Revellers and theatre lovers who attended the festival in Makhanda so loved the theatrical treat – done in celebrating of the 100 years of the life and times of global icon Nelson Mandela – that it was named one of the Encore Winners which earned a 2018 Standard Bank Ovation Award.
Love in the Time of Revolution is a collaboration between the Nelson Mandela University’s Department of Arts, Culture and Heritage and the city’s Moving Assembly Project. It is a dance production narrating the South African story in the times of the struggle for liberation, highlighting the resilience shown by the oppressed majority.
The production, which ran at the festival from 4 – 6 July , uses the complex love story of Nelson and Winnie Mandela, narrated in the context and setting of the struggle for liberation during the apartheid era.
Choreographer and co-director Nicki Rayepen said the production had been “very well received”.
“We are very excited about this production and have been highly encouraged by the response to the NAF2018 leg,” she said.
“People were moved by the production and it received a standing ovation. We were, of course, ecstatic that the production received an Ovation Award as Encore Winners and can’t wait to share it with our Port Elizabeth community.”
The production cast comprises four dancers from the United Kingdom, a professional dancer from Cape Town, two students from the Jazzart Dance Theatre in Cape Town and five students from Nelson Mandela University.
This collaboration, which goes beyond the theatre production, grants the opportunity of creating an international exchange programme for the cast members, while creating a platform for students to develop alongside professionally trained dancers.
The production is choreographed and directed by the Moving Assembly Project’s Dane Hurst and Mandela University’s Nicki-Ann Rayepen, with original music by the UK’s Paul Gladstone Reid and Port Elizabeth artist Mninawa Mangweni, university alumni Ruan Coetzee and Tiago Vital, and costumes designed by postgrad student Nehemiah Latolla.
The project includes free workshops for school learners that take place at St Thomas high, and these young people will form part of the curtain raiser for the Opera House performance.
Watch a promotional video of the show at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnZHVu5IASI&feature=youtu.be
