Fantastical Flea Circus heads for Pmb

Kids of all ages, shapes and sizes, come to The Hex for some jolly surprises; for a merry morning of magic & mirth, with the Teeniest Tiniest Circus on Earth!

Roll up, roll up! The colourful children’s show, The Fantastical Flea Circus, heads for Pietermaritzburg for the first time, for a short season at UKZN’s Hexagon Theatre from 8 to 12 December 2015. 

First staged in 2011 at the Catalina Theatre, this popular production scooped all awards in the Children’s Category at that year’s Durban Theatre Awards. Since then the Small Top antics have been seen by thousands of delighted youngsters, playing at schools and venues throughout the province.

A jolly mix of song, dance, rhyming verse and clever tricks, The Fantastical Flea Circus is written and directed by Clinton Marius, creator of the much-loved radio soapie, Lollipop Lane, as well as the Standard Bank Ovation Award-winning comedy, B!*ch Stole My Doek.

The production stars the award-winning Shona Johnson as world renowned opera singer, Duchess De Nunu, and talented Durban actor, Verne Rowin Munsamy as her travelling companion and professor of Fleaology.

Shona Johnson teaches at the Helen O’ Grady Drama Academy in Durban, and runs her own company - AWEH! Theatre. She was previously seen in the smash hit, B!*ch Stole My Doek, and has also appeared in ten other stage productions, including Reality Bytes, Beyond the Big Bangs, and PopCom. The vivacious actress has previously been nominated for four Mercury Durban Theatre Awards. Verne Rowin Munsamy, who is Artistic Director of the Catalina Theatre, and also of ScruffySession Productions, has written and directed numerous shows, including Reality Bytes, and No Contest! He also appeared in the adult panto, Sinderfella, and the Bollywood musical, Consenting Silence.

Together, the duo present a merry band of fleas in an exciting line-up of circus acts, including a high-wire routine, a car race, a cannonball and bull’s-eye stunt, a high-dive act, a strong-o-mometer, and a disappearing hand trick.

“When writing this play, I wanted to create a piece for youngsters that would also entertain and amuse their parents and older siblings, so that the whole family could enjoy a theatre-outing together,” says Marius.

“Wonder-flea entertaining,” enthused The Daily News reviewer, Latoya Newman, while The Mercury’s Arts Editor, Billy Suter, found the show “BIG fun from tiny stars… flecked with fun rhyming verse and featuring some short songs … a charming way to fill an hour”. 

Daily performances of The Fantastical Flea Circus at The Hexagon are at 11am. Tickets are R80. Booking is through Computicket outlets at Shoprite Checkers. For phone bookings, call 0861 915 8000, or book online at www.computicket.com

THIS IS THE SEVENTIES

An evening of Seventies Music.

Hexagon Dive

4^th, 5^th 10^th, 11^th & 12^th December

7pm for 7.30pm (Doors open at 6.45pm)

Picnic evenings (bring food, but no drinks – there is a cash bar)

Tickets R80

Bookings: hexagon@ukzn.ac.za

And they’re back! Yes, it’s that time of the year again, when our Sultans of Song dust off their vocal chords(!) and bring us their annual tribute to music of the past. This year it’s the Seventies – the “Me” Decade – a period of great changes in the music scene, when icons were made, horizons were stretched and musicians broke out of their boxes and went where their dreams (and substances) took them!

The list of musicians whose music has been chosen for this show reads like a veritable who’s who of 20^th Century icons, and goes from the sublime to the ridiculous, depending on your taste. Names such as John Lennon, Elton John, Neil Diamond, Carole King, Paul Simon, Jim Croce, James Taylor, Gloria Gaynor and groups like The Rolling Stones, ABBA, Three Dog Night, Four Seasons and Creedence Clearwater Revival, conjure up images and memories of a seminal period of music. This was the soundtrack of a decade. Woodstock was over, but it opened the floodgates for a diversity of music which stretched the boundaries of Rock, Pop, Country and Folk, and brought us to (dare we say it?) Disco!

Bringing the songs to life again this year are the highly talented singers we have all come to love: Erin Fourie, Sandra Styles, Brandon Bosch and Daniel Rossouw.  The show is directed by Peter Mitchell with Sound Design by Marcus Henning.

If a groovy evening of nostalgic music (from a decade when music was music) is your bag, then come chill with us. It’s gonna be far out, if you dig…

Be there or be square!

Brenda Hunter School of Ballet Presents

KALEIDOSCOPE

Hexagon Theatre
Saturday 7^th November at 11.30 am and 5.30pm
Tickets are R60 and R40 (12 and under)

Ninety young dancers from the Brenda Hunter Ballet School will present Kaleidoscope of Ballet on Saturday 7 November. The production shows the different seasons and the development of ballet over the centuries, supported by artworks by local artist, Thomas Vermeulen.

 TERMITE!

Tall Tales for Big People

Hexagon Theatre

Fri 30^th and Sat 31^st October

6pm

Tickets R60/40

Bookings: hexagon@ukzn.ac.za

By Greig Coetzee

Performed by TQ Zondi and Mpilo Nzimande.

Directed by Peter Mitchell

Can there be anything more delightfully wacky than the combination of the high energy performance style of TQ Zondi and Mpilo Nzimande and Greig Coetzee’s brilliant penmanship?

The delicious and astute Termite! combines physical theatre, satire and a dash of lunacy as it blends traditional folk tales with modern South African life. This  fast-paced trilogy of stories tells tales of various animals as they take on Minicab Taxis, Colonel Sanders and try to explain why dogs sniff each other’s behinds! This is satire of the most hilarious and cutting variety.

Fresh from the Hilton Arts Festival, Zondi and Nzimande have made a name for themselves nationally as Ovation Award winners for Woza Albert!, as well as their moving performances in The Island. They are soon to be seen in the annual adult Panto in Durban, Aladdin Grey St.

22^nd and 23^rd October at 6pm

Free performances.

The Drama and Performance Studies programme of UKZN Pietermaritzburg is proud to present an evening of New Movement: a programme of Contemporary Dance and Physical Theatre performed in 3 different venues in the Hexagon Complex. The evening promises to provide an exciting and innovative presentation of physical movement and dance in the exploration of various issues and concepts. The programme is directed by Pumelela ‘Push’ Nqelenga with choreography by a selection of postgraduate students. The audience will move through various venues as they experience a New Movement. The 4 pieces that make up the programme are:

Xeno

Created by Pumelela ‘Push’ Nqelenga and Cast

Text by Louise Buchler

Xeno is a physical theatre production that is interested in the construction of otherness. ‘I was curious as to how we develop notions of otherness amongst each other. How do we in intimate spaces shift from familiar to strange?’ says Nqelenga, lecturer in Drama and Performances Studies at UKZN and specialist in physical theatre.

On a socio -political scale, Xenophobia affects all South Africans. Xenophobia is not just an attitude towards immigrants, it is (in most cases) an action of violence (Harris: 2002) towards difference.

She continues: ‘I wanted to deconstruct this word and its meaning in Xeno. Before we fear, we first identify what is foreign and in doing so we begin to associate ‘foreign’ with danger, hate and violence. How do we get there?  Why does fear surface when we experience difference?’

Xeno is located in the social, the personal and in dance language. Xeno is in strangeness and manifests in the spaces of uncertainty and difference.  There is an attempt in Xeno, to take different mediums; body, sound, text and language, placed them together in a space where they can disrupt each other and in doing still be...OK.

‘Xeno is an organic production. It is a research of us and how our bodies react to foreign experiences. Xeno is political and absolutely personal.’

Emb[RACE]

Choreographed by JC Zondi

‘On a whole day trip to the National Arts Festival in 2014, I experienced a different emotional side of my male friends. 6 males sang Beyoncé songs, reminisced about old times, danced and shared their feelings’, says choreographer JC Zondi. ‘On this trip I experienced the concerns that males shared, and the humour that is common to them. However I also saw the recklessness of males. How they succumb to peer pressure. It is all of this that inspired me to devise a work about the feminine side of the male.’

This work looks at the stereotypical generalisation of the emotionally constipated male. It looks at vulnerability, grace, humour, tenderness and insecurities of the male person. Should he embrace his feminine side? Exploring contrasting emotions, the piece ask questions such as: Should men hug each other? Stare at each other in the eyes past an amount of time? Admire each other’s looks? Talk while peeing? Who writes the rules, and why are they so easily accepted by men.

Silent Cries

Choreographed by: Brenda Cele

Human Trafficking is a worldwide crime which is not as highly recognized as other criminal activities such as prostitution, drug dealing, abuse and rape, but the trade can be seen  as an instigator of many of these. Human trafficking is a conglomerate of drug dealing, abuse, rape and prostitution. Corruption is at the centre of this trade which is thriving and progressing annually. Trafficking is a lucrative industry representing an estimated 32billion per year in international trade. Mexico, Brazil, India and Africa are some of the leading areas in this trade.

Silent Cries looks at the dynamics of this issue particularly focusing on how females are affected.  The aim of this piece is to make the audience aware of human trafficking and raises the questions: Who should be helping the victims of those who are human trafficked? Is it the family? Community or government? It hopes to create an urgency about this issue, and provoke the audience to act.

5^th Element

Choreographed by Brandon Bosch

“Existence is movement. Action is movement. Existence is defined by the rhythm of forces in natural balance. (...) It is our appreciation for dance that allows us to see clearly the rhythms of nature and to take natural rhythm to a plane of well-organised art and culture.” Rudolf Laban

We are all aware of the four natural elements that ‘govern’ life, but what happens when you combine these elements: earth, air, water and fire? 5^th Element is an experimental movement venture that explores the search for the individual self, through modern contemporary dance and fragmented movement. This work attempts to explore the idea of the feminine body verses the masculine, showing how society perceives the female form. But what if the roles are reversed? It is this idea that creates the Ether, the universe, a personal universe of an individual self, discovering and journeying through one’s own abilities while working with forces that can either break down or build up the individual being.

GET IN EARLY AND BOOK NOW FOR THE MOST HILARIOUS SHOW IN SOUTH AFRICAN THEATRE HISTORY!

Tim Plewman once again dons the Caveman`s skins and steps onto stage to add to the longest-running and most successful solo comedy in SA theatre history.

By Rob Becker and described as the perfect date comedy, "Caveman" is so much more than a laugh a minute show, it`s a philosophy rapped in a tour de force performance.

Wed 7^th to Sat 10^th October in The Hexagon Theatre

EARLYBIRD SPECIALS FOR THOSE BOOKING IN AUGUST ONLY!

Check Computicket for details:

http://online.computicket.com/web/event/defending_the_caveman/900925831/0/67114470

or phone them on 0861 915 8000

Touch

Hexagon Studio Theatre

Monday 14^th to Thursday 17^th  September, 2015 at 6pm

Tickets R40 (R25 concession)

Director: Ayanda Khala-Phiri

Think about it a second: our meetings with each other, and our ministry to each other, are not chance happenings. They are acts of grace that gives us a chance to share…

Phil Ware

Touch explores the human privilege of being able to influence each other’s lives, decisions and perceptions, in a talk show where the audience is invited to chat with characters on stage, in real time. We visit the church of petrol, grass and other miracles, debate whether sex’s relationship to education should be stormy or steamy, and then we meet a woman about to walk a path of no return. As the performers lead us through the lives of our characters, the show’s host, Stella Joy, urges the audience to discover what lies beyond what our eyes can see; what can only be revealed through touch…

This is a project for Drama and Performance Studies, UKZN.

Ayanda Khala-Phiri, lecturer in Drama and Performance Studies, is a theatre facilitator and practitioner, interested in theatre performance as a medium of democracy, development and active citizenship. Born in Pimville, Soweto, Khala-Phiri has directed numerous productions including Money For Shoes (Wits O-Week, Maitisong Festival, Gaborone, 2007), Talking Black (Steve Biko 30/30 Festival, 2007), My Father’s Hat (Grahamstown Arts Festival, 2009), Robin Malan’s The Boy Who walked into the world (Maitisong Festival, Gaborone, 2011). She collaborated in various theatre productions by Bogosing Media (2006-2009), which she co-founded and also served as theatre company director and manager at Themba Interactive (2012-2014).

Welcome to the greatest show on earth. ....Studio 1 presents....

Circus Games!!!!

A charismatic performance of Studio 1's finest dance acts by dance performers from ages 3 to adults.

Take a trip to the circus, followed by a variety of dance performances including Princess Sophia,  Frozen and The Hunger Games to name a few.

Don't miss this unique dance entertainment extravaganza!!

Tickets are R65 each. You don't want to miss this one!

Experimental Directions

Hexagon Studio Theatre

26^th to 29^th August 2015 at 6pm

Tickets R40 (R25 concession) at the door only.

The second season of new directors’ work comes to the Studio Theatre

to entertain, amuse, and provoke thought and discussion. While the first

season was of scripted works, this new season is of original works devised

and directed by postgraduates in Drama and Performance Studies. There

is an exciting range of short plays presenting new ideas from a very creative

group of directors. 

Programme:

Wednesday and Friday at 6pm

love hate

1x3=1

Hysteria

Breaking the Wall

Thursday and Saturday at 6pm

Riddle

Wonderful

Politricks

1X3=1

1X3=1 is a play set in the Contemporary South Africa. Growing up without parents is a challenge to anyone, and many handle it differently. This show the story of a maid, Luthando Myeni, who is unconsciously suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). The brave Luthando shares her terrifying experience of a childhood trauma. Through another traumatic event, we begin to experience more of Luthando’s identities. Will she be willing to help the police track down a murderer? Or let the person get away with it? Inspired by Antonin Artaud’s theatre of cruelty director Lungile Mncube creates an interesting tale of trauma and death.

Wonderful

This tragic love story of two characters, Wonderful and Rose, musicians who are madly in love and who make their living through singing for small gigs and weddings. They finally have a chance of a big gig which will change their lives forever. As they rehearse for it, they dream about how their lives will be changed. But fate has other ideas for them…

Devised and directed by Mxolisi Gwala

Breaking the Wall

This hilarious comedy tells the story of two cell mates as they dare to escape their fate in prison. A plan, 10 years in the making, is set in motion as they attempt to take back their freedom in this wild and wacky postmodern physical comedy. Elements of slapstick and standup are woven into a piece inspired by comedy teams such as Laurel and Hardy, the Three Stooges, Monty Python, the Goons and the Bucklands. And probably what goes on in Trevor Noah’s head…

Devised and directed by Nic Hughes

love hate

This is a piece about a relationship between a couple struggling with the everyday problems faced by married people who have a newborn. The play looks at issues such as gender roles within partnerships.  The device of role reversal in this piece brings out the comic elements, allowing us all to laugh at ourselves and our relationship peculiarities.

Devised and directed by Nokwazi Mkhatshwa.

Politricks

Politricks is a high-energy satirical show that confronts three of South Africa's biggest Politicians. The three Politicians find themselves at heaven’s gates where they come face-to-face with their "ungodly ways" on earth. Using caricature and political sloganism, the piece is grotesquely comical whilst still dealing with relevant South African political situations.

Devised and directed by Nompilo Jili

RIDDLE

This piece explores the seemingly normal man seen through the internal struggle of extreme emotion. Speaking with the body and riding on anticipation, Riddle hopes he can overcome his biggest enemy yet: himself.
Devised and directed by Shivani Hariparsad

Hysteria

Hysteria is a multimedia, physical theatre performance that looks at moments of madness through the eyes of Maria, a woman destroyed by a series of tragedies. Set in 1946, a year after World War II, Maria, confined to her room in a mental asylum, tries to deal with a disappearance and death closely related to her. Hysteria shows the journey of a woman in pain seeking psychological relief, told through movement and flashbacks.

Devised and directed by Brandon Bosch

ANT & NIBS

At the Hexagon DIVE Pietermaritzburg

Friday 21^st and Saturday 22^nd August,

7.00 for 7.30pm (bring picnic baskets and own food, but no drinks. Cash bar available.)

Tickets: 100 pp

Bookings: hexagon@ukzn.ac.za

ANT & NIBS of Landscape Prayers join forces after 12 years.

Nibs van der Spuy (Guitars) & Ant Cawthorne-Blazeby (Violin) of Landscape Prayers fame will be returning to Pietermaritzburg to give two intimate concerts at the Hex Dive on Fri 21 and Sat 22 August. This will be the first time in 12 years since they last performed in Pmb and proves to be an incredible reunion of these Kzn musical icons who stole the hearts and imagination of South Africans with their incredible music prowess and  compositional synergy.  The band went separate ways 12 years ago and since then Ant & Nibs only met on one occasion. It took another 5 years before they decided it would be a good idea to play some old songs again. This resulted in some very successful North Coast shows in April of this year. The chemistry and the synergy were stronger than ever before that an August 2015 tour is being planned as well the recording of their debut album. Nibs emotionally said, "when a musical friendship runs deeper and bigger than the wood and steel, we believe we still have something to say which was unfinished 12 years ago." The recording to be titled, ANT & NIBS will feature the more sensitive duo compositions from Landscape Prayers as well as Ant's virtuosic reels and Nibs' Afro/Classical/World music compositions.

ANT & NIBS

Ant & Nibs first started working together in early 1995, with acclaimed acoustic instrumental band Landscape Prayers, originally formed by Nibs in 1993. Both accomplished musicians from different musical backgrounds, they had seen each other perform in different circumstances and both had been interested in possibly working together.

1995 saw the beginning of a magical musical partnership that was to last for nearly a decade of intense continuous work. Together with Logan Byrne on bass and Bruce Baker on drums, their journey together encompassed thousands of kilometres of travel and touring, 4 critically acclaimed albums, 3 of which were SAMA nominees, 2 trips to Europe, many festival appearances, and a collaboration with Modena City Ramblers from Italy, in addition to other artistic collaborations.

After Landscape Prayers parted ways, both artists had successful careers in their own right, with Ant heading in more of a Celtic direction with neo-Celtic outfit Celtis, and various other collaborative projects along the way. He has worked and shared stages  with artists such as Robin Auld, Steve Fataar, Brian Finch, Greg Georgiades, and Madala Kunene, to mention a few, as well as doing session work on many other recording projects.

Nibs has travelled all over the globe since then, releasing a number of internationally acclaimed solo albums, among them ‘Beautiful Feet’, ‘A Bird in the Hand’, ‘Flower in the Rain’, as well as a double album, ‘Catching Trains, Crossing Borders’. In addition, he has released 2 collaborative albums, one with Gito Baloi, ‘Sweetthorn’, and ‘In the Shade of the Wild Fig’, with longtime friend, Guy Buttery. Nibs continues to travel around the world as a successful solo artist, and has appeared with the likes of Ben Harper, Bonnie Rait, Taj Mahal, Gito Baloi, Piers Faccini, and Shawn Phillips.

Return to Oz

Hexagon Theatre

14th August at 6.30pm
15th August at 10.30am and 4.30pm

Book through Computicket.

DELIGHTFUL CHINA DOLLS

These lovely local ballet dancers form part of the cast of Return to Oz, incorporating Alice in Wonderful, produced by the Heather Proctor School of Dance in Howick, to be staged at the Hexagon Theatre in Pietermaritzburg on 14 and 15 August (6.30pm on the 14^th, 10.30am and 4.30pm on the 15^th).

The show is one not to be missed, and suitable for all ages, with a cast of cupcakes, sugarsticks and all sorts of sweet delights! Pictured are (from left) Neave Cox, Emma Barnes, Sienna Guerrera, Megan Tyrer and Erin Coverdale.

ACOUSTIQ ASSASSINS

Hexagon Theatre Dive

Tickets R50

To book call 079 679 4837

Tables seat 10 and there is a cash bar.

Acoustiq Assassins brings you a soulful twist with love melodies. Their sound can’t be put in one box as the music has elements of R & B , Soft Rock and Afro Soul. They aim to touch a soul through their music and their songs have a deep-rooted message which aims to educate people. Acoustiq Assassins is a local band made up of 4  talented members Noma Khumalo, Gugu Mdladla, Junior Mazibuko and Siphesihle Bhengu. They believe in creativity, originality and influencing people in a positive way. Their music create images in one’s mind and they are inspired by everyday life and the people of Pietermaritzburg.

NAF GOLD OVATION AWARD WINNER AT THE HEX FOR ONE PERFORMANCE ONLY!

Craig Morris in Greig Coetzee’s

Johnny Boskak is Feeling Funny

Hexagon Theatre

Friday 31^st July at 7.30pm

Tickets R100 (R90 concession)

Bookings: hexagon@ukzn.ac.za

Winning the top accolade at the recent National Arts Festival Fringe is no easy feat amongst over 200 shows. But Craig Morris achieved the almost impossible by winning a Gold Standard Bank Ovation Award with Greig Coetzee’s Johnny Boskak is Feeling Funny. Morris will be in Pietermaritzburg for one day only at the end of July, and local theatre-goers will have the opportunity to see this remarkable show. Coetzee studied in Pietermaritzburg and taught for many years at GHS, before becoming a professional writer and actor.

Where does Johnny Boskak fit in the new South Africa? Is he a white trash dinosaur? Or is he the last cowboy hero in boots and blue jeans? What we know is that he’s on the road, looking for love, redemption, an AK47 and the quickest way out of Secunda…

Craig Morris stars in Greig Coetzee’s award-winning spin-off to White Men with Weapons!

After the magical collaboration that birthed Blood Orange, Craig Morris celebrates the creative genius that is Greig’s writing. Johnny Boskak is superb writing, blended with Craig Morris’ inimitable physical performance style. Under Roslyn Wood-Morris’s empathetic theatrical eye this is theatre at its’ best! Not to be missed!

Written by Greig Coetzee.
Co-Directed by Roslyn Wood-Morris & Craig Morris.

Craig Morris
Craig Morris is a versatile performing artist and educator who includes Physical Theatre, Mime, Contemporary Dance and Clowning in his repertoire of theatre and film performance, directing, teaching and choreographic skills. Craig is continuously involved in numerous educational, commercial and corporate productions as a physical performer, movement training specialist, Classical and Contemporary Mime artist, script writer and Director. Craig continues to premier new, original theatre work, which educates and provokes critical thinking and innovation.

Greig Coetzee
Greig Coetzee has worked as a writer, director and performer and has written for theatre, radio and television. He is best known for White Men with Weapons, but has written a number of other plays. His work has received over twenty South African Theatre Awards. He has received two Scotsman Fringe First Awards as well as The Stage Award for Best Actor, all on the Edinburgh Fringe. His BBC Radio Drama, ‘Banana Republic’, received a Radio Academy Award (2005). Highlights include seasons at the Lincoln Centre, New York; London’s Soho Theatre, The Traverse in Edinburgh and The English Theatre in Berlin.

Roslyn Wood-Morris
Roslyn is passionate about education in the arts. Her strength lies in her ability to collaborate and she strongly believes in the voice of the performer as creator. In 2008 Roslyn won the Gauteng MEC award for Best Choreography for Bar Flies. Ros spent 18 years educating young adults in theatre at St Mary’s School and currently holds a post at Sacred Heart College as Head of Drama. Ros loves directing Craig in new productions. It’s a wonderful way to get her husband to listen to her when she tells him what to do!

match girl

Hexagon Studio Theatre

Thurs 30^th and Fri 31^st July at 6pm

Tickets R40 (R25 concession)

Bookings hexagon@ukzn.ac.za

Enquiries 033 260 5537

Fresh from representing UKZN at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, comes this moving and highly theatrical piece.

Match Girl is a modern South African adaptation of the Hans Christian Anderson tale of The Little Match Girl. The story is beautifully told through a fusion of performance art, mask work, shadow play, puppetry and physical theatre. The show highlights how we, as a society, have become inured to suffering and poverty, or simply don’t want to acknowledge it. The story of the girl’s journey from rural to urban landscapes is captured through the use of various creative techniques which delight and surprise. The production retains the innocence and sentiment of the original story through the use of highly visual theatrical imagery combining modern technology with artistic simplicity.

Match Girl  is directed by Jessica Killerby, who was responsible for the beautiful environmental piece Her Cradle, which wowed audiences at the Hexagon and Hilton Festival last year. 

THE SOUND OF HIS MUSIC - RICHARD RODGERS

with

ANTHONY STONIER

HEXAGON DIVE

FRI 24^TH & SAT 25^TH JULY  - 7.00 FOR 7.30PM (Doors open at 6.45pm)

Tickets R100pp (Tables seat 10)

Picnic evenings (bring food, but no drinks – there is a cash bar)

Bookings: hexagon@ukzn.ac.za  (Enquiries: 033 260 5537)

The Dive at the Hexagon is a perfect warm and intimate venue for this delightful show featuring one of KZN’s top artists. Anthony Stonier takes a “down memory-lane”  meander through  the marvellous melodies of one of the most famous composers of all time - Richard Rodgers.  Most of us are familiar with the Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals - Oklahoma! South Pacific, The King and I and of course The Sound of Music. Less well known was an earlier collaboration with another lyricist, Lorenz Hart. You will, however, recognise  some of the following Jazz Standards - songs such as Where or When, This Can’t be Love and Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered to name a few they wrote together.

The playlist includes Oh, What a Beautiful Morning!, Some Enchanted Evening, Surrey with a Fringe on Top, Hello Young Lovers, Edelweiss and You'll Never Walk Alone amongst many other well-known and nostalgia inducing songs!

Anthony Stonier is one of KZN's most popular singer/actors and has won Best Male Vocalist at the Durban Theatre Awards three times. This show sold out at The Witness Hilton Arts Festival in September 2014.

PreFest Preview

Thursday 25th June at 6pm: Match Girl
Friday 26th at 6pm: Match Girl
7.15pm: Woza Albert!
8.30pm: Acoustic Assassins

Tickets are R40 (R25 concession) for each show.

A special price of R100 (R60 concession) is offered for all 3. 
To book email hexagon@ukzn.ac.za 

The production selected to represent UKZN Pmb at the annual Student Drama festival at the National Arts Festival is a delightfully creative and innovative piece of theatre called Match Girl. Other shows on their way to Grahamstown are the acclaimed productions of Woza Albert! and The Island.

Pietermaritzburg audiences will be able to see previews of Match Girl and Woza Albert! at special performances at the Hexagon Theatre on the 25th and 26th June.

A musical duo called Acoustic Assassins, which is also Grahamstown bound, will entertain in The Dive after the shows on the Friday.

MATCH GIRL
Match Girl is a modern South African adaptation of the Hans Christian Anderson tale of The Little Match Girl. The story is delightfully told through a fusion of performance art, mask work, shadow play, puppetry and physical theatre. The show highlights how we, as a society, have become inured to suffering and poverty, or simply don’t want to acknowledge it. The production retains the innocence and sentiment of the original story through the use of highly visual theatrical imagery combining modern technology with artistic simplicity.

It is directed by MA student Jessica Killerby, who was responsible for the beautiful environmental piece Her Cradle, which wowed audiences at the Hexagon and Hilton Festival last year. The cast includes Nompilo Jili, Monique Schoeman, Bongeka Ngubane, Musa Shozi and Sabelo Cele.


WOZA ALBERT!
Woza Albert! is one of the plays for which South African theatre is best known internationally. Its style of storytelling has inspired and influenced theatre companies around the world, and it remains one of the most vibrant examples of satirical anti-apartheid South African Theatre. It demonstrates innovation and creativity during a seminal period of theatre in this country.

This classic of South African theatre asks what would happen if Christ (Morena) came back to 1980’s apartheid South Africa. The show is primarily a satire that highlights the absurdities of apartheid and displays the talents of two dextrous actors, in this case TQ Zondi and Mpilo Nzimande, who play a range of ordinary characters on the street. Directed by Peter Mitchell, the production is a high energy explosion of creativity and humour with a dark edge as Morena's life is relived in an apartheid context.

Bringing Woza Albert! to the stage honours the creative genius of Barney Simon as we celebrate 21 years of democracy, reminding us of the tragic lunacy that was apartheid, as well as the continued search for compassionate, intelligent and humane leadership. This production looks back from a new perspective at what changed the face of Poor Theatre worldwide.


‘A thoroughly entertaining and masterfully performed celebration of theatre.’ The Witness

Release

Wed 3^rd – Fri 5^th  June 2015

Time: 6pm

Venue: Hexagon Studio Theatre

Duration: 50mins

Tickets: R30 (R20 concession) available at the door.

“The clown has great importance as part of the search for what is laughable and ridiculous in man. We should put the emphasis on the rediscovery of our own individual clown, the one that has grown-up within us and which society does not allow us to express.”

― Jacques Lecoq

The 2015 Honours Acting programme in Drama and Performance Studies UKZN aims to use Jacques Lecoq’s clowning methods as an entry point to acting and performance. This year they present Release, a devised play that takes us in a liminal space between life and death; between the said and unsaid and between the now and then of many South Africans. The play is located in a secret government department called Underground Affairs where the grey areas of our South African past and present collide. It is directed by Pumelela Nqelenga.

Drama and Performance Studies, UKZN, has pleasure in presenting

DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS

A festival of short plays and extracts from plays directed by exciting new directors who are postgraduates at the institution.

20^th – 23^rd May 2015 starting at 6pm

Hexagon Studio Theatre

Tickets R40/R25 per evening - available at the door only.

Programme:

Wed 6pm: A Little Box of Oblivion, And The Girls in Their Sunday Dresses, The House of Cards

Thur 6pm: Nongogo, The Suit, Alarms.

Fri 6pm: A Little Box of Oblivion, Asinamali!, And The Girls in Their Sunday Dresses, The House of Cards

Sat 6pm: Nongogo, The Suit, Alarms, Asinamali!

The shows are each between 15 and 30 min long

The Plays

And The Girls in Their Sunday Dresses  by  Zakes Mda. 

A retired prostitute and a fiery domestic worker develop an unlikely friendship as they wait in a queue to buy cheap rice. They share stories and heartbreaks, resolving to stop waiting and seize life.

Directed by Nokwazi Mkhatshwa

Asinamali! by Mbongeni Ngema.

Five prisoners in a South African jail in the 1980’s recount the circumstances that led to their imprisonment through dialogue, song and dance. The cast includes some impressive professional actors: the talented Menzi Mkhwane, Mpilo Nzimande and TQ Zondi, all known for their shows that are touring the province at the moment.

Directed by Nompilo Jili.

NONGOGO by Athol Fugard

Set in the 1950’s, when apartheid was being brutally formalized, Nongogo tells the tale of displaced township individuals, whose futile longing to belong and be loved provides the impetus for the drama.  Each character represents a different dysfunction, from psychological to physical, as they interact in Queenie’s Shebeen.

Directed by Lungi Mncube.

The House Of Cards by Charles Mee

The House of Cards is a reflection on the presence of beauty as well as the terrifying atrocities of our world. A young man, scared by the effects of war, describes his experiences through detailed imageries of blossoms, boat rides and torture. The cruelty of war has left him drifting through ‘No Man’s Land’ as he struggles to keep his sanity.

Directed by Brandon Bosch

A Little Box of Oblivion by Stephen Bean

A lovely spring day is interrupted by a woman who leaves a box beside Cool, asking her not to knock, tilt, shake or open it and rushes off. Cool just wants to read her paper when people start to arrive and speculate about the possible evil contents of the box. What could possibly go wrong when the woman comes back?

Directed by Shivani Hariparsad

The Suit by Can Themba, Mothobi Mutloatse, and Barney Simon

This is a parable about forgiveness set in apartheid South Africa. It follows a husband who demands an unusual punishment to his wife: that she treat her lover’s abandoned suit as a guest of honour in their home.

Directed by Mxolisi Gwala

Alarms by Michael Frayn

Alarms is a high energy farce and depicts how a simple evenings drinks with friends quickly dissolves into utter chaos without any provocation. Four friends simply try to enjoy a bottle of wine together when things go horrendously wrong as gadgets and technologies begin to unravel the evening.

Directed by Nicolas Hughes

ANTIGONE

Based on the play by Jean Anouilh.

Friday 8^th, Sat 9^th, Mon 11^th, Tue 12^th,  Wed 13^th May at 6.30pm

Tickets R70/R50

SPECIAL DOUBLE BILL OF ANTIGONE AND THE ISLAND ON WED 13^TH MAY AT 6.30PM

(Tickets R100/R80 for the Double Bill)

Bookings: hexagon@ukzn.ac.za

When her dead brother is declared a traitor and his body left unburied outside the city walls, Antigone is faced with a dilemma – obey the edict decreed by her Uncle Creon and the State or bury her brother, to ensure his safe passage to the underworld, and face the punishment of death. Her personal allegiance wins out and her brazen act sets in motion the wheels of destruction.

Based on Anouilh’s adaptation of the original text by Sophocles, and directed by Louise Buchler, the play explores themes of familial love versus duty to the state and presents audiences with a prime example of how antiquity and modernity meet – most pertinently in the character of Antigone, who remains a symbol of feminine revolt.

Produced by The Hexagon Theatre, the title role of Antigone is played by Sade Wagner, alongside Nicolas Hughes as Creon. They are supported by a talented cast of local performers: Francis Mennigke, Tanya Nicolson, Erin Fourie, Shivani Hariparsad and Edward Pepperell.

The Island

By Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona

Wed 13^th May at 8.15pm (Double Bill with Antigone)

Friday 15^th May at 6.30pm (Single performance)

Tickets R70/R50

 Bookings: hexagon@ukzn.ac.za

John and Winston are two prisoners on Robben Island, bound by ideology, proximity, shackles and a deep affection. As they rehearse Antigone for the prison concert, John learns that his release is imminent; Winston is a lifer. This classic South African play by Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona balances hope and despair as it exposes the depths of cruelty and inhumanity while affirming the dignity and courage of the human spirit.

Under the direction of Peter Mitchell, TQ Zondi and Mpilo Nzimande deliver riveting performances of this South African classic.

Woza Albert!

By Barney Simon, Mbongeni Ngema and Percy Mtwa

Thurs 14^th May at 6.30pm

Tickets R70/R50.

Bookings: hexagon@ukzn.ac.za

This classic of South African theatre asks what would happen if  Christ (Morena) came back to 1980’s apartheid South Africa.  The show is primarily a satire that highlights the absurdities of apartheid and displays the talents of two dextrous actors, TQ Zondi and Mpilo Nzimande, who play a range of ordinary characters on the street. Directed by Peter Mitchell, the show looks back after 21 years of democracy and reminds us of the tragic lunacy that was apartheid, as well as the continued search for compassionate, intelligent and humane leadership. This production hopes to recreate a theatrical period in our history, as well as look back from a new perspective at what changed the face of poor theatre worldwide.