Rust Co-Operative Stages ASHES at the Galloway Theatre this November

Presented by the award-winning Rust Co-Operative, ASHES explores the life of a young man through the eyes of six characters, played by two actors, each somehow related to the man. When he comes out to his parents, they send him away from their small-town home to the city, in order to protect him and provide him with more opportunities. The man's entrance into adulthood, his growing relationship with the partner he meets in the city and the excitement and thrill of first love are paralleled with his idyllic childhood, a troubled adolescence and his complicated relationship with his parents. A sudden, violent event ruptures the world of the characters, and they are forced to try and pick up the pieces in the void that remains.

The impetus for ASHES is the ongoing violence against gays and lesbians in South Africa, specifically three excessively violent attacks on young gay men in the Western and Northern Cape this year, which have mostly remained unreported in the mainstream media. In one particular instance, an assailant called over a group of teenagers to watch as he was "going to kill a moffie." ASHES thus examines systemic homophobia and the scourge of violence against young gay lives in our country, deftly exploring the thin line between the personal and the political.

In distinctive Rust Co-Operative style, ASHES highlights the humanity of the characters, tenderly addressing notions of family, home, love, loss and grief, and creating an intimate experience for the audience. ASHES serves as a reminder that individual lives are not isolated events but part of the social fabric, intricately woven up with and into other lives.

Presented by dynamic Rust Co-Operative co-founders of Penelope Youngleson and Philip Rademeyer, who have just returned from the Amsterdam Fringe Festival with SIEMBAMBA and the Cape Town Fringe Festival with FULL STOPS ON YOUR FACE, ASHES is written and directed by Rademeyer and features the exciting talents of rising stars Stefan Erasmus and Shaun Gabriël Smith.

Established in 2012, the Rust Co-Operative was created as a playspace for Rademeyer and Youngleson to create new South African theatre works that tell the kind of stories that not only interest the pair of theatre-makers but which also are not necessarily represented on South African stages. The pair elected to run the Rust Co-Operative in a way that allowed them to collaborate with like-minded artists, all working towards a mutual social, economic and cultural vision, and help contribute towards building momentum and synergy in the local theatre scene.

On the naming of the co-operative, Youngleson and Rademeyer comment: "We called it the 'Rust' Co-operative because we believe in the value and beauty of things that have got a story to tell. There's not a lot of narrative in perfection; but something or someone that's lived a bit and been weathered by life often has a distressed attraction. We like stories and perspectives of people on the outside or on the edge of groups: the people who don't fit easily into spaces and categories. These are our rusty people."

In two years the Rust Co-Operative has produced seven new works: THE VIEW (written and directed by Rademeyer) , EXPECTANT (written and directed by Youngleson), SIEMBAMBA (co-written by Rademeyer & Youngleson, directed by Rademeyer), AN(T)ONIEM, TEE, FULL STOPS ON YOUR FACE and LIE.

ASHES will run at the Galloway Theatre from 4 - 8 November. Tickets cost R60-R80 and can be booked through the Waterfront Theatre School website.