Well, well ,well, it seems the South African State Theatre is going to have a women’s festival of note.
Just glancing through the programme, there are quite a few highlights one would want to encourage people to take note of.
Ignore the fact that we’re not always sure of what or when something is happening there, this one holds promise. It has been named the Vavasati International Women’s Festival. “Vavasati” is Tsonga for “women”.
It will run for three weeks and will start on Women’s Day, August 9.
One of my best shows at this year’s Klein Karoo Arts Festival was a homage Karin Zoid put together for a spectacular woman of song, Dorothy Masuka.
It was tingling stuff because Zoid knew how to bring the performers together in the most authentic way possible.
The festival will be launched with this spectacular musical event with one change.
The Oudtshoorn concerts, led by rock mama Zoid, included Laurika Rauch and Zolani Mahola, who will be replaced by Pretoria favourite, Vusi Mahlasela.
He’s enough reason to join in the fun and with Masuka on stage for much of the time, it’s a once-in-a- lifetime celebration that should be spectacular.
Theatre has often played the role of Struggle activist in this country and this time around they will be honouring women in many different ways from Mother to Mother, Die Naaimasjien/The Sewing Machine, Baggage and Holly Bass.
Mother to Mother, (August 16 to 18, Tuesdays to Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 3pm in the Momentum Theatre), adapted for the stage by Sindiwe Magona and directed by Janice Honeyman, although fictional, is based on the real-life incident when the world was stunned by the news of the murder of young US Fulbright scholar Amy Biehl. Biehl was working in Gugulethu helping to get voters registered for the country’s historic first democratic election. The 26-year-old was stabbed to death during a mob attack the day before she was scheduled to return home to California.
Award-winning Thembi Mtshali-Jones brings to life this one-woman drama that recently had a run at The Markert.
Sandra Prinsloo has been performing Die Naaimasjien, but it is the first chance for audiences to catch the English version. Directed by Hennie van Greunen, presented both in English (The Sewing Machine, August 20 to 25 in the Arena) and Afrikaans (Die Naaimasjien), August 27 to September 1, also Arena), the play is about Magdaleen as she meticulously cleans and packs her trusty sewing machine, preparing to sell it after 55 years. She is pulled back into her past by photographs, half-remembered conversations and the singular memory locked in familiar objects.
We meet Tielman, her immovable husband and her four children, who occupy a special place in her heart and in her memory. Her journey focuses on the personal, on the family, while the dysfunctional political past of her beloved South Africa forms a harsh background to her own struggles and obstacles. Magdaleen is played by Prinsloo (see interview below).
In Baggage (August 29 to September 8 in the Momentum) a 22-year-old girl from the Eastern Cape, raised by an overprotective educated and single mother, is exposed to different beliefs and lifestyles her mother warned her against before she started her tertiary education. Baggage deals with that stage in a ritual when participants stand on a threshold between their previous identity and a new one. The cast includes Zanele Jonas, Olebogeng Moseme and Keamogetswe Moeketsane.
American writer, performer and director Holly Bass will present two works, Sweet Science and Domestic (from August 22 to 25 in the Momentum). In Sweet Science, the artist shares the tales of her true encounter with Soul Train producer Don Cornelius who committed suicide in 2012, as well as her brother’s ongoing travail with depression and mental illness.
Through poetry, dance and visual elements in Domestic, she draws connections between the life of her grandmother who worked as domestic and in the fields on one hand, to her own life as an artist on the other.
Bass is a journalist and performer and has received numerous grants from the DC Arts Commission.
She was the first person to coin the phrase “hip-hop theatre”, something she still espouses.
Featured this month in Jazz and African Music Nights are singer, songwriter, Idols judge and radio host Unathi, soul and jazz singer Lesedi Dipheko, one of the top five winners from Coca Cola Pop Stars talent competition and a member of a group called Adilah, Thembisile Ntaka, Maleh, born and raised in Lesotho, and Nomhle, a former member from Joyous Celebration.
Tshwane Comedy Nights will feature stand-up comedian Judy Jake, Shirley Kirchman, Nonkululeko Mthethwa, Lihle Lindzy and Monique Nortjie.
Judy Jakes’s One Woman Special is on August 10, while the rest will perform at an evening, titled Queens of SA Comedy, with Kirchman, Mthethwa, Lihle Lindzy and Nortjie on August 31.
Poet, actress, writer and facilitator Primrose Mrwebi will present poetry.
Mrwebi will be accompanied by Amahle Philingane and Lesego Nkonyange’s band.
Rock will be presented by Pretoria-based North of Winter who bring a unique sound, and Octainium, formed in Wales (UK) in 2006. They recorded a three-track demo and played some crazy shows.
Also part of the fare is a whole bunch of fringe drama productions, as well as outside music gigs that will be featured in more detail closer to the event.
The Vavasati International Women’s Festival will run at The State Theatre from August 9 right into September. It, says the theatre proudly, is its contribution to the celebration of women and their valued contribution to society.
• For more information on the festival, call Lindelwa Mahlabe at 012 392 4275, or e-mail lindelwa@ statetheatre.co.za
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