SA SeASon in the UKedinbUrgh FeStivAlS

JUly / AUgUSt 2014

Partners

Department of Arts and Culture, South AfricaBritish CouncilNational Film and Video Foundation, South Africa Creative ScotlandThe South African High Commission in the United Kingdom and Northern IrelandBrand South Africa

For more information on the festivals please visit www.globalsouthafricans.com, or visit the official Edinburgh Festival website: www.edinburghfestivals.co.uk.

As the Department of Arts and Culture (DAC), we are proud to be collaborating with the British Council to encourage cul-tural, economic, educational, and a broad range of activities between the two countries.The SA-UK Seasons were born from talks which began at the Inter-Ministerial Bilateral forum in London in 2011, later re-sulting in the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in Arts and Culture, which set out a platform for cooperation to be implemented by the DAC and the British Council.

The DAC is working closely with the British Council to pro-mote institutional collaboration and various programmes. These programmes will offer many South African artists work opportunities in many cities across the United Kingdom. We were particularly proud to have collaborated with the city of Glasgow in presenting the highly successful International Nel-son Mandela Day Celebrations in Glasgow on 18 July 2014. Glasgow played a pivotal role in exerting international pres-sure against apartheid, and was the first city to offer Nelson Mandela the Freedom of the City. As we celebrate 20 Years of Freedom in South Africa this year, it is an opportune moment for us the people of South Africa to express our sincere thanks to the people of the United Kingdom, Action for Southern Africa and all organisations and individuals who played an active role in our liberation.

Following the success of the France – South Africa Seasons 2012 & 2013 which featured more than 1000 South Africans in 250 events in 150 cities across France, the SA-UK Seasons 2014 & 2015 aims to create jobs, increase sustainability of the creative arts sector and open up new markets for South African artists in the UK. The Seasons will also promote the collaboration between British and South African artists. We are delighted that tens of South African artists and at least twenty productions will feature, this year, in six Edinburgh festivals.

The current programme of Action of the South African Government is designed to ensure con-tinued democratization of our society based on equality, non-racialism and non-sexism. And we believe that arts and culture can be use an effective tool to the building of national unity in diversity as a source of our strength.

Mr Nathi Mthethwa, Minister of Arts and Culture, South Africa

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MESSAgE FroM THE MiNiSTEr oF ArTS ANd CulTurE, SouTH AFriCA

Nelson Mandela said, “It is music and dancing that makes me at peace with the world”- indeed the arts have the power to unite people of different backgrounds, ages and races. The SA-UK Seasons aim to utilise arts and culture to promote people-to-people relations between the citizens of South Af-rica and the United Kingdom.

The SA-UK Seasons are composed of four streams:1. The South African Season in the UK which showcases a variety of South African arts and culture projects.2. The British Season in South Africa which is called ‘Con-nect ZA’ is funded and managed by the British Council and aims to build cultural connections between young people aged 18-35 in the UK and South Africa.3. Joint Projects of a collaborative nature between South Africa and the UK which are funded by the Department of Arts and Culture and the British Council.

4. Joint Projects between South African and the UK which do not receive direct funding but are endorsed by the joint organising committee of the Seasons and benefit from the marketing and public relations endeavours of the Seasons.

Over the course of the South African Season in the UK in 2014, South African works and artists will feature prominently in Glasgow during the International Nelson Mandela Day Celebrations and the Commonwealth Games / Festival 2014. Major South African productions will also fea-ture in six of the Edinburgh Festivals – Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh Art Festival, Edinburgh Military Tattoo, Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival, the Edinburgh Book Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

As with the British Council’s programme Connect ZA, the South African Season in the UK will reinvigorate, revitalise, renew and refresh our relationship with the UK, bringing our age-old relationship into the 21st century.

We look forward to having British audiences in the front row of the South Africa Season in the UK.

Mr Bongani Tembe, Commissioner-general, SA-uK Seasons 2014 & 2015

MESSAgE FroM THE CoMMiSSioNEr-gENErAl

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Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival18 - 27 July 2014

A key player in the groundbreaking South African jazz scene of the late 50’s, pianist, Abdullah Ibrahim came to international attention thanks to Duke Ellington’s support. He played at Nelson Mandela’s inauguration, and in his 80th year, we welcome the legendary musician to present his reverential, powerful, and engaging solo piano music again in Edinburgh.

Freshlyground are the high-energy band that brings together traditional kwela music, jazz, blues and indie rock, to a mix that’s infectiously South African. Their official song of the World Cup in 2010 underlined their status as the musical voice of a nation’s adolescent democracy.

Since 1964, the Mahotella Queens have presented their infectious vocal harmonies, mbaqanga music and dancing for audiences all over the world. Huge names in South Africa, they’ve played all the major world stages and were featured in 2012 in London’s Hyde Park for the Queen’s Jubilee Celebrations.

MAHoTEllA QuEENS, FrESHlygrouNd, ABdullAH iBrAHiM

Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival18 - 27 July 2014

South African trumpeter, Faku, raids the jazz tradition and his band evokes the Miles Davis Quintet and classic Blue Note bands, but he’s alive to the whole South African tradition too, and is one of the leading South African jazz musician of today.Artscape Theatre Centre is the main perform-ing arts centre in Cape Town. The Artscape Music Outreach Programme offers music edu-cation to help unemployed musicians access opportunities in the music industry. The Youth Band is a strand of their work, offering young people from townships the opportunity to learn and develop through music. As a highly acclaimed jazz performer, Ian Smith (Director/Conductor, Artscape’s Youth Band) is one the most sought after studio players in South Africa. He has performed as a soloist with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra

and co-founded the Cape Jazz Orchestra. He is currently involved with music development programmes in the Western Cape and has won an award from the Department of Culture Af-fairs and Sport for his contribution to the Per-forming Arts for Music.

Lorenzo Blignaut is seen as the group leader amongst the band. He has been playing the trumpet since age nine and has performed at many high profile events as well as at the Cape Town Jazz Festival. His goal is to become a mu-sic director and conductor as well as a famous trumpet player like his mentor Ian Smith. This is his first time in Scotland.

Both Ian and Lorenzo played in the Common-wealth Jazz Orchestra.

FEyA FAKu QuiNTET ANd ArTSCAPE youTH BANd

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uBu ANd THE TruTH CoMMiSSioN - HANdSPriNg PuPPET CoMPANy

Performed in English

William Kentridge directorJanni younge Associate directorJane Taylor WriterAdrian Kohler Puppet designerWesley France lighting designerCast includes Busi Zokufa and dawid Minnaar

With its dark and sardonic wit, documentary footage, spectacular animation, poignant pup-petry and superb actors, Ubu and the Truth Commission draws on both the historical ar-chive of the hearings of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and on the dramatic fi gure of Ubu Roi, a licentious buf-foon created by the playwright Alfred Jarry.

Ubu and the Truth Commission was the third in a trilogy of plays that brought William Ken-tridge and Handspring Puppet Company, who later created War Horse, to worldwide acclaim. Revived to mark the 20th anniversary of de-mocracy in South Africa, this metaphorical tale of marital betrayal affords glimpses into the devastating complexities of apartheid.

Poignant testimonies that once formed part of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings are given by characters played by Handspring’s puppets. With animation by di-rector William Kentridge, the cast includes actors Busi Zokufa and Dawid Minnaar as Ma and Pa Ubu.

A co-production by the Edinburgh Internation-al Festival, The Taipei Arts Festival and Tai-pei Culture Foundation, Festival de Marseille _ danse et arts multiples, Onassis Cultural Cen-tre, Cal Performances Berkeley and BOZAR, Brussels.

28–30 August 8.00pm30 August 2.30pmroyal lyceum Theatre Edin-burgh1 hour 30 minutes ap-proximately

eif.co.uk/ubu

30 AugustTouch tour 1.15pm, audio description 2.15pm, captioned performance 2.30pm

Supported by:Culture 2014The City of Edinburgh CouncilSouth Africa – united Kingdom Seasons 2014 & 2015

‘stunningly theatrical multimedia piece that drives home the atrocity known as apart-

heid… By turns chilling and hilarious, brutal and forgiving, the show casts a surreal light on the heart of darkness – and still manages

to leave you with hope.’ The Washington Post

‘executed with consummate artistry’ los Angeles Times

* Please note this performance contains graphic images of violence that may not be suitable for children

Edinburgh International Festival8 - 31 August 2014

Image: William Kentridge

Mark Baldwin ChoreographerJoseph Shabalala, ladysmith Black Mam-bazo and Ella Spira Composers

ladysmith Black Mambazo Music includes dancers from rambert and The royal Bal-let

Produced by Sisters grimm

Inala – meaning abundance of goodwill – is a muscular and beautiful blend of South African and Western cultures in an exhilarating celebra-tion of the rainbow nation.

Choreographer Mark Baldwin unites Zulu tradi-tions of song and dance with Western classical ballet, contemporary dance and music in one breathtaking performance. This unique collabo-ration brings together a stellar company includ-ing dancers from The Royal Ballet and Rambert with music performed live by Grammy Award®-winning South African choir Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

In over 50 years of joyous and uplifting music-making, Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s pastsuccesses include working with Paul Simon on his album Graceland, featuring the intricaterhythms and harmonies of its native South Af-rican musical traditions. Performed live by the choir and an instrumental ensemble, Inala’s brand new score is a collaboration between classical composer Ella Spira and Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

10 – 12 August 8.00pm

The Edinburgh Playhouse

1 hour 35 minutes approximately

eif.co.uk/inala

Supported byCulture 2014The City of Edinburgh CouncilSouth Africa – united Kingdom Seasons 2014 & 2015

iNAlA - World Premiere

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‘A truly unique collaboration’ former royal Ballet director dame Monica

Mason

‘Undulating rhythmic phrases that push and pull… harmonising that is both ethereal and

earthy’ World Music, uK, on

ladysmith Black Mambazo

Edinburgh International Festival8 - 31 August 2014

Image: Simon Turtle

Image: Sofie Knijff

Third World Bunfight: Brett Bailey

Image: Sofie Knijff

Brett Bailey Creator

Exhibit B lies somewhere between performance and exhibition. 13 tableau vivant installations featuring black performers look at the themes of racism, ‘othering’ and the colonial history of Europe in Africa.

This deeply moving work, researched and created by South Afri-can artist Brett Bailey, gazes into the hidden Curiosity Cabinets of European racism. It focuses on the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when Europe’s powers scrambled for Africa’s rich re-sources, and the continent’s scientists formulated the pseudo-scientific racial theories that continue to warp perceptions, with horrific consequences.

Drawing on the ‘human zoos’ and ethnographic displays so popu-lar during this period, this site-specific exhibit places Africans and African asylum-seekers in display cases, unpacking the his-tories, and turning the gaze back on Europeans.

9,10, 12, 13, 15, 19, 20, 22 and 25 August: Performances from 2.00pm – 5.50pm;

16, 17, 23 and 24 August: Performances from 10.30am – 5.50pm

Playfair library Hall

A walk through performance lasting 25 minutes approximately.

eif.co.uk/exhibit

Supported byCulture 2014The City of Edinburgh CouncilSouth Africa – united Kingdom Seasons 2014 & 2015

ExHiBiT B - THird World BuNFigHT

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Edinburgh Art Festival, in collaboration with City Art Centre, is pleased to announce the pre-sentation of a major group exhibition, Where do I end and you begin. Held across four floors of the City Art Centre, the exhibition brings together curators from five Commonwealth countries: New Zealand, South Africa, India, Canada and the UK, to explore themes of common-wealth through the work of 20 international artists. As part of the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme, and in the context of Homecoming Scotland 2014, the exhibition will introduce many artists to UK audiences for the first time.Taking its title from a work by the artist Shilpa Gupta (IND), Where do I end and you begin invites perspectives from five points across the Commonwealth to explore the ideas, ideals and myths which underpin notions of community, common-wealth and the commons. Through new and recent work in a range of media, the exhibition considers what it means to join ‘com-mon’ with ‘wealth’, reflecting on the notion of “The Commonwealth” as a problematic historical and contemporary construct. It offers international perspectives on the range of associations which common-wealth evokes, from the challenge of ‘being in common’ in a truly global world, to ideas of the common good, common land, public ownership and alternative exchange sys-tems.

WHErE do i ENd ANd you BEgiN

Edinburgh Art Festival 1 August – 19 October 2014, City Art Centre

Kay Hassan

My Father’s Music room, 2007-2008

Mixed media, installation detail, photograph by Wayne oosthuizen, courtesy of the Artist

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Mary Sibande

I’m a Lady

2009

Five curators have been invited to pro-pose new and recent work by 20 inter-national artists based on their interest in the themes of the project, as well as their in-depth knowledge and engage-ment with visual arts practice in their respective regions. The participating curators are Aaron Kreisler (Dunedin, NZ); Thembinkosi Goniwe (Johannes-burg, SA); Vidya Shivadas (New Delhi, IND); Kathleen Ritter (Vancouver, CA); and Richard Hylton (London, UK).Eleven of the artists are showing in the UK for the first time, with at least half of participating artists presenting new work specifically developed for the ex-hibition. Highlights will include Shilpa Gupta’s neon work Where do I end and you begin; an evolution of the critically- acclaimed Sovereign Forest, the highly poetic film installation by renowned Indian artist Amar Kanwar; a newly commissioned site-specific installation by Mary Evans (born Nigeria/lives and works UK); and a video installation by New Zealand artist Steve Carr. Johan-nesburg-based artist Mary Sibande, internationally acclaimed for her large scale figurative sculptures featuring the artist’s alter ego ‘Sophie’, will cre-ate a new work for the exhibition, while Canadian artists Brian Jungen & Duane Linklater show their recent film Modest Livelihood for the first time in the UK.South African, Thembinkosi Goniwe is a curator, art historian and critic, cur-rently completing a PhD at Cornell Uni-versity, Ithaca, New York. Recent cu-ratorial projects include Desire: Ideal Narratives in Contemporary South Af-rican Art, 54th Venice Biennale, Ven-ice, 2011; SPace: Currencies in Con-temporary Africa Art, Museum Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2010; and Koma & Ulwaluko: Politics and Poetics of Making Manhood, Polokwane Art Mu-seum, South Africa, 2010.

lauren Beukes & C A davids 9 August 11.30amA star of South Africa’s increasingly international literary scene, Lauren Beukes is back with a smart, topical, Detroit-set thriller, Broken Monsters. She is joined by C A Davids, who presents The Blacks of Cape Town, an astonishingly assured debut novel.

Anna Whitwham & Niq Mhlongo 13 August 3.30pmA rising star of South African literature, Niq Mhlongo, whose novel Way Back Home explores the importance of African cultures and beliefs through the eyes of a ghost who haunts her killers in post-apartheid South Africa.

damon galgut 19 August 11.30amAfter Howards End, British author E M Forster didn’t publish an-other novel for 15 years: A Passage to India in 1924. That period of silence is explored in Arctic Summer, a major new novel by leading South African writer Damon Galgut. In this tender fictionalisation of Forster’s travels to India, Galgut creates a vivid and intimate image of the great author.

Zakes Mda 19 August 5.00pmWinner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, Zakes Mda is regard-ed as one of the most important novelists to have emerged on South Africa’s literary scene since the end of apartheid. The author of more than 20 novels and plays, Mda joins us today to discuss his output, including his new mystic-realist epic The Sculptors of Mapungubwe.

Elaine Proctor & rosie rowall 20 August 7.00pmThe recent history of South Africa is the driving force behind these writers’ new work as Elaine Proctor presents The Savage Hour and Rosie Rowell discusses her debut novel Leopold Blue. Death, dis-ease and destruction are prominent in physical and psychological forms as both the authors tackle the political and the personal. Here the pair discuss their fictional portrayals of a nation con-stantly in flux.

Parker Bilal & Margie orford 20 August 8.30pmAfrica is a hothouse for new kinds of crime writing. Parker Bilal’s The Ghost Runner portrays the violence in Egypt after 9/11. There’s a similar mood in Margie Orford’s gripping Water Music, set around Cape Town. While writing it, a government sponsored massacre of striking miners took place - could Orford ever again imagine a detective seeking justice for the state?

Edinburgh International Book Festival 9 – 25 August 2014, Charlotte Square Gardens

C A Davids

Lauren Beukes

Elaine Proctor

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Mpho Tutu 21 August 12.30pmWhen apartheid ended many expected South Africa to be dev-astated by a bloodbath. Yet thanks to people like Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the country instead chose reconciliation and for-giveness. Now Tutu and his daughter, the Reverend Mpho Tutu, have written The Book of Forgiving. In this event we welcome Mpho, who talks to Ruth Wishart about her ideas for achieving peace in the world.

Mark gevisser & Maxim leo 23 August 8.30pmBoth Mark Gevisser and Maxim Leo grew up in countries now barely recognisable from the ones they experienced during child-hood. In Dispatcher, Gevisser delivers an impassioned medita-tion on South Africa, home and identity, based on his 1970s upbringing in Johannesburg. Meanwhile Leo has written Red Love, a fascinating memoir looking back at his childhood in East Berlin, revealing a GDR full of hopes, dreams and betrayals.

Paul gravett & John dunning 24 August 8.30pmThe Comics Unmasked exhibition at the British Library traces the British comics tradition back through classic 1970s titles to 19th century illustrated reports of Jack the Ripper and beyond. Featuring icons like Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, and Posy Sim-monds, curators John Dunning and Paul Gravett highlight how comics have uncompromisingly addressed politics, gender, vio-lence and sexuality.

Mpho Tutu

Damon Galgut

Margie Orford Zakes Mda Rosie Rowall

Calendar:

South African presence at Edinburgh Festivals

Following on the success of the last two years, Assembly Festival’s third South African Season brings the very best of contemporary South African Theatre, featuring internationally ac-claimed artists and the brightest emerging talent to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It has been made possible by the generous funding of the Department of Arts and Culture in South Africa and consists of five dynamic plays this year.

The Zulu from Tony nominee Mbongeni Nge-ma, Silent Voice from the South African State Theatre, the Best New South African Script winning Hayani, Durban Playhouse’s produc-tion of Race by David Mamet and the hilari-ous Sunday Morning all land in Edinburgh this August.

The South African Season was originally made possible by the collaborative efforts of Assem-bly Festival Director William Burdett-Coutts; British Council, Festivals Edinburgh, and key South African partners following a visit to the Festival in 2011 by a delegation of invited South African producers, theatre makers, po-litical representatives and cultural leaders.

Assembly Festival has raised the bar on the Fringe by working on country specific seasons, with the support of government agencies. Alongside the South African Season, Assembly Festival is also presenting its first New Zealand Season thanks to Creative New Zealand.

VEry BEST oF CoNTEMPorAry SouTH AFriCAN THEATrE AT THEEdiNBurgH FESTiVAl FriNgE

Assembly at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe31 July - 25 August 2014

SilENT VoiCEA full throttled, interactive new heist drama from Aubrey Sekhabi, Artistic Director of the South African State Theatre. Four men’s fates become intertwined when they attempt to pull off a complex and highly dangerous rob-bery. As the hijackers’ best laid plans begin to unravel, the audience are brought into the midst of the action as they become pawns in a high-stakes fight for survival. With a stellar

ensemble cast, including the title star of the Academy Award-wining film Tsotsi, SILENT VOICE makes for ‘utterly compelling viewing’ (Sunday Independent, SA). Performance details:31 July - 25 AugustPerformance time 14:00Assembly Roxy - Central

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Actors: Nat Ramabulana and Atandwa Kani

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HAyANiHayani is an original play reflecting on the meaning of home in the context of South Africa since its transition. The play explores the stories of two young South African males who both travel back home and in doing so they journey towards better understanding of who they are and what it really means to be a South African. A homecoming story that will tug at your heartstrings.

Performance details:1 - 25 August

Performance time 17:10

Assembly George Square Studios - Two

Assembly at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe31 July - 25 August 2014

rACEShame, guilt, class, sex, lies and race are all provocatively stirred together in this fast-paced drama from Pulitzer Prize winner David Mamet. The play’s riveting plot explores the attitudes of the two partners in a law firm, one African-American and the other white, who must decide whether to take on the case of a wealthy white man accused of raping an African-American woman. As the lawyers, and the defendant, try to sift facts from assumptions, shattering rev-elations emerge about their deepest values. The play, like the case, is not open and shut. This production from the Playhouse Company in Durban, South Africa has been enthusiastically re-ceived in a country battling with the complexities of a post-apartheid society, in which residual prejudice continues to warp perceptions.

Performance details:31 July - 25 AugustPerformance time 15:20Assembly George Square Studios - One

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Actors: Michael Gritten, Nondumiso Tembe, Andre Jacobs and Peter Butler.

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SuNdAy MorNiNgMatt is a successful photographer who has his life exactly how he likes it - until the day his girlfriend tells him she is pregnant. In an attempt to process this disturbing information he goes out for a run. Straying from his regular route, he ventures into a strange part of the city where he makes a gruesome discovery that changes everything.

Performance details:31 July - 25 August

Performance time 12:40

Assembly George Square Theatre - The Box

Assembly at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe31 July - 25 August 2014

THE ZuluA Grammy Award winner and Tony Award nominee, South African theatre and music legend Mbongeni Ngema returns to the stage after twenty-seven years to retell stories, told to him as a young boy growing up in the heart of Zululand, by his blind great-grandmother, Mkutshana. The stories take us on a journey through the formation of the Zulu nation and its struggles for survival to the moment when the Zulu nation stopped British imperial expansion dead in its tracks at the battle of Isandlwana. This is a compelling journey of personal identity, which com-bines music, ritual and performance revealing the stories, that, with extraordinary foresight, Mkutshana had protected and hidden within the confines of her rural home during the height of Apartheid. Ngema co-wrote the classic Woza Albert! and created the Broadway hits Sarafina! and Asinamali!

Performance details:2 - 25 AugustPerformance time 12:45Assembly Hall - Rainy Hall

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©The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo

©The Royal Edinburgh Military Tat-too

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The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo1 - 23 August 2014

The call of a trumpet, followed by a fanfare from the stands, heralds the opening spectacle of the 2014 Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo , as the Massed Pipes and Drums stream onto the Castle Esplanade playing that old time favourite Loch Lomond. The bond is Scotland, the land of the Homecoming.

Bands drawn from Her Majesty’s Royal Marines and the Royal Regi-ment of Scotland join forces with the 1st Royal Irish Regiment, the Australian Federal Police Band, the Tasmanian Police Pipe Band, the Singapore Army Band, the Paris Port Dover Pipe Band from Can-ada, the Malta Military Band, and the Royal Army of Oman togeth-er with musicians from the Pip-ers’ Trail, a concept that involves professional pipers being enlisted from all over the world, with every road leading to the same destina-tion – Scotland.

THE yEAr oF HoMECoMiNg – our HoME, FriENdS ANd FAMily

©The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo

©The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo 20141 - 23 August 2014

‘iNgobamakhosi’ Dance Group from Kwa-Zulu Natal have been specially recruited and rehearsed for this year’s Tattoo by Cheryl Goss from Hartford House. They will perform a traditional battle dance at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

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©The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo

South African Season in The uK

These events have been organised as part of the South African Season in the United Kingdom which falls under the ambit of the SA-UK Seasons 2014 & 2015.

The Department of Arts and Culture, South Africa and the British Council and are working to-gether on the SA- UK Seasons during 2014 and 2015, and developing a shared programme of activities, opportunities and communications that will complement projects already developed through Connect ZA and the South African Seasons in the UK. The collaboration is a catalyst for new partnerships that will enable them to highlight and extend existing creative links between the two countries. Artistic and Programmatic leadership: For SA: Mr Bongani Tembe (Commissioner-General) For the UK: Mr Tom Porter (Head of Arts, British Council, South Africa) Co-Chairs of the Seasons: For SA: Ambassador Thandiwe January-McLean For the UK: Rt Hon Baroness Usha Prasha