Why Should I Hesitate is a collaborative concert performed by artist William Kentridge and pianist Kyle Shepherd at The Centre for The Less Good Idea in February 2020 as part of the For Once programme.

Having first worked together through The Centre’s fourth Season (October 2018), Kentridge and Shepherd have gone on to collaborate on a number of projects, namely the chamber opera Waiting for the Sibyl, which premiered in Rome (September 2019) and Kentridge's installations and performances under the dual exhibition Why Should I Hesitate which took place in Cape Town at the Zeitz MOCAA and the Norval Foundation from August 2019.

In this concert, they perform excerpts from a number of pre-existing works, as well as some new material. Among Kentridge and Shepherd’s primary interests across the performances is the translation of the written word into spoken language, what an image does to sound, how one sees something and how sound can change what one sees. In this way, Why Should I Hesitate is equal parts contemplative and playful. Some performances harness the movement of the body, the breath and the slow, moderate notes of the piano while others embrace a free-spirited meeting of voice and piano, or sound and gesture, in order to challenge, provoke and puzzle out the respective modes of performance.

A musical response by Shepherd to some of Kentridge’s films and snippets of his work in studio allows audiences to be led either by the music or the visuals presented to them, while short jousts between spoken word and improvisational keys open up room for reflection on the linguistic capacities of the piano, and the musical composition of the everyday conversation.

The performance includes a section of Kurt Schwitters’ Ursonate, which Kentridge has performed with different musicians on several occasions in various cities, and sees responsive and intentionally disruptive tap dancing and trombone entering the performance by way of Vusi Mdoyi and Dan Selsick respectively. The concert also includes the libretto of Waiting for the Sibyl, charcoal films by Kentridge, and various other mixtures of projection, voice and piano.

Finally, an encore performance sees the merging of musical performance, projection, recitation, and pre-existing poetry in a short performance that reflects on, amongst other things, the nature of music, composition, the sonnet and the spoken word.

– David Mann

CREDITS:

PERFORMERS | William Kentridge, Kyle Shepherd, Vusi Mdoyi & Dan Selsick
CINEMATOGRAPHERS | Duško Marović SASC, Noah Cohen & Kutlwano Makgalemele
PROJECTION EDITOR | Žana Marović