Artscape Heritage Festival

Celebrate South Africa’s rich diversity and reflect on its chequered past with a multicultural music, dance and theatre festival


The Artscape Heritage Festival makes a splash on the local arts scene with a dynamic music, dance and theatre programme from Thursday, 18 to Tuesday, 30 September 2014 at the Artscape Theatre.

In light of Heritage Day on Wednesday, 24 September, the innovative event will both celebrate Mzansi’s rich diversity and reflect on South Africa’s troubled history, struggle for freedom and relevant failures and successes.  

The headline events for the festival are the award-winning productions Un-mute, They Died Singing, Biko’s Quest and Rainbow Scars – which are grouped together in pairs as double-bill programmes.

WHAT TO EXPECT AT THE 2014 ARTSCAPE HERITAGE FESTIVAL

UN-MUTE (24 – 27 September): This production is based on Andile Vellem’s experience as a deaf dancer. Un-mute is a means for Andile to find his voice as a choreographer using sign language as the movement vocabulary. In the piece, Andile has brought together a group of performers from varying backgrounds – each of whom is tasked with exploring what they would like to unmute, be it feelings, perceptions, social norms or expectations. The piece is choreographed by Andile Vellem and performed by Nadine Mckenzie, Themba Mbuli and Zama Sonjica.

THEY DIED SINGING (24 – 27 September): This musical production is based on the life of unionist, Umkhonto we Sizwe activist, singer, dancer and poet Vuyisile Mini. The work follows a series of events that highlight Mini’s contribution to the emancipation of the working class in South Africa, documenting his journey in the union movement and the detentions he suffered during Apartheid up until his execution on 6 November 1964. 

RAINBOW SCARS (29 – 30 September): Winner of a Standard Bank Ovation Award at the 2013 National Arts Festival and nominated for six Naledi Theatre Awards in 2013, Rainbow Scars returns to the Artscape Theatre stage before heading to the Netherlands and the UK to appear at the Afrovibes Festival. Set in 1994, the play centres on the story of Ellen Robinson, a white woman who adopted a black daughter. Using the story of an interracial family, the piece explores issues of identity, exclusion and privilege in the post-Apartheid ‘rainbow nation’.

BIKO’S QUEST (29 – 30 September): Narrated and performed through the vehicles of song, dance, theatre and multimedia, Biko’s Quest reflects on the life and ideas of the iconic, inspirational Steve Biko. The production explores the role he played in both the black consciousness movement and the liberation struggle during Apartheid – as a social activist and an advocate for freedom and self-empowerment. Biko’s Quest will also be part of the Amsterdam Afrovibes Festival in October.

TOE RAVENSMEAD NOG TIERVLEI WAS (18 – 20 September): This dramatic community theatre production tells the story of a family that was forcefully removed from Tiervlei (known as Ravensmead today) in Cape Town. The piece, which is based on a real-life forced eviction that happened in the area in 1958, unpacks how each family member comes to terms with the sense of loss and violation they feel.

IZITHYILELO ZOBUZE - NAKEDNESS IN REVELATION (24 – 27 September): Through the striking medium of spoken word and music, the Lingua Franca group uses poetry to explore the issue of inheritance. Through a carefully crafted lyrical narrative, the community work interrogates the complex nature of the inevitability of that which is to be.

TICKETS FOR THE ARTSCAPE HERITAGE FESTIVAL

Tickets for the Artscape Heritage Festival can be booked via Computicket.com or by calling Dial-A-Seat on +27 (0) 21 421 7695. Tickets are priced individually per performance and cost between R50p/p and R100p/p. Pensioners, students and block-bookers are eligible for discounts.

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Fancy another night at the theatre? Browse our top Cape Town theatres for some inspiration. Alternatively, Take a look at our overview of annual September events to find out about more hot happenings taking place during the month.
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