The Centre for the Less Good Idea’s online programmes are borne out of necessity as well as a consistent pursuit for incidental discovery, improvisation, and secondary or alternative modes of performance.
In a time where our physical ability to be with one another has been restricted, these online programmes merge performance, installation, and free-flowing physical experimentation, filmed at The Centre and premiered online for a global audience.
As such, the opportunity to further explore film’s role in this process has resulted in a series of filmed works that departs from our usual form of visual documentation and veers more into the realms of the art film, employing a kind of staging, lighting, and cinematography that better lends itself to online viewing while still serving as a visual archive of the work produced at The Centre.
Each programme has been designed by Season 7 co-curators Phala Ookeditse Phala and William Kentridge to showcase the kind of work and performance-based inquiries that arose throughout the period of this Season’s creation. Physical theatre, performance poetry, short-form fiction, musical improvisation, pre-recorded installation and more make up this online offering.
Programme 1 of The Centre for the Less Good Idea’s online offering comprises spoken word performed by a poet who refuses to speak; an ancient tale told using only the movement of the body as a vehicle for narrative; and the often-overlooked accounts of the women who fought and suffered through one of South Africa’s great tragedies.
Programme 2 of The Centre for the Less Good Idea’s online offering introduces audiences to the hybrid analogue and digital technologies of the Pepper’s Ghost, playing with illusion through live performance and projected recordings. A mystery creature from the mind of Franz Kafka, an avant-garde verse drama by a Soviet playwright, and experimental takes on the Shakespearean soliloquy all occupy the world of the Pepper’s Ghost.
Programme 3 of The Centre for the Less Good idea’s online offerings features two short, sharp staged works and collectively engages with themes of power, language, land, isolation, and more through live performance and musicality.
Programme 4 of The Centre for the Less Good Idea’s online offerings sees the works of Franz Kafka, Rainer Maria Rilke, George C. Wolfe, as well as a work of original physical theatre being showcased across four separate performances of varying lengths and modes of performance.
Programme 5 of The Centre for the Less Good Idea’s online offerings features two separate performances and serves as a collective exploration of the body as an instrument for performance, sound and music as tools of communication, and the various forms that performance and language can occupy on stage.
Programme 6 of The Centre for the Less Good Idea’s online offerings is a showcase of installation works produced for the Pepper’s Ghost. Physicality, identity, creation, and interpretation are a few of the themes explored across this programme, all inspired by the nature of text and language.
PRODUCTION FOR THE CENTRE
Season 7 curators | Phala Ookeditse Phala & William Kentridge
Animateur for the Centre | Phala Ookeditse Phala
Co-director for the Centre | Bronwyn Lace
Editor & Director of Photography | Noah Cohen
Production Manager | Shruthi Nair
Administrator & Stage Manager | Dimakatso Motholo
Housekeeping & Space Manager | Gracious Dube
FRONT OF HOUSE POPArt Productions
Hayleigh Evans
STAGE MANAGEMENT Nthabiseng Malaka
PRODUCTION FOR THE ONLINE PREMIERES
CINEMATOGRAPHER
Duško Marović, SASC
CAMERA OPERATORSNoah Cohen
Bukhosibakhe Kelvin Khoza
LIGHTING DESIGN Wesley France
LIGHTING & LIGHTING OPERATORS Matthews Phala
Themba Mthimkulu
Rendani Gelebe
Gearhouse Splitbeam (Pty) Ltd
SOUND ENGINEERS Kyle Leist
Izak Johannes Schoombie
Zain Vally
Gavan Eckhart
SoulFire Studio (Pty) Ltd
EDITORS Noah Cohen
Janus Fouché
Žana Marović
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Zivanai Matangi
Stella Olivier
COSTUMES & PROPSSO 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
Academy manager | Dimakatso Motholo
PEPPER’S GHOST STAGE DESIGN & BUILD Wesley France
Chris-Waldo de Wet
Jacques van Staden
Diego Sillands
WRITER Dave Mann
PUBLICITY Bonnie Meslane
Azania Public
POPArt Productions
Special thanks: Linda Leibowitz, Natalie Dembo,Anne McIlleron, Anne Blom, Joy Lowden, Chris-Waldo de Wet, Diego Sillands, Jacques van Staden and Joey Metshiombo