A unique multilingual and multimedia journey through South African history Thursday 19 – Sunday 22 September 2013 at the Market Theatre This burlesque show, addressed to an audience of all ages, tells nothing less than the WHOLE history of South Africa – from the first Homo sapiens to the post-Mandela presidency period! Written mainly during rehearsals, by confronting previous research works on the literary and geopolitical history of South Africa, with the strong personalities of the two Johannesburg-based polyglot artists (English / French / isiXhosa / isiZulu) who form a duo (think Laurel and Hardy), the archetype of the products of our mixed, if not mixing, modern French and South African societies. She, Lindiwe Matshikiza, a young black actress, a rising figure of South African cinema and theatre, was born of parents who were artists and journalists, who fought against apartheid and who went into exile in Zambia and England. He, Nick Welch, a young white actor who raps in Zulu, comes from a Scottish family that came to Johannesburg a hundred years ago. What we need to understand here is how the real story of these two actors, their romantic genealogy full of drama and hope, “dresses” the many fictitious characters they incarnate in Ster City: prehistoric women, rugby players, giraffes, political icons, gold diggers, army men, Dutch settlers’ daughters, traditional chiefs, nouveaux riches, former settlers, etc… Lindiwe and Nick are, in their own way, legitimate representations of the new underground and popular South African art scene. They give us their insolent, free and happy version of South African history under the ultra-contemporary influence of a country which, today, keeps playing with the landmarks and unclear boundaries between tradition and modernity. In exploring South African history, Lindiwe and Nick incarnate brothers, sisters, lovers, humans, animals, confessions and anti-historical truths, anecdotes, war treaties, race treaties, masters, slaves etc. In this unusual play, the director and actors revisit the aesthetics of chaos, hope, disaster and recovery peculiar to certain clown shows, and also make use of new technologies: portable video projectors, live webcams, close-ups on the actors and the public mixed with pictures from Internet archives, live sound and music, offbeat playbacks, manual subtitling(…). STER CITY Information Thursday 19 – Saturday 21 September at 20h15 Sunday 22 September at 15h15 Market Theatre, 56 Margaret Mcingana Street, Newtown Safe parking Bookings at Computicket on computicket.co.za or 011 492 2033 Audiences: from age 10 and up Stage Direction: Jean-Paul Delore Art Collaboration and texts: Isabelle Vellay Texts: Jean-Paul Delore, Lindiwe Matshikiza, Nicholas Welch Music: Dominique Lentin (percussions, objects, samplers) Lights, Scenography: Patrick Puechavy / Guillaume Junot Costumes, Make Up: Catherine Laval Video, Photos, Scenography: Sean Hart Projection, Scenography and General Production: Simon Junot With: Lindiwe Matshikiza, Nicholas Welch, Dominique Lentin Languages: English, French, Zulu, Afrikaans and Xhosa Duration: 60 minutes Ster City is presented at the Market Theatre by Company LZD – Lézard Dramatique and The Ster City Project with the support of the French Institute of South Africa. A LZD Lézard Dramatique / TNP – Villeurbanne Théâtre de Sartrouville et des Yvelines CDN / Studio-Théâtre de Vitry co-production, with an Arcadi restaging subsidy, and with the financial support of Le Tarmac – La Scène international francophone / l’IFAS. Company LZD – Lézard dramatique is supported by the DRAC Rhône-Alpes and the Région Rhône-Alpes. Show created at the Studio-Théâtre de Vitry on 16 December 2011. Restaging of the show in an English version in July 2012 at the National National Art Festival, Grahamstown. ifas.org.za | facebook/institutfrancaisculture
Posted on: Fri, 30 Aug 2013 11:16:32 +0000
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