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FestForward Podcast: Bumper Special 2012
Want more of the 2012 National Arts Festival? Catch the bumper special podcast for some interviews with such greats as Mango Groove and Ernie Smith. FestForward: Keeping you ahead of the Fest! [audio:http://www.nationalartsfestival.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/FestForward12_BumperSpecial.mp3|titles=FestForward Podcast: Bumper Special 2012]
FestForward Podcast: 7 July 2012
It's the second last day of Festival, but things are still pumping. Tune in to today's podcast for Standard Bank Young Artist Award Winner for Theatre Princess Zinzi Mhlongo and the Fingo Festival. FestForward: Keeping you ahead of the Fest! [audio:http://www.nationalartsfestival.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/FestForward12_07-07.mp3|titles=FestForward Podcast: 7 July 2012]
Festival finds and failures
As the last day draws ever nearer, a measure of reflection is in order on the wins and woes of the past 10 days.Having just seen Lucy Kruger singing, I think there's very little she can't do. And do well. It was her last music show so you'll have to catch her elsewhere. (Also, the bassist and drummer were remarkably fabulous.) Her Mother Milk choreography was fantastic. Her performance in ...
Mies Julie makes a mark
Yael Farber’s Mies Julie is a South African reimagining of August Strindberg’s Miss Julie (written in the late 19th century). It confronts the same issues of class distinction, and Farber deepens this interrogation by introducing local current issues of land claims, and the continuing socioeconomic distance between poor and rich after 18 years of democracy.Julie is a young white girl, ...
Daily dredge in Wacht! and Discounted
Today began with Wacht! It’s a twenty minute production that is clean and to the point. Hiske Eriks (from the Netherlands) is hilarious in her small shifts of discomfort and caution. The audience loved it as did I.The endless rituals we perform day to day which trap us in “the grind” are brought to light, when the character decided to break some rules and free herself. The gradual ...
Follow the map to stars in Ster City
Ster City is great! If you can get tickets, get them.It humorously hones in on questions of language and identity. The two brilliant performers, Lindi Matshikiza and Nick Welch, blew me away with their multi-lingual, multimedia meander through South African history.They sing, they rap (to the excellent music of a "French old white man"), interchanging and remixing effortlessly between ...
Tactics goes beyond the acting comfort zone
Designed to push the actors out of their comfort zones, any one of the four, indicated by the audience, have to play any of the parts set out in the five stories they present.Throw in a variety of unusual props, which have to be used in the manner the objects are designed for, are similarly chosen by the audience, and the sequence of five set stories to be acted in Tactics out are drawn out ...
F.A.T falls flat
I always find it interesting to fairly randomly select an unknown and unpredictable show out of the Fringe, and see where it takes me. It took me to F.A.T. written by and starring Pieter Jacobs, and directed by Jacques Bessenger, both familiar faces in Afrikaans television.I mostly enjoyed the work although it’s not my usual taste or style. I feel that an arts festival requires me to ...
FestForward Podcast: 1 July 2012
In today's podcast, we have plenty of interviews, including such greats as Rob van Vuuren and the Standard Bank Young Artist Award Winner for Music, Kelebogile Boikanyo. Make sure that you take a listen for all your festival news and grooves. FestForward: Keeping you ahead of the Fest! ...
Simon sums it up: day two
Written by Simon Cooper: A mixed bag of shows and one no-show, questions of whether some Cue Fringe in a Flash reviewers actually see the shows they write about - a Curate's Egg day but the good definitely outweighed the bad.One 'PP' who shall remain nameless - I know who you are - reviewed "The Shadow of Brel" for Fringe in a Flash on the basis of "performers (plural) who all combine" to ...
