NAF gig guide Pt3: Fringe Fantastic
When we wrote our first NAF2021 gig guide a few weeks ago, we were still deciding which winter woolies would best match our fashion masks. Our sense-memory was picking up wafts of salty kartoffels from the Village Green. We reveled in the joyous thought of strolling down the alleyway on our way to sharing a safely-socially-distanced dop with long last seen pals at the Long Table.
And then: nope, not happening.
But the National Arts Festival team is not easily impeded. And like all stalwarts of the stage who think on their feet and can improv a song when the sound system fails… they hooked a short left and went fully virtual. That’s about when we wrote this Gig Guide part 2 and you should read it.
Now it’s time for this Fringe Gig Guide. With all the hardcore shit that’s going down all around us, it’s feeling pretty strange to say “hey guys, get hyped for some entertainment!” Buuut… to paraphrase the wise words of our Critter Steve, the arts alone aren’t the answer to our ailing, but goddammit they’re the soothing balm we need right now.
We’ll take a cue from the playbook of our artists this past year and vok voort anyway, as we loudly and proudly declare, “get amped, get involved, get clicking on those ticket buttons thank you very much!”
To The Fringe. To the outer limits of avant-garde and innovation and still-making-art-during-a-global-pandemic chutzpah. To the exciting and inspiring. To the mystical Anything Goes, y’all.
A little insight if you’re not the tech-savviest in the family: don’t be fooled by the word “full” when you’re downloading the programme… that’s mos mainly for the curated goods and the live stream stuff – the shows you need to ‘arrive at’ (in your lounge) to catch on time.
To find the rest of the Fringe, you must harness the spirit of Fringe: look far beyond the norm, dig deep into the crevices of creativity, blink open that third eye to enlightenment. Or, just click on the box on the homepage, labelled “The Fringe”, and zip-zap-zing you’ll open up that world of indie where sizzling artistic juices spill forth, infused with the spice of life!
Get in there!
Also, keep coming back for more. New content is loading all the time… this virtual NAF is developing on our screens and change is inevitable. Keeping us on our toes they are.
Up on their toes too, are our dancers and physical theatre performers giving us rich pickings on this year’s Fringe. Start your deep dive with these suggestions:
The artists are celebrating movement in Bina.Pina and we can celebrate the opportunity to see Smangaliso Ngwenya who is an exquisite mover, and we’re sure the full cast will deliver the goods too. Worldwide, the enforced restriction of movement during hard lockdowns in the past year and a bit, did a lot to shake up our conversations around freedom of movement in all its manifestations. Bina.Pina explores what moves us emotionally and we Critters are always keen for a bit of that.
We’re looking to Buya too, which uses dance as a means to impact and uplift people. Buya is a meditation on absence which may seem counterintuitive to upliftment yet we can’t have the light without the dark, you know.
One of the advantages of the vNAF is having access to international acts that may not travel to the live festival any time soon, or might never have. On the Fringe programme is the Brazilian multidisciplinary company, ParaladosanjoS with their work Pieces of Paradize. There’s Greek mythology, some yucky humans who ruin everything they go near, and an eternal journey to reckon with here, so yes, we’re interested.
Chained Freedom is the result of several Gqeberha artists’ collaboration and it looks like it might hit a few nails on the head for excellence. There’s an impressive team behind this one (read their credentials on the production page). We expect to be delivered a moving work as we join one man’s personal journey to break free from anxiety, poverty, patriarchy and grief.
Isibazi is a theatre-dance-film that looks intriguing from the brief trailer. It’s promising to deconstruct masculinity, the interconnectedness of spirituality and sexuality, and that damned heteronormativity thing. We hear the team of performers has previously been mentored by Gregory Maqoma, and we’re told that choreographer Sabelo Cele’s work is ‘provocative’. Bring it on.
Fringe-worthy for sure is Enact: Memory Archive, presented by Marcia Peschke and Sithembiso Khali. Suppressed emotions. Societal trauma. Codified GBV. These two accomplished practitioners are here to carefully guide us through the victim and perpetrator narratives that play out in South Africa.
Old Soul Waiting is written by Slindile Mthembu who was one of the directors of Lulu Mlangeni’s documentary-film last year (which we thought was great), and Mthembu also performs in Old Soul Waiting. Mention a ‘cyclical dream state’ and the uncertainty of truth and a good dose of the mysterious… and you’ll find this Critter nearby.
We’ve been exploring the Fringe already, of course. Of DE|COMPOSITION, Critter Dave says, “Rather than making any firm statements or claims to the times we find ourselves struggling to make sense of, it’s a piece that grapples with the peripheral and the immaterial, and subsequently presents itself as a work in process – a testing and teasing out of ideas and emotions.” (read review here) Yes please, more of that.
Moving on to the Theatre side of the Fringe, our Critter Mia witnessed Clout and introduces us to what it’s all about: “Zombie-esque, all-in-black with stilted suffocated movements, CLOUT aims to ‘strip human beings of every layer and barrier’. The intention is to excavate the ‘buried hurt, anger, guilt, shame’, the unprocessed feelings. Sudden guttered laughter is blurted and repeated like the bitterest realization. You know it is the laugh of trauma.” Brace yourselves.
6th Floor is an ‘audio journey’ into the experiences of domestic workers whose livelihood is made by homemaking, making homes for others whilst being away from their own homes. The young artists here, Rethabile Headbush and Kgothatso Makwala, both performed in Naledi award-winning works, Koleka Putuma’s acclaimed No Easter Sunday for Queers, and Eclipsed, a Market Theatre Laboratory student work directed by Sylvaine Strike. We’re expecting something different and stirring, and possibly, lifting the lid on the lived experiences of people who form one of the most exploited groups in South Africa.
The Witch’s Party is the creation of Rhodes Masters student Nokulunga Ncongwane. Well, the truth is this Critter is drawn to anything mentioning a witch or the occult in general. But this work is set to be more than hocus pocus. The artist turns to visuals and soundscapes where words cannot suffice. What is the curse and who are the cursed? Women’s secrets, shame, or the silencing of women’s voices and experiences? This work is surely a concoction we can’t pass up.
Ruth is a story of a young girl and her burden of dealing with loneliness and her difficult childhood. Itumeleng Moeketsi and Leaneatse Seekoe (who wrote and directed too) share this story, asking, can love be taught… or learned for that matter? How does a child learn love? How do we ‘know’ love? You may just need to keep the tissues nearby for this one.
Sophie Joans and Maggie Gericke are bringing us The Flower Hunters, which should creep deep into those crevices where lie the buried teenage memories most of us prefer to leave hidden. All those gilded dreams! All that naivety! Passion and expectations! Joans and Gericke will venture through the “strange ecosystem of modern life” and perhaps help us better deal with that dreaded F-word… Failure.
FED is set to be a hard-hitter. ‘Who really cares about GBV?’, the work is asking. Just another stat. Just another day in the life of 1 in 3. Just another hashtag. Mpume Ngwenya and Kwandi Mathonsi will bring to life the play by Mthokozisi Zulu, who also directs. Amidst one pandemic, they’re asking us not to forget the ever-present pandemic of femicide that has no known effective vaccine.
Amidst the maelstrom of this current state of affairs, it is absolutely necessary to find moments of respite. We look to our musicians to help us transcend it all, don’t we?
Humans Listen may just be that salve to the many heavy works on the programme this year. An embracing warmth is expected from this blend of music, poetry and visuals, which centers on our shared humanity and the human stories that bind us together.
A sprinkling of Cabaret never hurt anyone and Wela Kapela Productions from East London are presenting two. For our enjoyment, we have Mad About the Boys, starring Daniel Anderson and a 3-piece band giving us the very best of Cole Porter, Noel Coward and Ivor Novello. Why not. Then, Alison Hillstead performs in Damsel in Distress, a “thought-provoking cabaret” promising to lift the veil on stereotypes (check the title) and keep us entertained too. Why not indeed.
If you do yourself one favour this festival, let it be watching Can of Worms on the 25 July. They’re an Eastern Cape band and they’re funky and jazzy and fun and have a unique sound, and they’ll get you grooving in no time, and ja, just trust us, you won’t be disappointed.
And if anything is going to help us all chill out… this is it, the Conquerors Reggae Band. Maybe we need some Hackers Extraordinaire to hack into every household radio or mall sound system or whatever, and broadcast these guys nationwide. One Love.
Beyond all this, keep an eye out for the Standard Bank Ovation Awards, earned by those Fringe shows considered to be top-notch. The awards panel’s nod of approval is a helpful tool in narrowing down highlights for your viewing pleasure.
Or forget our list altogether and work your way through it A-Z. Why not? Never mind if you catch a hit or a miss… without the Fringe, it ain’t a Festival. And without these Arts, we ain’t got a beating heart to keep our minds and souls at ease.
In these times! At all times.
Image is from ‘Wet & Dry – Molhados & Secos’, presented by Brazilian company ParaladosanjoS (image supplied).