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Productions A-Z
A listing of all the productions at this year's National Arts Festival, organised alphabetically by production title. Click on the letter below to jump to the relevant page. To search for a production by something other than title, go here.Event
Main / Film
Presented with the kind assistance of the Japanese Embassy and the Japan Foundation.
Japanese cinema as in all Japanese art is intrinsically linked to seasonal changes and the world of natural order and water – the sea, the rain, the ...
Event
Fringe / Comedy
HC Bosman was a young man when he was given a teaching post at a small bushveld school. Take a journey with Herman Charles Bosman back to the bushveld where he first encountered the characters that populate the stories all ...
Event
Fringe / Theatre
A Worm in the Bud is leading South African playwright Reza de Wet’s account of an Englishwoman’s post-Anglo Boer War quest to bring Victorian enlightenment to Africa and the Afrikaner, only to find a cauldron of madness in her inkwell. ...
Event
Main / Jazz
The a.s.k. trio is a perfect example of jazz's ability to bridge continents and cultures, in this case bringing together three musicians from Africa, Asia and Europe in a musical conversation that transcends the cultural and language barriers that normally ...
Event
Fringe / Music
Acoustic Liquid is spanish flamenco guitar mixed with tribal rythms, deep soulful lyrics beside an array of orchestral pieces; 2 guys changing the way we view band music. Acoustic Liquid is sound art in motion.
Other performances (please refer to ...
Event
Main / Think!Fest
In his inaugural lecture as the first black vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State (UFS), Prof. Jonathan Jansen discussed what is now dubbed the 'Reitz racist video'. Prof. Jansen posed the question: "What was it within the institution ...
Event
Main / Film
Part of the series entitled "THE SOCIETY FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF SAVAGERY"
The Camera Goes into the Heart Of Darkness – Oh the Horror!
The National Arts Festival thanks the Italian Cultural Centre, the Brazilian Embassy and the Goethe Institute ...
Event
Fringe / Game Drive
Daily Tours from 07:30 to 17:00, departing from the Drostdy Arch. Tour price includes lunch.
Addo Elephant Park had only 11 elephants when it was first established in 1931. Now they are over 450 strong, including a number of legends! ...
Event
Fringe / Film
The story is about the way the adjudication process was conducted. Adjudicator Number 3 created havoc. With her friend, a community member, she has to come up with a bogus project that would benefit her. She lands up in jail ...
Event
Main / Think!Fest
Aernout Zevenbergen speaks about the tools he used in gathering material for his book which portrays a side of African men that seems hardly ever noticed by the mainstream media. Zevenebergen is a professional wanderer and 'storycatcher', with Africa as ...
Event
Main / Think!Fest
This book is a personal quest by the Zambian-born, journalist Aernout Zevenbergen to discover the meaning of manhood in Africa, during an era plagued by economic and political troubles, violence, and aids. Zevenbergen asks questions few have dared to ask ...
Event
Fringe / Film
Kult Without a Name: The Sadistic Kult family's plan to survive Doomsday lies in the hands of their young virgin sister. Directed by Grant Wheeler.
In Return: Kwanele, a reformed gangser has to sacrifice his reformed life in order to ...
Event
Main / Film
Part of the series entitled "THE SOCIETY FOR THE
SUPPRESSION OF SAVAGERY"
The Camera Goes into the Heart Of Darkness – Oh the Horror!
...
Event
Fringe / Family - Children's Theatre
Our ancestors told stories not only to entertain but also to set grounding for moral values and guidance’. Sibikwa storytellers are renowned for their ability to explore history, language and culture through the age old medium of storytelling. The fun ...
Event
Main / Art Walkabout
A walkabout of the African Guernica exhibition, led by an arts expert who can help explain the context and inspiration for the artists' work.
Event
Fringe / Musical Theatre
A vibrant musical dance show where you explore the beauty and originality of African rhythms and movements through mbhaqanga and jazz sounds fusing from the 1960’s (Kofifi), Pantsula , Street dance and diverse cultural movements embraced from the African Djembe ...
Event
Fringe / Theatre
This piece enlightens the issues facing our African continent (crime, xenophobia, poverty and HIV/AIDS) on a noble content of their existence as a threat to mankind. These stories are told through diverged scenes which feature African dance and songs.
Event
Main / Jazz
The music of Africa has a freshness and vitality that the world loves and responds to, and jazz musicians around the world are inspired by its rhythms and sounds.
Tonight we have three very experienced South African musicians performing with ...
Event
Fringe / Music Theatre
A story about a family consisting of five members. Before one of them was taken by a merciless disease, he was living peacefully with the family. The wife has to bear the pain of losing the loved one and the ...
Event
Fringe / Music
The Tabani Band present a form of Afro-Fusion music which is unique in its blend with opera, gospel and traditional African music. This harmonic blend sends out a message to people around the world to live in peace.
Other performances ...
Event
Fringe / Theatre
What’s my world like AFTERSCHOOL?? In my stomach, butterflies. In my pocket, stolen sweets. In my heart, whispered secrets. Hey my friend, you know aftershool is afterschool! I’m not afraid. You can’t break me. Youth opera created by and ...
Event
Main / Film
Presented with the kind assistance of the Japanese Embassy and the Japan Foundation.
Japanese cinema as in all Japanese art is intrinsically linked to seasonal changes and the world of natural order and water – the sea, the rain, ...
Event
Main / Music
The unit “AGA-SHIO” was formed by a shamisen player Hiromitsu Agatsuma and a pianist Satoru Shionoya aiming at fusing eastern and western instruments; Tsugaru Shamisen, a Japanese traditional musical instrument and piano. Agatsuma had been aspiring Shionoya’s work and eagerly ...
Event
Main / Film
Presented with the kind assistance of the French Institute in Johannesburg (IFAS), the French Embassy and Culturesfrance. The French writers Alain Robbe-Grillet and Marguerite Duras were the masters of the literary movement the Nouveau Roman, a literary style that was ...
Event
Fringe / Comedy
The play is based in a world where people buy ‘air talk’ (similar to air time). We meet a man who is about to propose marriage to his girlfriend, a choir that prepares to compete, a ...
Event
Main / Music
Springing forth from deep tradition and expanding into the infinite, AkashA seeks to explore beyond the boundaries of tradition and beyond the constraints of culture. This vibrant 7-piece World Fusion Music band plays music ...
Event
Fringe / Theatre
By not having a parent, does that make you an orphan? Prostitution, robbery, murdering, drugs, gambling, rape, housebreaking a way of ending you from being an orphan.
Event
Main / Think!Fest
Albie Sachs reflects on his fifteen years on the Constitutional Court and the manner - often unexpected - in which subjective life experiences enter into the objective decision making of a judge.
Event
Main / Think!Fest
This talk reflects on the contested memory of the shooting of protestors on 21 March 1960 during the Pan Africanist Congress' (PAC's)s Positive Action against the pass laws. The talk will investigate how the shootings have been remembered in the ...
Event
Main / Film
(USA/UK 2010) Director: Tim Burton Cast: Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Crispin Glover From Walt Disney Pictures comes this epic fantasy adventure, which is ...
Event
Fringe / Theatre
A repentant ex-prisoner (Kagiso) killed his mother under the influence of drugs. Two prisoners share the same cell - one framed for killing his family the other the perpetrator, who doesn't want to be released for fear of committing more ...
Event
Fringe / Music
The styles of music we bring across, are very diverse/versatile. From your deep poetic hip-hop, to that bumpy, club rocking songs, to something for the lovers and something the whole family can enjoy. Artist are very vibrant and creative on ...
Event
Fringe / Physical Theatre
Internationally acclaimed Ankoku Butoh choreographer, Frauke, collaborates with the First Physical Theatre Company in Ama-No-Gawa - An exploration of the dark river that flows through the cosmosology of the Butoh body. This darkness is the bed of the cosmos and ...
Event
Main / Street Theatre
Ozzie Riley Artistic Director support by Zamuxolo Mgoduka Amathole is a magical mixture of more than one could imagine in a single theatrical event. Aimed at family ...
Event
Main / Street Theatre
Direction by Ozzie Riley Artistic Director support by Zamuxolo Mgoduka Amathole is a magical mixture of more than one could imagine in a single theatrical event. ...
Event
Main / Street Theatre
A spectacle using fire, lights, flares and fireworks Theme created and directed by Pietro Chiarenza Artists Ettore Rugenenti with Nicola Cazzalini, Simone Bacchett, Alfio Campana, Alessia ...
Event
Fringe / Music Theatre
Three boys who are caught up by not making the right decisions. They then have to face the reality after making stupid mistakes. The play exposes the reality of what teenagers face every day.
Event
Main / Film
It comes as something of a surprise when looking at British film history to see how few female directors there were until recent times. In the early seventies Jane Arden stood almost alone as a female ...
Event
Main / Film
(Denmark 2009) Written & director: Lars von Trier Cast: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Willem Dafoe Courtesy of Video Vision Beginning in glistening beauty as ...
Event
Main / Think!Fest
Prof. Marcia Blumberg, York University, Toronto describes Experiments in Freedom as "a pleasure to read...The writing exudes clarity and the arguments are cogently rehearsed... [It] guides the reader on a journey that is concomitantly ...
Event
Main / Think!Fest
Sunnyside Sal is the story of an unusual friendship between two boys growing up in Pretoria. It's a jauntily narrated novella set in the tumultuous early 1990s, when a whole generation was discovering that ...
Event
Main / Jazz
This is simply voice and double bass; music divested of everything superfluous; back to the essence of jazz. And boy, do they swing! Dutch performers Paulien van Schaik (vocals) and Hein Van de Geyn (bass) are ...
Event
Fringe / Music Theatre
Indigenous Orchestra celebrates the history of marimbas in Cape Town. The orchestra is also an eccentric mix of indigenous to mainstream South African contemporary music and jazz accompanied by brass instruments, imbira, mouth harp, traditional instruments and traditional dancers and ...
Event
Main / Think!Fest
Ashley Westaway poses some
fundamental questions about the nature of the contemporary South African
nation-state. Do its inhabitants live in a new country, one that has no
history? Or is the post-1994 era rather than the latest ...
Event
Fringe / Music Theatre
This production refers to the presence of movement that focuses on our environments to the different attitudes and memories of our past. It utilises creative present time gestures, imagination and movements in a physical dance form with contemporary style. The ...
Event
Fringe / Music
Audrey’s music is a pleasing blend of R&B, soul, jazz and disco. Her performances are designed for an audience that appreciates great lyrical music – music for the heart and soul. She performs with a live band and has shared ...
Event
Main / Film
Presented with the kind assistance of the Japanese Embassy and the Japan Foundation. Japanese cinema as in all Japanese art is intrinsically linked to seasonal changes and the world of natural order ...
Event
Fringe / Theatre
Autobahn is a short-play cycle which takes place within the confines of the front seat of a car, each concluding with a squirm-inducing twist. Each vignette explores the ethos of perception and relationship, from a make-out session gone awry to ...
Event
Fringe / Music
Autopilot boast an upbeat fluid groove of alternative rock with hints of the Smashing Pumpkins' song writing combined with the driving drum beats of Bloc Party and the angelic sounds of Paramore; an extremely energetic live show!
All performances ...
