The sixth AFRO VIBES FESTIVAL includes drama, music-theatre, dance, solo shows and photography. From September 26 - October 01 in theatres in Amsterdam and The Hague. Straight out of South Africa the festival brings cutting edge performings artist, wanting to challenge, to excite, to confront and to entertain. Artistic director is one of South Africa"s most talked about dancer / choreographers, Gregory Maqoma, in March 2006 performing in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam with London Sinfonietta, Steve Reich and Akram Khan Dance Company. The festival"s name: SOWhEreTO Now?
What makes this sixth edition special?
For South African artists the past keeps gnawing. What happens in arts and culture in South Africa? More and more the artists take the role of questioners, sowing doubt and discord and confusion. Who continue to ask questions about identity, past and present and about who we are. Almost all festival"s artists are originating from Soweto and found their various ways into the world of theatre, in South Africa and elsewhere and they ask: SOWhEreTO Now?
The festival"s program, conceived by a South African team of artists for a Dutch audience, brings a range of shows recently premiered in South Africa or specially made for the festival. The Dutch performance Korreltjie Korreltjie Sand is part of the festival"s programme. The festival wants to challenge, to excite, to confront and to entertain.
Frascati Theatre in Amsterdam will again serve as the festival"s centre.
The festival"s programme:
Drama
Multi award-winning classic Woza Albert! written and created by the legendary Percy Mtwa comes to the festival. Acknowledged as one of the groundbreaking and most successful plays out of South Africa, it won more than 20 prestigious awards worldwide and was made into a documentary film by the BBC. Woza Albert! premiered as a new production at the South African State Theatre in May 2006 and has its European premiere at the Afrovibes festival.
What would happen when Jesus returns to earth and lands in South Africa by jumbo-jet? We see reactions from ordinary people and politicians to the rumours of His coming. Woza Albert! is sharp, funny and biting, looking at a wide range of characters in South Africa in 1980"s, seen through the eyes of two black man. As two serious clowns they take the audience on a roller-coaster ride of exhilarating humour and tragedy with mime, song and dance. Woza Albert is a singing, dancing blast of theatre. By using only few words the actors create a world of images. Some of these, such as the relation between black and white, 'baas" and boys might haunt viewers long after they leave the theatre. A lighthearted and funny play with a rich vein of humour, but at the end the actors dig deep into the history of a torn society. The points it makes about a society of rulers and ruled seen through the eyes of the little man are still relevant around the world today. To be seen in Amsterdam and The Hague. In Amsterdam questions and answers after show. Dance
Together with Adam McKinney (US) Gladys Agulhas created a new choreography for the Afrovibes festival, 'Encounters", with dancers from two SA dance companies: Agulhas Theatre Works and Vuyani Dance Theatre Company. Gladys Agulhas is seen as one of the best South African dance has to offer, demonstrating that women are making a major stand as choreographers and assertive creative dancers in South Africa. Encounters is an sparkling dance work that expresses the beauty of being different and the need to built a society that is really equal. Encounters explores the various emotional and physical life journeys of people with different physical abilities. Six dancers search for the unlimited possibilities of the human body and tell in various explorative duets and group journeys their own individual stories with their bodies. The body which speaks its own language, which we sometimes can control, sometimes are being controlled by it, which feels, smells, touches, listens. What makes this dance work special is two of the dancers are physically disabled and integrated in the company and choreoraphy. To be seen in Amsterdam and The Hague. Questions and answers after show.
One man show
Don't miss HOOT! - a one man show by Matthew Ribnick, HOOT was the top-selling show of the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown 2005 and 2006 and has received a great deal of critical acclaim. It toured extensively in South Africa. Hoot is a passionate theatre about the colourful journey of a rich white man who loses everything and ends up becoming a mini-bus taxi driver. The play is a cross-cultural comedy of epic proportions focusing on a white man in an unfamiliar non-white world. Snappy dialogue, split-second character changes, strong physical acting as well as a number of other skills help one man bring a cast of over twenty hilarious characters to life. The art of storytelling as you've never seen it before, showing South Africa"s various ethnic characters.....and without eschewing prejudices and stereotypes. HOOT received the Naledi Award for Best Comedy Performance. To be seen in Amsterdam and The Hague. Questions and answers after show. One woman show
BUM is an one-hour theatrical piece performed by one character, Napo Masheane, a woman with big bums and a typical African body. More than any other thing BUM is a play that celebrates African (women"s)buddies, remembering how beautiful, powerful and strong their bums are. And that any women"s bum has ideas, dreams and plans. Napo"s own BUM is impressive and cannot be missed, but she flutters on stage like a Samburu butterfly. BUM is a witty, quibbling show, playing with language, rap poetry, music and body art. With hilarious, inciting and poetic monologues. A quest into the world of fat women with big bums. Napo Masheane was nominated for the Daimler Chrysler Award for South African Poetry in 2005. To be seen in Amsterdam and The Hague. Questions and answers after show. Musical theatre
Theatre company Flint together with SA saxophonist Sean Bergin present Korreltjie Korreltjie Sand, musical theatre based on the briljant poetry of South African poet Ingrid Jonker, completed with works of Adam Small, André Brink and swinging traditionals and originals. A special combine gives wings to the show. Felix Strategier sings and plays with cellist Ernst Reijseger and South African saxophonist Sean Bergin. Together they make musical theatre out of Ingrid Jonker, a melancholy desire to the beauty of life. Ingrid Jonker who tried to live as if each day could be her last day. Korreltjie Korreltjie Sand has been performed earlier this year and has been programmed in combination with and as a contrast to BUM, which is based on urban rap poetry. To be seen in Amsterdam and The Hague. Music
A double bill of Fra Fra Sound and South African jazz singer Tutu Puoane. Fra Fra Sound is a Surinames-Caraibean band, mixing African, Caraibean, Latin American soul, blues and funk into its own typical Fra Fra groove. Tutu plays with her own quartet. To be heard in Amsterdam. Photography
Afrovibes presents 'Only half the Picture", an exhibition of photographs by Zanele Muholi, winner of the 2005 Tollman Award. Muholi came to national attention in South Africa in September 2004 with her exhibition Visual Sexuality at the Johannesburg Art Gallery. Her work is without precedent in South Africa, where there are very few instances of black women openly portraying female same-sex practices. She confronts the notion that lesbian practices are alien to African cultures, and offers a radical break from stereotypical narratives about black female sexualities. Her photographs offer a view from the inside on the challenges facing black lesbian people in the townships. The Sunday Independent recently named her 'the Annie Leibovitch of South Africa". To be seen in Amsterdam and The Hague. Visual arts
SBK Galerie 23 in association with Afrovibes organizes an exhibition of SA artist Thulani Shongwe. Artistic leader Gregory Maqoma is in The Netherlands from 22 - 27 augustus and will perform at the Uitmarkt in Amsterdam 27 August as a prelude to the Afrovibes Festival.
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