Spirituality takes centre stage at Artscape fest
THEArtscape Spiritual Festival running at Artscape has moved away from its strictly Easter roots to explore spirituality as a whole.
Mandla Mbothwe pointed out that last year they had already started moving away from the Christian-related performances to encompass a broader theme of spirituality in arts and arts in spirituality.
“The name represented the time rather than the practice, so we had to change it, but it’s still the same heart of the festival,” he said.
This year the theme of Healing Self and Healing Society is about recognising the wound of our society and the power of healing inherent in performance and storytelling.
How spirituality ties into identity is also a theme explored in several of the productions which will be presented over the next two weeks.
The musical show Paleho is about how a girl is caught between religion and tradition as she tries to find out more about her Basotho heritage. While it is in Sotho it also relies heavily on music and dance to carry its message. (March 29, 30 at 7.30pm, March 30 at 3pm.)
Mbothwe directs Die Woorde/Amazwi which is a musical, poetry, dance production that celebrates 16 artists’ individual expressions of spirituality across a variety of media. Some of the segments are presented outside the theatre because “it is realising that the aesthetic of many spiritual practices normally happen outside in the open area and not all these practices should be bound by theatre walls.” This part of the festival opens at 11am on April 2.
Already running at the Arena Theatre is a strong double bill of theatre, Mbuzeni and The Girls.
Directed by Koleka Putuma, Mbuzeni tells the story of four girls living in an orphanage which is divided from their village by a cemetery. Since their only interaction with society is watching people perform funeral rites, the four become obsessed with these rituals, believing these mannerism and behaviours to be how they are meant to engage with each other.
The obsession leads to tragic results and Mbothwe is impressed by how the eerie play works on multiple levels, delivering as it does a political comment on how contemporary childrenheaded households do not get to see “normal” relationships played out around them, experiencing instead violence, protests and anger as their norm.
The second half of the double bill, The Girls, directed by Roel Twinjstra, deals with the abduction of schoolgirls in the north of Uganda by a rebel army, the LRA. The depiction of the spiritual influence of the LRA leader, Joseph Kony, over the child soldiers who kidnap the girls is disturbing and this work was chosen for this festival “to acknowledge that we are part of Africa, that we can’t talk about society without ignoring what is happening in the rest of Africa,” said Mbothwe.
A number of languages is being used in the various plays as an acknowledgement that they are used in the mainstream and the Artscape Theatre needs to engage with more than just English.
A Broken Wing with Mabongi & The Oak is partly an adaptation of Ntsiki Sigege’s book A Broken Wing and partly a collaboration with Mabongi Thusi and maskandi musician Mfiliseni ka Mangubane. The two women share their artistic experience and how their lives have been upturned by similarly painful divorce experiences. (Tomorrow at 7.30pm).
Sibonelo Dance Project will host a dance class, outside and free to the public, on April 2 at 9am and there are other productions on offer like a live DVD recording of a gospel concert.
For the schedule, ticket prices, more info: artscape.co.za.