It’s almost time for Out the Box

Last edited: February 24, 2010

Posted by Business and Arts South Africa

Supported by Standard Bank and Business and Arts South Africa the Out the Box Festival of Puppetry & Visual Performance will run in Cape Town from 20 to 28 March. The festival once again promises to fire the imaginations of audiences of all ages.

The festival, directed by Janni Younge and artistic director Jaqueline Dommisse, is a visual feast of performances, workshops, talks, exhibitions and films that caters for adults and children alike.

This year the event takes place at the Baxter Theatre Centre, The UCT Hiddingh campus in Gardens and the Labia Cinema on Orange Street.

For adult audiences, artists present their wildest and most beautiful imaginings in works using puppetry, projection, objects, multi-media and live performers. At the forefront of contemporary theatre worldwide, Visual Performance is about collaboration and experimentation. It departs from the spoken word into a sensory, evocative experience that explores the boundaries between performance and visual art.

Included in the breathtaking line-up for the Adult Festival this year are international performance artists and contemporary dancers, Duda Paiva from the Netherlands with Angel and Edna Jaime from Mozambique with her provocative work, (Eu) peca de terra-II. From Israel we present Tranquila from the Avital Dvory Visual Theatre Company, a spectacular show featuring puppetry and circus arts.

Some of the local works featured are Acty Tang’s Inscrutable, the acclaimed Mothertongue Theatre’s Tseleng, the Baggage of Bags as well as several new works by new and emerging theatre makers. One of these is FTH:K’s groundbreaking Quack!, for which Unima’s talented Janni Younge has picked up a 2009 Fleur du Cap nomination for her work on the masks, along with two other nominations in the category Best Prop and Puppetry Design, making her the only triple Fleur du Cap nominee this year. Younge is also this year’s Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year.

This year The Out The Box festival has teamed up with Yvette Hardie of ASSITEJ, the international association of theatre for children and youth to create a Family Festival programme of puppetry and visual performance from around the globe featuring both overseas artists and pre-eminent southern African youth theatre practitioners like Ubom! from Grahamstown and Arley’s Workshop from Durban and the remarkable Seka from Zambia.

An extraordinary range of shows are on offer, some that will appeal to the sophisticated tastes of older children and teenagers like Lennie and the Wasteland as well as shows that will cast a spell of wonder over the very young. Take a journey through Africa with Tales from the Calabash, Indlovu People and Embo, or be inspired by stories from other parts of the world with productions like Oruk from Sweden, or Lost and Found from Canada.

Active Puppets Proactive training and development programme sees selected groups performing short pieces as part of the Active Showcase with works created especially for the festival. Iqonga, Unima’s platform for experimentation in Visual Performance, features short form works by emergent theatre makers and performance art professionals.

The Moving Things Film Festival, co-ordinated by Jacqueline van Meygaarden, will showcase an exciting selection of stop motion and puppetry films at the Labia Cinema on Orange Street. Highlights include Robyn Yannoukos’ 2008 Student Academy Award (Oscar) winning film, Alice’s Attic; a collection of shorts with a dark, organic aesthetic by the Mexican collective DiezyMedia; and the documentary, Making War Horse which is about bringing the Handspring Puppet Company’s puppets to life.

Aja Marneweck will be convening a conference entitled The Role of Women in the Development and Creation of Puppetry and Visual Theatre in Contemporary Performance. For those who want to get more deeply immersed in the experience, a range of exciting workshops will be presented by specialists in the many diverse forms of puppetry, including a workshop by South Africa’s national treasure, Handspring Puppet Company.

Out the Box offers engaging professional entertainment that will fire the imaginations of children and adults alike.

Tickets cost from R30 to R50 via Computicket with special offers for block bookings of ten or more. Schools’ packages are also available. For the full programme and more info please call 021 462 5811.