SEASON 7 | Curatorial statement

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic The Centre shifted the physical performances of Season 7 from April 2020 to September 2021.

Season 7 was co-curated by draftsman, performer, filmmaker and founder of The Centre for the Less Good Idea, William Kentridge, and actor, theatre-maker, director and Animateur for The Centre, Phala Ookeditse Phala.

The below curatorial statement by Kentridge and Phala outlines the two central provocations that informed the performances, films and installations of Season 7.

PROVOCATION 1 | WHAT OF TEXT?

What are the ways of transforming a text designed to be read, into a performance on stage? Is it necessary to make this change (of text to performance)? Is there anything to be gained in this process?

These are not questions we asked ourselves. Rather we said, ‘Let this be a provocation, let us see what emerges.’ The 40 or so performances, films, and installations of Season 7 are the result. Many of the participants in the Season (about 60) took the provocation and have made pieces based on writing by Joseph Conrad, Ben Okri, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Antjie Krog, Ferdinand Oyono, Franz Kafka and about 16 others. As with all of the previous Seasons, we have privileged the fragment, the short epic, finding new ways of thinking and making rather than feeling the need to make conventional 90-minute pieces of theatre, although in this Season we also look at the long form: a two hour performance of Houseboy, the novel by Cameroonian writer Ferdinand Oyono.

Many participants used existing texts, but several pieces were developed that started with a close contact with the text and subsequently found their own language. Owing to the process of finding the less good idea, there are pieces without any words and some in which texts become music or movement.

We have had three preparatory workshops for the Season, in which ideas were tested (always on the stage), developed, abandoned, started again and rehearsed. We will discover by the end of the Season what they add up to, but we are certain that with the remarkable participants in this Season, many things both memorable and revelatory have been found.

PROVOCATION 2 | PEPPER’S GHOST

Pepper’s Ghost was a 19th century theatrical illusion technique that used a half-silvered mirror. It is named after John Henry Pepper who popularised it in 1862. The technique allows things to be seen behind the mirror (if they were lit), and images in front of the mirror to be reflected (if they were lit). We set up a basic structure in the 2nd Space – a table, a mirror, a projector, lights – and invited the participants to explore what this simple technique offered. It was a discovery for all of us, curators as well as actors, artists, and directors. In the end, eight projects were made in our ghost box. But the discoveries and experimentation here are just the beginning. It is planned to have an academy for Pepper’s Ghost later in the year.

This is a large and long programme, but we think it will reward several journeys downtown to the Centre for the Less Good Idea. This is the first Season without Bronwyn Lace at the head as Animateur. Lace remains in close contact with the Centre, and her role is now taken up by Phala Ookeditse Phala. During her time in Johannesburg at the Centre, Bronwyn separated her personal artwork from the projects at the Centre. We are delighted in this Season to welcome her as a participant, with contributions to the Pepper’s Ghost and an installation of her own work in the Centre’s original performance space.

In addition to the work in the two Centre spaces, there will be work upstairs in the Events space, and in the W. Kentridge Studio.

PRODUCTION FOR THE CENTRE

PHOTOGRAPHERS
Zivanai Matangi
Stella Olivier

EDITORS
Noah Cohen
Janus Fouché
Žana Marović

COSTUMES & PROPS
SO Academy Mentor | Greta Goiris
SO Academy Assistant | Emmanuelle Erhart
SO Academy Mentees | Andrea van der Kuil, Duduzile Mathebula, Helena Uambembe, Angelinah Maponya, Unathi Mkonto & Nthabiseng Malaka
SO Academy Manager | Dimakatso Motholo

SOUND ENGINEERS
Zain Vally
SoulFire Studios: Gavan Eckhart

CINEMATOGRAPHERS
Noah Cohen
Kutlwano Makgalemele
Duško Marović SASC

JUNIOR CINEMATOGRAPHER
Bukhosibakhe Kelvin Khosa

PEPPER’S GHOST STAGE DESIGN & BUILD
Wesley France
Chris-Waldo de Wet
Jacques van Staden
Diego Sillands

PROGRAMME DESIGN
www.prinsdesign.co.za

WRITER
David Mann

PUBLICITY
Azania Public
POPArt Productions

FRONT OF HOUSE
POPArt Productions
Hayleigh Evans
Dintshitile Mashile
Khanyisile Zwane
Rethabile Headbush
Emil Lars
Ncumisa Ndimeni

With The Market Theatre Lab 2nd Year Students: Kefenste Mokoena, Lungile Mabaso, Zevangeli Mpofu, Onakho Hlanti, Omolemo Magabe, Nomcebo Khonoti, Mthobisi Gasa, Aviwe Dasha, Lerato Ndlovu, Nhlanhla Sadiki, Muzi Trust, Buntu Ceza & Thato Mosebi

LIGHTING DESIGNER
Wesley France

LIGHTING TECHNICIANS & OPERATORS
Matthews Phala
Themba Mthimkulu
Bongani Mpofu

LIGHTING GEAR SUPPLIER
Gearhouse Splitbeam (Pty) Ltd

STAGING SUPPLIER
Setsational

SOUND EQUIPMENT SUPPLIER
SoulFire Studio (Pty) Ltd

Special thanks: Linda Leibowitz, Natalie Dembo, Anne McIlleron, Anne Blom, Joy Lowdon, Chris-Waldo de Wet, Jacques van Staden, Joey Netshiombo & Diego Sillands

LONGFORM | HOUSEBOY

HOUSEBOY

Over the course of a 120-minute durational performance, founder of The Centre for the Less Good Idea and co-curator of its 7th Season, William Kentridge presents a staged interpretation of the Cameroonian novel Houseboy.

Through the work of an ensemble cast comprising the various characters throughout the 1956 novel by Ferdinand Oyono, Houseboy explores themes of colonialism, trauma, and narrative history in a production that merges music, language, translation and drawing.

Houseboy is the sum of its parts, with each aspect of the performance remaining singular and vital to the overall narrative. A large backdrop produced by Kentridge – palm trees and dense foliage in black – sets the scene, and each character is present on stage throughout the play. Music, myriad live percussive sounds from just off stage, both punctuates and set the pace for the narrative.

At the heart of Houseboy, though, is language and the written word. Here, language is resistance and soft rebellion, and the presence of the diary – the primary vessel for the story – is a means of creating a record. In a moment early on in the play, when the protagonist, Toundi Ondoua, reads the diary of his master, he discovers accounts of events that happened to him, but which he has no memory of. It is the start of his preoccupation with bearing witness to history. Considering his position as houseboy to colonial authority, he occupies a role that is perfectly positioned for unfettered observation.

Later, once he has been keeping his own diary for some time, he declares: “I don’t think I’ll ever forget what I’ve seen”. It is a vital moment in the play. He has begun to write, to remember, to archive and to actively witness so that he can no longer forget. Ultimately, it is an essential statement about agency, language and post-colonial memory, those enduring themes and points of interrogation that are central to the novel and which are brought so vividly to life through the staged production of Houseboy.

– David Mann

CREDITS:

TEXT | Ferdinand Oyono
DIRECTOR | William Kentridge
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR | Phala Ookeditse Phala
PERFORMERS | Mncedisi Shabangu, Alfred Motlhapi, Nji Alain, Sello Ramolahloane, William Harding, Antony Coleman, Sue Pam-Grant, Buhle Mazibuko & Sibahle Mangena
MUSICIANS | Micca Manganye & Volley Nchabeleng
CHORUS DIRECTOR | Nhlanhla Mahlangu
ADDITIONAL VOICES | Nhlanhla Mahlangu, Bongile Gorata Lecoge-Zulu & Phala Ookeditse Phala
COSTUME DESIGNERS | Greta Goiris, Emmanuelle Erhart & SO Academy Costume Mentees

GUEST PERFORMANCE | MILK & HONEY REVISITED

MILK & HONEY REVISITED

Performed by Alfred Motlhapi and Billy Langa, with musical direction and additional choreography by Nhlanhla Mahlangu, Milk & Honey Revisited is an experimental expansion of the award-winning 2013 Market Theatre Laboratory play Milk & Honey. The play was the guest performance for Season 7 of The Centre for the Less Good Idea and was also performed at The Centre in November 2019 as part of the For Once programme.

Through expanding on the closing solo performance of the original 2013 play, the Khayelihle Dom Gumede-directed Milk & Honey Revisited merges physical and musical performance with spoken word in order to further explore the central question of land and identity in contemporary South Africa.

A play in recognition of the 100 years that had passed since the implementation of the 1913 Land Act, Milk & Honey told the story of a young and successful man who had lost his way, leaving ancestry and spirituality behind, and with no rootedness to the land in which he was born. In Milk & Honey Revisited, extracts of this original tale are unearthed and expanded upon, in particular the closing solo originally performed by Motlhapi, now reworked as a duet through the collaborative inputs of Langa.

Milk & Honey Revisited is a play that comes to life through its use of song and dance – Tswana traditional dance merges with contemporary interpretative movement as well as striking duets – but it also prizes language. The writing is rich and immersive, while the shifting narrative point of view held by Motlhapi and Langa lends the play a distinctly folktale-like quality.

Equal parts conceptual and experimental, Milk & Honey Revisited frequently breaks away from its own structure in order to analyse the various scenes and components that comprise it – “It’s a lovely scene! Land, gender, it’s all there!” they say to each other. Or, “It’s Dadaism, we are on the cutting edge, man! If you want theatre with a capital ‘T’ go to fukken Montecasino!” In this way, the revisiting of Milk & Honey happens in real-time as Motlhapi and Langa regularly break character to analyse and unpack the scenes they’ve just performed.

Milk & Honey Revisited is a decidedly self-aware performance that embraces play and collaboration in order to both build upon and reconsider the original play. The choreography is key, too. At times it is slight, a tentative and delicate balance and twirl, dancing as if on a knife’s edge. Other times, it is deliberately absurd, channeling and challenging notions of futility and embodied history. Finally, there is the dance with the sand – a vital scene. It is a dance that gestures towards or yearns for a rootedness in the land, in one’s own identity, full of twisting, turning and falling, working all the while to seek out a place in the world.

– David Mann

CREDITS:

PERFORMERS | Alfred Mothlapi & Billy Langa
WRITER & DIRECTOR | Khayelihle Dominique Gumede
CHOREOGRAPHERS | Nhlanhla Mahlangu & Alfred Mothlapi in collaboration with Billy Edward Langa
MUSIC DIRECTOR | Nhlanhla Mahlangu