequent editions, and interrogates the urgency of distinct challenges particular to the here and now.

What started as a showcase of some 60 works in an attempt to preserve English culture and 1820 Settler heritage during the depths of apartheid, has transformed into South Africa's longest-running and most diverse arts festival, featuring works across language and genre that attract an increasingly diverse South African and international audience.

Selected through a process of application, and lengthy curatorial panel review, the National Arts Festival's Curated Programme is a creative litmus test of society and a reflection of the artists' lens on South Africa and the world.

Artistic director Rucera Seethal said: “To encompass all that the festival could and has ever been in a landmark year such as this is an overwhelming task and belies the festival's role in breaking out new work and reimagining older ones. So in creating this programme, we have played with the juxtaposition of old and new and the emergence of ambitious ideas that bring the festival into a new era of cross-border and international collaboration.”

Some of the highlights from the Curated Programme include the world premiere of Third World Bunfight's The Stranger, the cutting-edge new work 1789 by Sibikwa Arts Centre, a tribute to artists passed by Mandla Mbothwe and the innovative new works of the Standard Bank Young Artists. Through several visual art exhibitions, the history of the festival is brought into the conversation, and exciting new projects that connect artists and creators from Africa take the festival into a new direction for the future.

Questions and theories about justice, both environmental and social, feature prominently in this year's programme. Empatheatre employs a research-based methodology for creating works that tackle complexity. They celebrate their 10th anniversary with a retrospective of two works at the festival. Lalela uLwandle (featuring Alison Cassels, Mpume Mthombeni and

Rory Boothwhich) has travelled internationally and tackles issues of justice for those who live with and from the ocean, and “The Last Country” (cast includes Mpume Mthombeni, Philisiwe Twijnstra, Nompilo Maphumulo and Zintle Bobi), which explores the stories of women migrants hailing from the DRC, Zimbabwe, Somalia and rural KwaZulu-Natal.

“The Stranger” is a meditative, ritualistic performance work based on the myth of Orpheus, continuing Brett Bailey's exploration of the intersections between ancient myth and contemporary realities. Set in a dystopian contemporary town: humdrum, grinding, materialistic and bigoted, a gifted musician arrives from across the border or from another world. His music is transformational and reveals an underlying harmony in the universe. Written, created, directed and designed by Bailey, it features musical direction by Nkosenathi Koela.

Grappling with the ideologies of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, Sibikwa Arts Centre's “1789” is a new work bravely transforming the theatre space, breaking the stage and audience divide.The festival is on from June 20–30.

| IHSAAN HAFFEJEE DIARTSKONAGENG brings its fresh take on theatricality and celebrates African aesthetics with ‘The Red on the Rainbow’ . ‘The Red on the Rainbow’, an ensemble piece with five actors supported by a trumpeter and percussionist duo, Sydney Mavundla and Volley Nchabeleng, was written and directed by 2017 Standard Bank Young Artist for Theatre, Monageng ‘Vice’ Motshabi, and choreographed by the late Mandla Mngevu, as an experiment with ways of using multiple points of view storytelling, movement and soundscape.