FESTIVAL THEATRE | Commonwealth Theatre
THE INTERNAT
In the year that Glasgow hosts the 2014 Games, the Fringe offers a chance to discover theatre from several Commonwealth countries. Three List writers explore the shows on offer from South Africa, New Zealand and Scotland 68 THE LIST FESTIVAL 31 Jul–7 Aug 2014
SOUTH AFRICA ‘It’s great to be able to present a range of work from this very vibrant country,’ says William Burdett-Coutts, artistic director of Assembly Festival, who is presenting their third South African season. ‘There is a range of talented theatre people working in South Africa who have this vitality and interest in their own culture and how they represent it. No one can avoid the stigma of the apartheid era, but people are confronting the past and i nding ways of dei ning themselves today.’
The boldness of the Playhouse Company is clear in their decision to bring Pulitzer Prize- winner David Mamet’s controversial Race, to Assembly. Enthusiastically received in South Africa, a country battling with the complexities of a post-apartheid society, Mamet’s scripts have the ability to explore difi cult areas and refuse any easy solutions: here, the partners in a law i rm, one African-American, the other white, decide whether to take on the case of a wealthy white man accused of raping an African-American woman.
Also at Assembly, Mbongeni Ngema, who is returning to the stage after 27 years, says of The Zulu that ‘the play could only have come from South Africa as it rel ects the formation of the Zulu nation by that awesome military genius King Shaka Zulu.’ Retelling stories passed on during Ngema’s youth by his blind great-grandmother, it covers the arrival of white British and Boer Settlers and their impact on the history of South Africa. Yet Ngema is adamant that this does not represent South African theatre: ‘This is a
unique piece of theatre also new to South African audiences. It trend-setter.’ Combining music, ritual and performance, Ngema presents a compelling journey of personal identity. is a
Beyond Assembly, and from a musical perspective, Soweto-based African Tree Productions offer a variation on the classic tortured romance: Magadi – The Bride Price. Featuring a cappella voices and traditional African dance, Magadi tells the tale of a modern African woman who meets her village childhood sweetheart, now a highly protected African prince. (Jen Bowden)
Race, Assembly George Square, 623 3030, 2–25 Aug (not 11, 20), 3.20pm, £12–£13 (£11–£12). Previews 31 Jul & 1 Aug, £9.
The Zulu, Assembly Hall, 623 3030, 2–25 Aug (not 11), 12.45pm, £12–£13 (£11–12). Previews 31 Jul & 1 Aug, £9.
Magadi – The Bride Price, Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 556 5375, 2–24 Aug (not 12) , 2.30pm, £9–£10 (£8–£9). Previews 31 Jul & 1 Aug, £5 (£4). NEW ZEALAND In the popular view of the northern hemisphere – and indeed, much of the country’s neighbours – New Zealand is a remote idyll populated by hobbits and sheep where not very much ever happens. Yet history tells us that a country so young is unlikely to be a country without its