Festival of choices: The ABSA KKNK turns 16

Last edited: March 05, 2010

Posted by Business and Arts South Africa

“It is a privilege for Absa to be a part of the KKNK, which can be regarded as one of the success stories of the past sixteen years of democracy. We are extremely proud that South Africa’s most popular festival is celebrating its 16th birthday and that we are involved as title sponsor for the fifth year.” These are the words of Happy Ntshingila, Absa Executive Director: Group Marketing and Communication.

“The festival is an outstanding example of how mutual beneficial and continual business-arts partnerships can promote arts and culture, with a total economic impact in excess of R90 million. The festival has grown to one of the most important tourism events in South Africa, as well as one of the largest creators of employment opportunities in the Klein Karoo,” Ntshingila continues.

“The Absa KKNK celebrates its sixteenth birthday this year from 1 to 8 April, as a festival of choices,” says Kobus Burger, Programme Manager of the Absa KKNK. With 35 début productions, among many others, there is both quality and variety to choose from. This includes an attractive offering of “Oudtshoorn Oraloor” site-specific productions.”

“A stalwart drama under the stars, a poetic debut drama in and around a swimming pool, a lady roaming the streets under her story umbrella and, on a sports field, a company of dancers literally playing with fire and water,” adds Burger.

“This year’s menu of productions and exhibitions offers something of substance for every taste. And for those who need to treat their financial blues with laughter therapy, almost half of the theatre programme is a potpourri of comic theatre, farce and stand-up comedy.

“On the musical front, Afrikaans makes a French excursion, exploring its Cape roots with Kyle Shepherd and Jitsvinger, and the George Clooney of the classical guitar takes us on a trip around the world in sixty minutes.

“Both Nataniël and Steve Hofmeyr are back at this year’s Absa KKNK, but in completely new roles. Steve will be there, not to sing, but to release his novel, Vier briewe vir Jan Ellis, while Natantiël will revisit Tchaikovsky’s evergreen ballet music for Swan Lake.

“Now that the Absa KKNK has cast off its children’s shoes, there are several historic moments to look forward to at the sixteenth festival:
• For the first time, a novel by the renowned author Marita van der Vyver will be recreated as musical theatre. Vergenoeg débuts at the festival with Sandra Prinsloo, Milan Murray and Alexa Strachan in the cast.
• The celebrated playwright Yasmina Reza’s newest Broadway award-winner, God of Carnage, has been translated into Afrikaans direct from the French and travels from the world’s stages to Oudtshoorn with Anna-Mart van der Merwe in the cast. Hennie van Greunen is the director and adaptor of God van chaos.
• Emo Adams brings tribute, in his first solo production, Jou Triller Show, to the late, great Wacko Jacko.
• Nicola Hanekom of Altyd Jonker and Ararat fame pushes the festival’s boundary walls with Betésda, an innovative theatre work that plays out in and around a municipal swimming pool, with Nicole Holm, Bronwyn van Graan, Grant Swanby, Eben Genis and Neels van Jaarsveld in the cast.
• The girls of the popular drag duo Mince plant their high heels firmly in local soil for the first time with Mincing in die Klein Karoo.
• Paul Eilers (of Faan se trein renown) directs Pieter Fourie’s farce, Die proponentjie, in celebration of this celebrated playwright’s 70th birthday, which he marks on Saturday 3 April, during the festival.
• A brand new open-air amfitheatre, Jamstreet, becomes the home for Chris Barnard’s Taraboemdery with among others Neil Sandilands in the cast and Albert Maritz in the director’s chair – stalwart South African drama under the stars.
• Six decades after it was written, Arthur Miller’s Death of a salesman remains compelling and relevant and comes to the festival in a new translation by Andries Vrey with top actors like Ben Kruger, Bettie Kemp and Louis van Niekerk in the cast and with Bobby Heaney as director.
• The Jazzart Dance Company comes to the Absa KKNK for the very first time with a production that they will present in the open air in collaboration with landscape artist Strijdom van der Merwe. In Grond the artists literally play with fire and water.
• The bicentenary of the birth of the composer Chopin is commemorated in the programme Créme Chopin with Charl du Plessis, who also performs a Chopin piano concerto with the Free State Symphony Orchestra during the Swan Lake program.
• European singer Myra Maud visits South Africa for the first time to appear in Afri-Frans with Laurika Rauch. This is also the title of the recent top-selling album, of which a follow-up CD wil be released during the Absa KKNK.
• In contrast with previous years, when it comes to the visual arts, we have two festival artists rather than one. They are Nkahloleng Lukas Thobejane and Michaella Janse van Vuuren. Thobejane is a sculptor that works with wood in a traditional idiom, while van Vuuren uses advanced computer technology to create her fine-filigreed works. The Absa KKNK’s Curator, Johan Myburg, brings the work of these two artists into dialogue with one another in a compelling fashion.
• Gary Gordon’s highly acclaimed First Physical Theatre Company from Grahamstown has studied the behaviour and habits of ostriches for So loop 'n volstruis – a programme of dance by young, upcoming choreographers that will début at the Absa KKNK.
• And then Casper de Vries is the director of Bloemers & Roemers – a stand-up comedy toure de force in which three of the top comediennes in Afrikaans (Marion Holm, Dowwe Dolla and Karen Wessels) will tickle the funny bone.

According to Brett Pyper, CEO of the Absa KKNK, this year’s programme testifies to the substantial role that this festival continues to play in the national industry:

• The Absa KKNK remains a festival that supports new work and thus has a national footprint as productions that it has helped to produce are presented elsewhere.
• Many productions are undertaken in partnership with other festivals, theatres and companies as co-productions. This year this includes the inaugural initiative of the Feestrust, a network of producing and other festivals who are collaborating to establish a national touring circuit. There is also another international co-production, this time with The Glasshouse from Amsterdam, a company with South African roots doing groundbreaking work with Afrikaans spoken word artists.
• The “Oudtshoorn Oraloor” programme of site-specific performances and installations that harness the astounding Klein Karoo landscape as a stage and canvas, launched with such success at last year’s festival, and emerging out of our continued collaboration with the Oerol festival in The Netherlands, will be extended by South African artists this year.
• The Absa KKNK remains a festival that invests in the broadening of its programme and audience development. Among others, this includes klap!, our festival package for Grade 10 & 11 learners, our collaboration with Agri Klein Karoo, which has already brought thousands of farm workers to participate in the festival as audiences and practitioners, and our Klein Karoo Kontreikuns programme, which this year has documented the vernacular cultures of the region for presentation at this year’s festival.

But having said all this, we are re-affirming the Absa KKNK this year as a premier for contemporary music which can be enjoyed under first-class conditions in a redesigned festival district. In 2010, we are excited to announce the most significant reconfiguration of the festival site since the festival’s inception.

One of the unique aspects of the Absa KKNK is the way in which the whole of Oudtshoorn – even its busy central district – is transformed into a home for the arts for the annual festival. This year, we are laying the festival out in ‘neighbourhoods,’ each with a specific character that can better serve the various audiences for whom we cater.

Festinos will this year be able to buy an affordable day pass to access a large, consolidated festival ‘neighbourhood’ on the Western bank of the Grobbelaars River, where they will find the Absa Art and Craft Market, the Huisgenoot Musiekplaas, various rest areas, three additional outdoor stages and playgrounds. Visitors can look forward to a wide variety of Afrikaans music within this ‘Rivierbuurt’.

Baron van Rheede street retains its character as a pedestrian and restaurant zone and will be enlivened with street theatre and public art installations. This district will be known as the “Museumbuurt.” The “Venuebuurt”, spread throughout Oudtshoorn, houses our outstanding programme of productions.”

The complete festival programme will be available on the Absa KKNK website, or as a program pamphlet (booking pamphlet) at Computicket branches nationwide. Bookings for the public open on Tuesday, 9 February. Accommodation can already be booked through the accommodation office at 044 203 8600.

The festival guide – a special collector’s edition with background information about all the productions – will be available in the festival office throughout the last week of March. It will also be sold during the festival.

For media enquiries contact J.C. Aucamp on 044 203 8600 and for more information please click here to visit the KKNK website.