vNAF: The festival’s in the house – grab it

The Critter’s pointers through the plethora of performances at our fingertips from 25 June to 5 July.

Whatever it is, this virtual festival, it is happening. With quicksilver decision making and commitment, the National Arts Festival team are pulling it off: the first national arts festival you don’t have to travel to Grahamstown – correction, Makhanda – to watch.

It’s weird, not organising accommodation and a day on the road and someone to feed the cat and looking forward to cresting the bowl that encompasses the little city and descending into the electric energy and hugging all your friends. But weird times are upon us, and they hold a different set of beauties and discoveries.

One of these is that things of value exist outside the limitation of distance and matter, and remain continuous. Such as the willingness to create something and release it into the world, which is what artists across the world have continued to do, adapting their tools as they go. Hundreds of artists are able to do so over the coming 11 days because the collaborators at the National Arts Festival have the same approach. It is one that suffuses theatre, and what gives it its sense of magic, made up of inspiration, manic energy, panic, exhaustion, and elation.

Three months ago, just as Ramaphosa was closing theatres and gatherings – a week before the actual lockdown announcement – NAF decided this year was going to be virtual. And then they made it happen. We could almost see the building blocks as they were moved into place. The process of creating an online festival was invitingly inclusive.

CEO Monica Newton, just arrived in Makhanda in January after having taken over from the ebullient Tony Lankester, invited artists to participate in Zoom sessions, ask questions and make suggestions, and hosted information webinars with experienced theatremakers and digital artists.

Now it is here.

Question is, with scores of shows, films, creations, workshops and webinars on offer, how to choose what to watch?

We are not able to answer that, but will try assist a little.

Mostly we look at the artists involved. Many of them we’ve seen present work at festivals past, some of them we’ve never heard of before, some are from overseas. Almost everything involves new creative teams.

One of the things going virtual has done is to shift work off the lit stage and away from the scaffold seats with the dinky Standard Bank emblazoned cushions, and onto our backlit screens. Obviously. Less obvious is that the shift in medium of delivery has resulted in new collaborations and different sets of tools.

This has happened organically as artists have reached out across disciplines that rarely, and generally tentatively, worked together. The outstretched hand of the actor figuring out how to film and edit is grasped by the website designer who has been in the wings itching to exercise some creativity.

One presentation at vNAF is even premised on the idea of grouping artists with different skills together to create whatever their imagination conjures.

Virtual Blackouts: Experiments in the Future of Form, takes this bold step into virtual theatre and performance by bringing together five groups of writers, directors, actors, scenographers and digital artists from around the country to produce works. The list of collaborators is long, but take it from us they are among the most exciting artists in this country. Do not miss the once-off presentation of their creations on Wednesday 1 July

But let’s skip back to the beginning for things that have caught our eye, bearing in mind we’re only talking about the Main programme here. The curtain has yet to part on what the Fringe holds (yes, the speed of adaptation under unique circumstanes means virtual fest is down to the wire) so we’ll have to deal with that later.

Day 1 is simply ridiculous. Everything looks delicious, each promises a unique view on the world. There’s Nixon in Agony, a radio drama imagining a drunk and angry American President, Richard Nixon, in his office the night before his impeachment hearing. Nixon is played by the incredible Steven Berkhoff. You have to listen to this with your headphones on as it uses spatially recorded sound and stereo to create a 360 degree aural experience. Done well, it is mind expanding, and we’re pretty certain these guys do it well.

Talking 360 there’s Azibuye – The Occupation in which two homeless black artists take occupation of an abandoned mansion in Johannesburg. It features Masello Motana, Evan Abrahamse, and Selby Shiba, with director Dylan Valley.

In dance there’s the intriguingTlhago and META| m o r p h, in which musicians Brydon Bolton and Shane Cooper have participated. We’ll watch anything they’ve worked on.

Moving on, swiftly and skipping a host of intriguing selections you should not hesitate to check out, to Day 2, Friday 26 July, but not before we’ve also had a look at Who Do We Come To H(a)unt for a Europeans eye view of the toppling of statues.

Which might be a good way to move onto Mamela Nyamza, whose monumental work in dance deserves a statue, except it would be insulting to honour her with something that cannot move. She presents Pest Control which is partly billed as a protest against cronyism with the arts itself. Expect no metaphorical holds barred.

What Standard Bank Young Artist for jazz, Sisonke Xonti is up to will also be revealed on Friday. Again with the Shane Cooper, and Bokani Dyer on piano. Yeeesh! These cats are shit hot.

Come Saturday, dig in to some storytelling with isitimela Sendaba – The Story Train. Assitej SA is involved so bring the children. There’s also a couple of digital arts webinars and Human Study #1 from a distance looks fascinating. It involves three robots drawing a human model. Saturday night is reserved for sliding into Breathing Space, in which the marvelous Michelle Douglas acts in a film about Olive Schreiner. This year is the centenary of Schreiner’s death, so it will be fitting to raise a glass.

There is something darkly humorous about watching a horror film on a Sunday, and Lockdown Went Wrong provides the excuse. The poster looks deliciously cheesy but it was a finalist in the Britflicks Lockdown Film Fest so it may well put the fear of god into you. To alleviate that, there’s Buhle Ngaba in Swan Song, directed by Ilana Cilliers.

That’s quite a long weekend, we’ll leave it there for now and bring some Critter pics for the week after we’ve slurped from the hot mug of artistic expression ourselves.

Follow thecritter.co.za for reviews and tips and buy your day passes and tickets and make your own decisions about the programme on the National Arts Festival website.

Here’s to the artists, the technicians, and us.