The Market Theatre Announces Upcoming Shows Thru December 2010

The Market Theatre has announced its upcoming productions and events thru December 2010.

FNB Dance Umbrella 2010
presented by First National Bank in association with the National Arts Council and The Market Theatre,
will run from 27 February to 14 March 2010 with performances at various Johannesburg theatres, the Wits Theatre complex in Braamfontein, the UJ Centre for the Arts in Auckland Park, and The Dance Factory, The Market Theatre Main Theatre and the Barney Simon Theatre in Newtown.

Works that will be presented at the Market Theatre includes:

Black!... White?
by Nelisiwe Xaba
2 & 3 March 2010
Main Theatre
Time: 20h30
This work explores the themes of racial and social stereotyping and how these distort people's perceptions of one another. The issues are explored using the socio-economic climate of present-day South Africa as the setting for the narrative, keeping in mind that stereotyping and discrimination are not exclusively South African phenomena, but are universal. At present, discrimination is still rife in South Africa although the criterion has shifted from race, to class and economic power. The performance will ask the question of whether we benefit from focusing on what makes people different from one another - how do our interactions change when we begin to see our similarities or when we are forced on to an equal standing through circumstances beyond our control?

"elev(i)ate"
by choreographer Athena Mazarakis and digital artist Tegan Bristow
3 & 4 March 2010
Market Theatre Foyer

Mazarakis and Bristow have worked together on two previous projects, Coming To (2007) and Chalk vision (2007) and wish to further their collaboration between the moving body and a digital arts interface in this new project "elev(i)ate" explores the possibility of an unmediated, direct and intimate meeting between members of a dance audience and a dance work. As a performer within the installation, Mazarakis invites an interaction with members of the audience and explores the poetic value of a simple dance 'lift' as the currency of exchange within this meeting.

Konexion
choreographed by. Wanted Posse and Indigene Dance Company
5 & 6 March at 20h30
7 March at 14h30
Main Theatre

With the 21st century bringing exchange and missing, Konexion is an appropriate creation which illustrates the result of a dialogue between cultures; a conversation where everyone has something to say and a gesture to share. Whether its break dance or gumboots, house or Pantsula, Hip Hop or Kwaito, what emerges from this is a fraternal dialogue between bodies converging in the same direction. Konexion was created after a 15- day residency in Johannesburg with Soweto-based company The Jerry Zenzile Dance Academy.

Asymptote
Choreographed by Frauke and Orlando
9 & 10 March at 20h00
Barney Simon Theatre

Asymptote is an Ankoku Butoh dance that explores the materiality of the body and its relationship to the natural world. This avant-garde Japanese dance form has inspired, mainly through its originating spirit Tatsumi Hijikata and his principal performer Yoko Ashikawa, a seemingly inexhaustible exploration into the realm of body consciousness. Asymptote is a butoh dance that celebrates our physical materiality, a world in which the individual is infinitely connected to the elemental, mathematical, and patterned nature of our ecosystem.

Double Bill
Umfula Wa Ma Dada
by Dada Masilo
and
Indlela by Luyanda Sidiya
9, 10 & 11 March at 20h15
Main Theatre Umfula Wa Ma Dada is a work Dada Masilo created in residency in Israel and Indlela by Luyanda Sidiya which is inspired by the different paths we take to find ourselves as human beings.

Reunion-based choreographer Eric Languet will present a work called Faux Ciels (Fake Skies) at the Barney Simon Theatre on March 12 and 13 at 18:30, 19:30 and 20:30. This work is an interactive work with an audience and will look at what can and cannot be said through dance. A minimum of 10 people will be allowed at each performance. Please book your seats for this performance by phoning 011 492 0709.

A new untitled work
by Sbonakaliso Ndaba
12 & 13 March at 20h15
14 March at 15h00

Sbonakaliso Ndaba created this new work at Cape Town's celebrated Jazzart Dance Theatre company. The idea for this work was inspired by a programme seen on 3rd Degree that dealt with illegal mineworkers. How far does one go in terms of searching for what will allow us to take the next breath, in order for us to simply survive? Some people are prepared to go into mine shafts six storeys underground; enter the mine gates illegally and pay security guards thousands of Rands to do so.

The FNB Dance Umbrella 2010 has been made possible with assistance from First National Bank and the National Arts Council. Other partners include The Market Theatre; The French Institute of South Africa; the French Consul South Africa, Culturesfrance; Business and Arts South Africa; The Goethe-Institute of Johannesburg; The British Council; Media partners: Citizen CitiVibe, ClassicFeel Magazine and Artslink.co.za.

Tickets for the FNB Dance Umbrella are available at the door or can be booked at Computicket - 083 915 8000 and prices range from R60 to R100.
Concessions/block bookings and subscription tickets are available.
Booking opens in February 2010.
For further information contact 011 492 0709/ 2033 or e-mail danceumbrellatartslink.co.za
The Dance Umbrella 2010 hot-line for updates and programme schedules is 072 703 9332.
Visit www.artslink.co.za/arts

The Market Theatre presents
Death of a Colonialist
15 March-2 May 2010
Market Theatre - Barney Simon Theatre
Written by Greg Latter
Directed by Craig Freimond

This remarkable new play written by Greg Latter (best known as a successful South African screenplay writer) tells the story of an Eastern Cape history teacher reaching the end of his career at a private school in Grahamstown. Obsessed with the history of the amaXhosa, he is so wrapped up in his teaching world that he fails to be aware of the crises that are raging in his family. This exciting team includes Jamie Bartlett, Shirley Johnson, Louise Barnes and Theo Landey.

The Market Theatre presents
Closer
22 March-9 May 2010
Market Theatre - Laager Theatre
Written by Patrick Marber
Directed by Sello Maake ka-Ncube
Patrick Marber's Closer is a sad, savvy, often funny play that casts a steely, unblinking gaze at the world of relationships and lets you come to your own conclusions. Marber tells his story in short, staccato scenes in which the unsaid talks as loudly as the said. First performed at the Royal National Theatre 22 May 1997, Closer was made into a film in 2004, directed by Mike Nichols, and starring Natalie Portman as Alice, Julia Roberts as Anna, Jude Law as Dan and Clive Owen as Larry. Sello Maake directed this play with great success about ten years ago, with an all-white cast. He now returns to the play with a highly acclaimed all-black cast.

Constanza Macras
10 May - 6 June 2010
Market Theatre - Main Theatre
The famous Berlin choreographer will be staging a piece called Off-side Rules. Featuring dancers from her company Dorkey Park and leading SA dancer-performers. Dorky Park is a dance company from Berlin, and directed by choreographer Constanza Macras. Constanza Macras was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she studied dance and fashion design. After spending some time obtaining additional training at the Merce Cunningham Studio New York she moved to the city of Amsterdam, Holland, where she presented her work in various local venues. In 1995, Constanza Macras moved to Berlin and founded the group Tamagotchi Y2K, which became Constanza Macras/DorkyPark in 2003.

The Market Theatre presents
House of the Holy Afro
7 June - 11 July 2010
Market Theatre - Main Theatre
Brett Bailey's eclectic experiental music event which will take place over the World Cup. A combination of ritual, performance, song and DJs. A contemporary youth event back from major international tours.

Hello and Goodbye
12 July- 22 August 2010
Market Theatre - Barney Simon Theatre
Written by Athol Fugard
This successful production starring Dorothy Anne-Gould and Michael Maxwell has not yet enjoyed a full season in Johannesburg - in spite of its nomination for several Naledi Awards and its enthusiastic critical reception. One of the classics of South African (and world) theatre, this is the quintessential production, featuring exceptional performances. "When asked to name my favourite among the 50 years of playwriting that lie behind me now at the age of 76, Hello and Goodbye is without fail one of the three that comes to mind. It joins Blood Knot in being the moment nearly half a century ago when I discovered my own voice as a playwright," said Fugard, who has been described by Time magazine as the greatest active playwright in the English-speaking world.

Set in the kitchen of a railway house in Port Elizabeth in 1963, the play softly cauterizes the wounded lives of its characters. A brother and sister who have not seen each other for years, unpack boxes and suitcases in search of an elusive inheritance and in so doing unpack the memories and truths of their empty and damaged lives. The sister, Hester, has survived in Johannesburg through prostitution, while her brother Johnny has stayed at home to care for their crippled father. Both of them have lost or sacrificed their own dreams in the time since they last saw each other and this brief encounter is characterized by anger, hate and fear, with flashes of tenderness and emotional subtlety. The encounter all but destroys any vestiges of familial love which have survived unacknowledged in their existences.

Joe Barber
19 July - 22 August 2010
Market Theatre - Main Theatre

The latest instalment from this highly successful and hilarious comic duo.

Joy of Jazz
23 - 29 August 2010
Market Theatre - Main Theatre

The Market Theatre's contribution to the great tradition of jazz throughout Newtown.

The Market Theatre presents
Deaf Month
30 August-19 September 2010
Market Theatre - Laager Theatre
Listen with your Eyes is a festival of theatre from "From the Hip". Two plays will be presented, one in the morning, which will be dedicated to deaf and hearing schools. An adaptation of Lara Foot's Wombtide, directed by Rob Murray, will be presented in the evenings. There will also be talks, workshops and conferences as part of this special festival.

The Market Theatre presents
Nothing But The Truth
6 September - 10 October 2010
Market Theatre - Main Theatre
Written by John Kani
Directed by Janice Honeyman
Following a hugely successful season on the Main Stage in 2009, this returns due to overwhelming popular demand.The death of an estranged brother forces aging librarian Sipho Makaya, along with his daughter and the niece he has never met, to confront the betrayals, jealousies and animosities of the past, both political and personal. Exploring the relationship between those who remained in South Africa to lead the struggle against apartheid and those who returned victoriously after living in exile, Nothing But The Truth explores the destruction of a man's aspirations at the very moment when democracy promises their realisation; examining family secrets, sibling rivalry, exile, memory and reconciliation. Nothing But The Truth is now a national English Additional Language set work.

The Market Theatre presents
Loving Lulu
September-October
Market Theatre - Barney Simon Theatre
Written by Bruce Koch and Noxolo Tshabangu
This play has been developed as part of the DOEN writing project. It explores a triangular relationship between two women and a man, as the women discover their powerful attraction to one another. Comic and bitter-sweet, very modern and very Johannesburg, this promises to be a fresh and lively production.

The Market Theatre, LIVE Theatre in Newcastle and the Citizen's Theatre in Glasgow present
The Girl in the Yellow Dress
27 September - 7 November 2010
Market Theatre - Laager Theatre
Written by Craig Higginson
Directed by Malcolm Purkey
A brilliant new play by Craig Higginson (writer of Dream of the Dog), this dark, witty, sexually-charged drama has already sent waves across Britain - inviting an unprecedented co-production between the Market Theatre and two prestigious UK theatres. The play will open at the Main Festival in Grahamstown, move to the Edinburgh Festival (the Traverse or the Assembly Rooms) and then have seasons in LIVE Theatre (Newcastle) and the Citizen's Theatre (Glasgow). A London season is also in negotiation.

The play is set in contemporary Paris and deals with the exchanges between a beautiful English teacher and her black French-Congolese pupil. A play about language, power, identity, sex, past trauma, class, exile and refugees, this is a powerful new South African play, part psychological thriller, part 'state of the nation' analysis of the tensions between the 'first' and 'third' worlds, part exploration of some of the tensions that run through South African society and beyond.

Featuring a leading UK actress and exciting emerging South African actor Atandwa Kani (who recently played Ariel in Janice Honeyman's RSC production of The Tempest). Directed by the Artistic Director of the Market Theatre, Malcolm Purkey.

Ruined
18 October-7 November 2010
Market Theatre - Main Theatre
Written by Lynn Nottage
A drama about the struggles of women in the not very democratic Republic of the Congo, while their country is being ripped apart by a bloody civil war. The play has been named as the recipient of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The show, which ran Off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club, received rave reviews when it opened in February of 2009 and has extended its run several times. The Market Theatre will be hosting the original American production as part of their national tour of America.

The Market Theatre presents
Something Dark
25 October-28 November 2010
Market Theatre - Barney Simon Theatre
Written and Performed by Lemn Sissay
Something Dark tells the true story of Lemn Sissay who as a baby was given up by his Ethiopian mother in the 1960s. He was renamed Norman Greenwood and nicknamed Chalky White throughout his turbulent childhood in care, only to find out his real name at the age of 18. No longer the possession of the social services, he left the brutal suburbs of Lancashire for the bright lights of Manchester, where he became a celebrated performance poet. Aged 21, Lemn left for Gambia in search of his mother and the truth about his father.

Something Dark is written by Lemn Sissay. In it he plunders his astonishing life story to create a virtuoso performance of searing honesty, laced with secrets, lies and truths too terrible to mention, and artistically influenced by his background in poetry. Sissay has a poet's ear for language and metaphor. He recounts difficult experiences with humour and humanity, never self-pity.

Something Dark has already enjoyed an extremely successful run in Grahamstown 2009 and two performances at the Market Theatre. We are delighted to welcome this back for a full season.

The Market Theatre presents
Shakespeare's Villains
15 November- 19 December 2010
Market Theatre - Main Theatre
Written and Directed by Stephen Berkoff
Starring John Kani
This production brings together the formidable talents of Stephen Berkoff and South Africa's leading actor, John Kani. Berkoff will be visiting South Africa to direct Kani in a new version of this world-renowned theatrical event. Stephen Berkoff will also be holding talks, workshops and two premier performances of his other work. Shakespeare's Villains is based on Berkoff's famous interpretation and analysis of Shakespeare's most villainous characters: Iago, the Macbeths, Shylock amd Richard III. Some of these characters are inherently evil, others find themselves in a situation that leads them to evil deeds, others still are at the mercy of an evil society. In his show, which is part pedagogy, part snippy stand-up and part tour de force acting dazzle, Steven Berkoff zips through a lecture on a cache of Shakespearean characters with the kind of flair that can turn indifferent students into drama majors! It is not only a wonderful character study, but also a fascinating history lesson. In an illustrious stage and screen career, Steven Berkoff has got under the skin of many of our most memorable bad guys: psychos, murderers, gangsters and autocrats - from Bond baddies to Hamlet; from Rambo's nemesis to Coriolanus. His multi-faceted, international career encompasses original plays such as East, West, Decadence, as well as some with catchy titles like Kvetch and Brighton Beach Scumbags.

Shakespeare's Villains has toured the world and performed in India, the USA, Europe, Israel and Brazil.

The Market Theatre presents
Family Theatre Season
15 November-19 December 2010
Market Theatre - Laager Theatre
The latest instalment in the ground-breaking and hugely successful work the Market has produced in recent years - Grimm Tales, The Jungle Book and Brer Rabbit.

For more information, please visit http://www.markettheatre.co.za/right.html