Small-town arts festival fosters
The Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees was a feast to behold with its site-specific work created along with the
Once upon a time there was a fabled railroad that connected the Klein Karoo with George and Gqeberha on the coast. There were trains, too, that ran regularly to Cape Town.
It is a spectacular route, but today, sadly, no trains puff or pull their way up the Outeniqua Mountains to the Klip River Valley and beyond.
Wool, mohair, ostrich feathers, wheat, fruit, barley and tobacco all passed through Oudtshoorn after its railway opened in 1913. It is now abandoned. But not completely.
Catching the train
This year a remarkable on-site production, Die Swartmerrie (The Black Mare), brought life back to the platforms with swallows’ nests in the rotting eaves, located outside the town. There are metaphors there, of course: the useless tracks; the past and the present converging.
Karoo Kaarte (Karoo Maps) is a multidisciplinary project that kicked off in 2021 and involves recording the oral histories of Oudtshoorn residents.
Two productions, Hierdie Dag (2022) and Droomkraan-kronieke (2023), have been recognised with several significant awards.
Ingenious director and cooperative theatre maker Neil Coppen, co-director of Empatheatre, which is renowned for ground-breaking projects grounded in social justice, heads up the project alongside fellow artists. The talented Tiffany Saterdaght codirected this piece. Vaughn Sadie, conceptual artist and researcher, brought his vision to the tours and the app and, together with Coppen, drives the initiative.
Just look at the list of local talent that participated in the continuing project: Jermaine Bruintjies, Zietske Saaiman, Tristan Horton, Melikhaya Blou, Baart Saaiman, Shandré Harris and Charissa Esau made the sets, designed the lighting, participated in text research and managed the production.
The surprise ending of the play featured the Bridgton UCC Band as extras as well as Azola Mkrola, Wilfred Kock, Libongo Baby, Blou, Semorné Beukes, Jody Leigh de Villiers, Chanell Witbooi, Taytum Sevierus, Nadine Hendriks, Tayla Damons, Errol Esau, Coubireen Naude, Mbuso Jantjies, Siyasanga Building, Keenan Alexander, Liesl Ada and Jade Barry.
All these artists participated in the work,
Die Swartmerrie. which also yielded an art exhibition, a graphic novel titled Dominos, as well as a guided tour using a specially created app.
The collective delicately told the story of Tjoekie (Theo Witbooi), whose mother caught the train out of town when he was four. He has longed for her ever since and waited at the station with wilted flowers for 40 years.
His childhood friend Frieda (Chantell Phillipus), in town for a visit, tries to coax him back to life, back to reality.
The black mare of the title is the locomotive that once passed regularly through the town and took Tjoekie’s mother. But it was also a machine beloved by his father, who we learn was abusive.
At dusk, audience members are led to the tracks where the story unfolds as the swallows dart in and out of their nests above. And it is spellbinding.
Finding new voices
Festivals such as the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (KKNK) as well as the Suidoosterfees, about to take place in Cape Town from 26 April to 1 May, produce more new work than all the state-subsidised theatres combined. They are shining examples of cooperation between philanthropy, local and provincial government investment and businesses to provide a space for historically marginalised communities to surface vital, new work and grow a generation of young storytellers, dancers, fine artists, theatre makers and lighting, stage and costume designers.
The Suidoosterfees, which turns 21 this year, was born of the spirit of struggle icon Jakes Gerwel and guided by his widow, Phoebe Gerwel, who also established the Jakes Gerwel Foundation.
What began as a small festival has grown into a massive showcase of talent including writers, directors, comedians, dancers and performers, and centred at Artscape.
Gerwel has also donated Paulet House in Somerset East as a retreat for artists, authors and playwrights to explore their craft. Many new works have emerged from this initiative.
Veteran cultural activist, theatre maker and director Mike van Graan has highlighted how, even today, state funding still benefits elites and is centred on cities, leaving rural communities stranded.
“In a society where 55% of the population is considered ‘poor’, with an official unemployment rate of 27% and with the top 10% earning 60% of national income, the role of public funding and policy for the arts generally and for theatre in particular must surely be to enable the majority of the country’s citizens to exercise their right to participate in the cultural life of the community and to enjoy the arts and theatre,” he said.
Ismail Mahomed, director at the Centre for the Creative Arts at the University of Kwazulu-natal, former chief executive at the Market Theatre and former artistic director of the National Arts Festival in Makhanda, said Karoo Kaarte is testimony to what can be achieved working collaboratively “with common purpose over a longterm period to invest in real tangible growth for historically marginalised communities, and where acclaimed artists such as Coppen and Sadie can work with communities over a sustained period and with an understanding that they are only intermediaries through which local communities have found the confidence and built their trust to share their personal histories”.
Mahomed added that this was a model that was not “a tick-box exercise for development work”. It was a “visionary and strategic project” that gave participants ownership of their stories and a “sense of high esteem by being mentored by artists who are creative geniuses and strongly grounded towards advancing South African society, who give them the skills and a platform to share their histories”.
That the KKNK could present this work alongside the festival’s leading stars, said Mohamed, was an indication of how far the festival had transformed itself “from its contested inaugural years”.
Whereas in the past the Huisgenoot tent would host the likes of Steve Hofmeyr and “doef-doef” music, as everyone described it, this year Zolani Mahola and Dozi, YoungstaCPT, festival stalwart Refentse Morake, Spoegwolf and Congo Cowboys featured among the massive line-up.
Young people on school or varsity break attend the festival, either with their parents