New Nadia Davids Play WHAT REMAINS to Premiere at National Arts Festival, with Cape Town Run to Follow

WHAT REMAINS, the new play from multiple award-winning writer Nadia Davids, will come to Cape Town hot off its premiere at the main programme of the National Arts Festival. The first new play Davids to play on African soil in nine years, WHAT REMAINS is directed and choreographed by Jay Pather. A dream cast of Denise Newman, Faniswa Yisa, Shaun Oelf and Buhle Ngaba perform the play.

On a still, cool day in the east of a city by the sea, three sounds only: a bulldozer's engine, a forgotten song, a canon that tells the time. Behind the bulldozer, a sign: Luxury Mall Coming Soon. As the vehicle moves to clear ground, it strikes at something unexpected.

WHAT REMAINS fuses text, dance and movement to tell a story about an unexpected uncovering of a slave burial ground in Cape Town, the archaeological dig that follows and a city haunted by the memory of slavery. When the bones emerge from the ground, everyone in the city - slave decedents, archaeologists, citizens, property developers - is forced to reckon with a history sometimes remembered, sometimes forgotten.

Four figures - The Archaeologist, The Healer, The Dancer and The Student - move between bones and books, archives and madness, as they try to reconcile the past with the now. Davids comments on the play, which promises to be a captivating journey through the uncanny and the known, between waking and dreaming, through of paintings and protests:

This is a play about history, memory, magic and the now. Slavery in the Cape is a history full of silence and unresolved sorrow. And unresolved histories have a way of making themselves known. It is a play about how history erupts and disrupts the present.

I've always admired Jay Pather's work; the seamless, yet provocative way he forges connections and relationships between landscapes, the body, place and agency. I am thrilled that he agreed to collaborate on this text-based play, to bring it to life in his signature style and create a truly unique piece of theatre. It's a privilege too, to see the work performed by Denise Newman, Faniswa Yisa, Buhle Ngaba and Shaun Oelf. They are all incredible, captivating performers who work deeply and sensitively with the material.

Pather responds:

Nadia Davids' writing vividly transports us through multiple times and spaces, capturing the vertigo that characterises living in South Africa today. This ebb and flow of memory, moving back and forth from the aching, re-surging past and the turbulent present allows us a way to look at the complexity of the modern moment with fresh lenses. The elegance, weight and precision of the text reads like a choreography. In this sense I thrived on the endless possibilities for imagery, and kinetic connections. With a cast that brings a richness of talent, experience, emotional depth as well as political sophistication, this fast-paced and complex work was a pleasure and a privilege to direct.

WHAT REMAINS will premiere at the National Arts Festival, where it will play at Graeme College from 29 June to 1 July. Tickets, costing R80, can be booked through the National Arts Festival website. The show will then transfer to Cape Town, where it will play Hiddingh Hall in Orange Street from 6 - 12 July at 20:00, with additional performances on 8 July at 14:00 and 9 July at 18:00. Seating is limited seating, so booking is essential. Ample parking is available next to the venue. Tickets cost R120 and can be booked at Webtickets.

WHAT REMAINS was made possible by the generous support of the Leverhulme Trust. Nadia Davids acknowledges and appreciates the support of the Queen Mary University of London and the University of Cape Town's Drama Department during the development of the production. The production is not recommended for children younger than 10 years of age.