The festival has become a homecoming of sorts for artists as they mark the passage of their careers and particular works. Gregory Maqoma (2002 Standard Bank Young Artist for Dance) revisits NAF this year with his extraordinary piece Exit/Exist; a work that explores his Xhosa ancestry. The Seattle Times describes the work, which has traveled internationally, as, “a collective trance that leads into greater historical understanding”. Maqoma recalls that the work, which taps into the “body archive” emerged from “days and nights of movement practice in traditional Xhosa dances, dancing in the mountains of Eastern Cape”. The work is performed to a lush score by Simphiwe Dana (who also hails from the Eastern Cape) with the ensemble Complete, whose performance credentials include touring with Hugh Masekela.
Another dancer/choreographer who brings a work motivated by her highly acclaimed 2007 solo work HATCHED, is Mamela Nyamza (2011 Standard Bank Young Artist for Dance) with the premiere of HATCHED ENSEMBLE. The piece conveys deeply personal and challenging issues of tradition and artists’ evolving contexts within creative industries. HATCHED ENSEMBLE is performed by ten dancers trained in ballet, an opera singer and an African traditional instrumentalist.
More powerful dance performances at NAF include a Jazzart triple bill to mark their 50th anniversary: Requiem (a South African Response), which will have its South African premiere at NAF, as well as Survive (winner of the 2022 Toyota Woordfees award for Best Dance Production) and In Body as One. The performances celebrate the company’s five decades of dance and their significant contribution to the arts, culture, heritage, youth engagement, job creation and audience development in South Africa.
Threads of the personal continue when Nadia Davids’ critically acclaimed new work, Hold Still, takes to the stage telling the story of a family shaped by different generational traumas who must confront their own histories to get through a single, life-changing night. The multi-themed play focuses on the complexities of an inter-racial, intra-cultural family living in the shadow of catastrophic political histories, and what we’ll do to protect those we love. Directed by Jay Pather, the cast includes Andrew Buckland (Standard Bank Young Artist for Theatre, 1986) and Mwenya Kabwe, who was awarded a 2023 Fleur du Cap for Best Performance by a Lead Actress in a Play. The work also garnered a Fleur du Cap for Best New South African Script.
Droomwerk, written and produced by the poet Pieter Odendaal in collaboration with Woordfees, was awarded the ATKV Woordveertjie for best new Afrikaans play (2021), despite never having been performed. The work will now make its stage debut at NAF. Based on Odendaal’s exploration of his heritage as a white Afrikaans-speaking male with slave ancestry, the work explores the ancestral roots of mental health to bring healing to family trees devastated by colonialism and apartheid. Directed and designed by Kanya Viljoen, with Lwanda Sindaphi as associate director.
The 2022 Standard Bank Young Artists will be presenting exhilarating works at this year’s Festival. Koleka Putuma (Poetry) was the winner of NAF partnership award the Distell National Playwright in 2019 and returns to NAF as a Standard Bank Young Artist just four years later. Lady Skollie will be making her NAF debut as the Visual Arts Standard Bank Young Artist winner and Theatre Duo (Billy Langa and Mahlatsi Mokgonyana) who are the 2022 Standard Bank Young Artists for Theatre have spent much time on the stages of Fringe and curated programme over the years. Linda Sikhakhane is the 2022 Standard Bank Young Artist for Jazz. Linda first came to the Youth Jazz Festival at age 14 with the Siyakhula Community Centre and attended five more times after that. Also, no stranger to the NAF, after having brought shows like Pop to the Festival, Thamsanqa Majela returns holding the title of Standard Bank Young Artist for Dance and Msaki will come full circle with her Standard Bank Young Artist for Music performance at the National Arts Festival where she first performed on the Fringe in 2014.
More will be released about these shows soon.
This year’s Distell National Playwright winner Sibongakonke Mama will present her debut script Ibuhlungu le Ndawo, a story about the notions of home, its meaning, and its creative analogy. The piece comments on collective memory and our societal wound. The work is directed by Mandla Mbothwe and stars Chuma Sopotela, Indalo Stofile, Nasfa Ncanywa and Siya Makuzeni.
Conceived by Swiss artist Simon Senn with Uruguayan developer Tammara Leites, dSimon introduces us to Artificial Intelligence (AI) with the personality of the artist (Simon Senn). The AI is created by integrating Simon’s personal data. But soon the AI begins to behave strangely, and Tammara and Simon relate their surprising encounter with this digital, now-autonomous, Frankenstein monster-like entity. Simon Senn’s performative conference Be Arielle will also be presented at the festival. The work demonstrates how the virtual and real world are not always in opposition, revealing the unexpected entanglements between technology, representation, gender, and law.
Swartwater, a theatre piece by Nama Khoi Productions, reimagines the loss that was experienced by the Nama indigenous people through colonization and the discovery of diamonds. A Nama family is forced to move from Swartwater, which opens new wounds of other losses.
Comedy is strong this year with established and emerging comedians forming a line-up that includes Mojak Lehoko, Stuart Taylor, Chester Missing, Khanyisa Bunu, Kate Pinchuck and Tseliso Masolane. Tsepiso Nzayo brings his first one-man show to NAF; Single and Sober is a story told in a mix of isiXhosa and English, that follows his journey through quitting alcohol. Three of Cape Town’s bright new lights on the stand-up comedy scene bring One of Each to NAF. Catch Thulasizwe Sithole, Callum Hitchcock (who debuted at NAF in 2022 with his one-man show, ‘We Can Come Back From This’ to positive reviews) and Zach Esau, a talented, young actor and comedian.
This year, Daniel Buckland and The Cirk present Castaways, an ensemble of physical theatre and circus work in which a ragtag collection of characters from different worlds are thrust together on a tiny raft and forced to reckon with themselves and each other in their desperate dance for survival. The Cirk’s production of Urban Circus delighted audiences at NAF 2022 with dazzling displays of acrobatics, storytelling and stage craft.
Also returning are two Standard Bank Gold Ovation Award winners: Emsini, a fierce strike at the cultural challenges in post-apartheid South Africa, and Île by Sophie Joans. Joans has also been invited to perform on the Arena Programme (a platform curated from Standard Bank Ovation winning works) to present Dog Rose, a theatre piece with her characteristic humour and self-reflection, about a tumultuous mother-daughter relationship.
NAF favourites MacBob Productions from KwaZulu-Natal, return to the Fringe with a clutch of works including A Vegan Killed My Marriage, Bulletproof and Go Big! They are joined on the Fringe by a raft of works from musical drama producers Wela Kepela, who will present The Story of Eva Cassidy, Amy Winehouse: The Diva and her Demons, NEXT!!, Mad About the Boys, Damsel in Distress, Julie Andrews – Uncut and Elton Adams.
Another well-known face at the Festival, Rob van Vuuren, brings the ‘healing vibes’ with his satirical kombucha-swigging character gone viral Namaste Bae and last year’s Fringe sensation Whistle blowers is back after traveling nationally and to the Netherlands. Fringe Festival veteran Justin Wilkinson of the Butler’s series will celebrate 25 years of coming to the NAF this year.
Younger audiences can expect to be enthralled by a range of productions aimed at families. Thabo the Space Dude from Ticket to the Moon Youth Theatre Company is an epic, action-packed play about central character Thabo’s adventures on his last days on Earth before the family’s move to Mars. Balloonacy by NCT combines the imaginative power of play with elements of mime, clowning and more, as a grumpy, lonely old man and a red balloon explore the power of friendship.
Says National Arts Festival Artistic Director, Rucera Seethal, “The South African arts scene is making sense of itself in a persistently complex environment, but we see the spaces for testing new work and ideas are shrinking. The role of the festival as a platform for new, different and unseen works has never been more important. The festival continues to play an important role in the launching of new work and careers, it is in these eleven days that the seeds are planted.” Seethal goes on to note that there is a strong personal narrative throughout this year’s works, “Artists are working with the stories closest to their hearts, perhaps looking for connection, security and hope, as an uneasy world evolves around us. There is escape too – into language, the body, communing in joy, exploring stillness, finding beauty and laughter.”
The National Arts Festival’s hometown of Makhanda has also begun to stir post-Covid, and the popular Village Green at Victoria Girls’ High School provides a market hub for visitors to the festival to explore local wares, buy souvenirs and enjoy the food trucks and bar while they gather with friends in the sunshine.
After the unexpected escalation of load-shedding during last year’s Festival, the NAF team has been working on practical solutions to limit the disruption caused by power outages. This year the National Arts Festival is ensuring that all our venues have a back -up power supply, which will ensure a full schedule of uninterrupted shows. In addition, a more robust flight schedule to Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) has been reintroduced but Festival goers are advised to start their travel planning soonest.
The complete 2023 National Arts Festival programme will be revealed and open for booking through the festival’s online portal www.nationalartsfestival.co.za on 1 May 2023.
