Tag Archives: fest

A day of drama

Arts

Saturday was a rather intense day at Festival. It was also a good day. In the space of 6 hours, we saw 3 solid theatre pieces, each more dramatic and intense than the last.

We started with Dinsdae by Morrie. This engaging and satisfying theatre piece kept the audience laughing and crying and left me filled with with emotion and homesick for Stellenbosch.

Next up was Scott Sparrow and Emily Child in a masterfully crisp and controlled performance of Berkoff’s Decadence. You know the performers have the audiences enthralled when the ringing of a phone does not disrupt the show in any way. Not for the faint of heart but excellent.

Finally, Normality. How Pedro Kruger managed two shows of such intensity in one day (this and Dinsdae by Morrie) is beyond me. Normality twists laughter and love into a striking piece that resists stereotyping and challenges ideas of ‘normal’ without being angsty or overdone.

An excellently but emotionally charged day that may be tough to top at this Fest. I skipped the last show (some nice calm jazz – that’s how intense the day was) and had a beer with an old friend instead. Looking forward to a gentle Sunday before we hit the ground running on Monday again.

Fest

Arts, Uncategorized

I’ve talked before about the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown and how happy it makes me. Today I am off (withfamily) to the place we’ll be staying for Fest. From tomorrow, I will be entirely immersed in 15 days of AMAZ!ING (but only for the last 10 days).

Every year I plan to write quick updates as I go but so far it hasn’t happened. Not that I mind. One of the best things about fest is that there is so much going on – shows, art exhibitions, village green, lectures, amazing people – that it is easy to forget that there is a world outside this magical bubble. I can feel the excitement starting to bubble in my stomach and ripple through me just writing about it.

I am planning, once again to write about the shows and the magic but it might not happen – sometimes the experience itself overwhelmed all desire to record it, like a beautiful jungle butterfly that cannot be pinned down or the DMZ you can’t take pictures of, or other similar examples.