Exciting performances are on the cards for theatre-goers as the 25th annual South African Women’s Arts Festival gets under way.
Celebrating works performed, created, or inspired by women are the order of the day as the festival coincides with Women’s Month.
The social cohesion and nation-building event ends on September 19.
Among the festival’s offerings is “Kamphoer”, featuring South African theatre legend Sandra Prinsloo and based on a true story.
Prinsloo appears in the challenging role of Susan Nell, who faced an unspeakable ordeal during the Anglo-Boer War in the Winburg concentration camp. Susan is brutally raped and left for dead.
She qualifies as a psychiatric nurse and 16 years later, during World War I, her paths cross again with one of her rapists.
Susan is once again confronted with the pain and humiliation of her past.
August 19 to 22, tickets R100 and R30 for the school performance.
Nongogo, directed by the legendary Bheki Mkhwane, will hit The Playhouse Company Drama Stage.
Set in a shebeen outside of Johannesburg in the 1950s, the play focuses on the life of a shebeen queen who was once a prostitute.
The production highlights some of the most thought-provoking topics about women.
August 28 to September 4, tickets R100 and R30 for school performances.
Also a must-see is “Seven Ways To Say Goodbye”, a production by The Flatfoot Dance Company.
The contemporary dance piece explores the highs and lows of human relationships during a global pandemic where self-isolation and social distancing are the new norms.
September 15 to 19, tickets R70 and R30 for school performances.
Another dance production set to ignite the Playhouse Opera Theatre stage is “The Awakening – Rebirth”.
This contemporary piece, featuring the Phakama Dance Theatre and Moving into Dance, is choreographed by the renowned Sunnyboy Mandla Motau.
September 15 to 19, tickets R70 and R30 for school performances.
The festival’s music highlight will be the “Imbokodo Maskandi Concert” on August 14 at 3pm in the Playhouse’s Opera Theatre.
This concert will highlight such talentsas Vumile Mngoma, Ama Yellow Bones, Buselaphi Gxowa, Annah Mlotshwa and Ngenzeni Ntanzi. Tickets are R70.
All tickets can be purchased at The Playhouse Company’s box-office, call 031 369 9596/40 or online via Web Tickets.