Theresa Smith
GRAHAMSTOWN: The National Arts Festival got off to a great start yesterday in unseasonably warm weather amid a strong police presence.
Grahamstown was awash with sunshine as some children, with their painted faces and statue acts, staked out their spots in the sun.
The performances started on schedule as Mamela Nyamza and Nelisiwe Xaba subverted expectations at the Rhodes Box with their dance piece, The Last Attitude.
The two paired up for their first appearance on the main programme at the festival, since both were chosen as Standard Bank Young Artists for Dance in separate years.
They interrogated the politics of ballet; the relationship between the principal male dancer and ballerina.
On the theatrical side, Tara Notcutt follows the success of her political satire Three Little Pigs, with Three Blind Mice, this time journeying into the dark heart of South African justice. She does so by looking at the barely believable narratives which have dominated media lately, like the Oscar Pistorius and Shrien Dewani cases.
Suanne Braun returns to South African stages in I have Life: Alison’s Story, Maralin Vanrenen’s adaptation of Marianne Tham’s book about one woman’s journey of recovery after a horrific rape.
Christo Davids has adapted for Lee-Ann van Rooi the Dannelene Noach autobiographic novel Arabian Nightmare, about a Christian woman who worked as a nursing co-ordinator at a Riyadh hospital, ending up being abducted and incarcerated in a Saudi Arabian jail.
l The National Arts Festival runs until July 12. Visit www.nationalartsfestival.co.za for the full schedule and for coverage by the Cape Times and Independent Media teams in Grahamstown, go to www.tonight.co.za