Monday 19 October 2015

Bilimankhwe visit the Afrovibes Festival in Amsterdam


Kate Stafford on a visit she and Amy Bonsall had to the Afrovibes Festival 



Amsterdam, early October 2015.

We are sitting in the upstairs room of a lovely theatre, the Compagnietheater. Everywhere the Afrovibes Festival roars around us - in the few days we have been here we have been in a maelstrom of intercultural performance. We have seen high energy, urban dance, Afrikaans/English rap; verbatim theatre documenting South Africa’s recent upsurge in xenophobic violence and some wonderful clowning. There are visual art exhibitions, performances in English, Dutch and Xhosa and lively discussions with artists from hugely diverse backgrounds.

But now we are meeting with the organisers of this festival, to talk about bringing our production of Brothers in Blood to Afrovibes 2016. And the opening remarks? “I saw a pitch for this play in South Africa some time ago. I didn’t like it”.

Oh dear. But I am hear to report, gentle reader, that by the end of the meeting we are pretty much agreed - the Bilimankhwe-UK Arts co-production of Brothers in Blood by Mike Van Graan, directed by Amy Bonsall, will be performed in Amsterdam next Autumn. Our show will be current, exciting, dynamic and explosive and we managed to blow away the memories of whoever that other company was that pitched the play so badly!

London, mid October 2015

So back in London the work begins. We must put together the UK tour, apply for funding and do all the other production work in order to make this happen. I am sitting at my computer procrastinating when a notification pings. Brett Bailey has sent an update from Rio:

‘Shit hit the fan last night here in Rio, when a debate around Exhibit B and associated issues was taken over by shouting, furious members of the audience. no debate. no discussion. A huge amount of anger and frustration and absolute fed-upness with the injustice dealt to black society in this country which saw the import of 4.9 million slaves, in which racial inequality is rivaled only by South Africa, in which police brutality towards black people gets scant notice, and around 77% of the victims of all homicides are black youths. All this got focused on me and the festival which intends to host the work next year. Again I'm a racist motherfucker.

I gotta really weigh up, even if the relevant festivals decide to go ahead and run the work, whether I have the energy and will to enter that kind of maelstrom again. perhaps its just not my battle.'

As regular readers of this blog will know, I saw Exhibit B in Paris last year, and think it is an extraordinary work of extreme power. I would be sad to see it cancelled again - but let me post this response from Ismail Mohamed, the Artistic Director of the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, South Africa, as he says it so much more eloquently than I can:

'As the Artistic Director of the National Arts Festival I engaged with the proposal for this production for a long while when it landed on my desk. My initial response to the proposal was hugely negative. I engaged privately for long hours about how a White artist would be appropriating history and pain of the "other". I was concerned that the work would make an exotic museum piece of the "other". I thought of almost every single reason that has been presented by those who are determined to prevent the work from being staged. After days of contemplation, I decided that despite all my concerns the work needed to be staged. I knew that it would evoke pain. I knew that it would stir guilt. I was prepared for any anger that it might unleash. When it was staged it did evoke all those emotions and much more. It made White audiences feel guilt, remorse and even anger for the pain, humiliation and destruction that their forefathers brought to Africa. It gave White audiences an opportunity to cry and to look at the first "other" person they saw in that "theatre" with a deep sense of humility. The work gave Black audiences a spiritual connection with their past and an opportunity to feel affirmed that the struggle is still far from over. There were audiences who also hated the work; and they had every right to do so. The purpose of presenting good art is not to make the artist feel loved. It is to push the artist out there from our comfort zones and to stir us from our inertia. To unearth those bottled emotions. To play havoc with our minds. To push us into those dark spaces that we hope will get forgotten. To let us walk on our own way and to inspire us with the energy to triumphantly celebrate the human spirit. To leave us for days on end pondering, questioning, confused and arguing with ourselves, the artist and the art. EXHIBIT B did all of that in Grahamstown. For that reason alone I would stage the work again and again and again.'

To which Brett replied: “thanks, Ismail”. Yes, thanks Ismail, for standing up against the shouting and furious rage, and expressing what many of us feel. 

Thursday 15 October 2015

Romeo and Juliet: the first Chichewa translation

Support the first ever translation of Romeo and Juliet for Malawian audiences


Exciting news! Our Associate Director Amy Bonsall is going to be collaborating with Malawian writer Stanley Onjezani Kenani to create a Chichewa translation of Romeo and Juliet and tour it around Malawi!

Please help us to make this exciting project happen, either by donating here, or by helping us to spread the word about our campaign.

· You will be helping to fund the first ever production of a poetic translation of Romeo and Juliet into Chichewa.

· You will be supporting the best of Malawi's actors and graduate actors.

· You will be giving hundreds of Malawians (many of whom do not speak English) the opportunity to see Romeo and Juliet in their own language.

· Thousands of students will have online access to a poetic translation of one of Shakespeare's great plays in their own language.

About the project


Shakespeare has been popular in Malawi for over 100 years and his plays are widely studied, Romeo and Juliet being the current curriculum text. However, with English as a second language, many students find Shakespeare hard to understand and enjoy. Bilimankhwe Arts has engaged Caine Prize nominated Malawian writer, Stanley Onjezani Kenani to produce a poetic translation of Romeo and Juliet to be performed at Chancellor College in Malawi in April 2016.

The production will have a Malawian cast, drawing from the very best of Malawi's professional actors and students from Chancellor College's Performing Arts Department. It will be directed by international theatre director Amy Bonsall with a Malawian assistant director. Students in Malawi currently only have access to English versions of Romeo and Juliet and this is an amazing opportunity to give them a translation in Chichewa, the most widely spoken language in Malawi. The educational impact of this is huge and teachers, students, academics, theatre practitioners and artists throughout Malawi overwhelmingly support this project. The British Council in Malawi has pledged to support the project by making the text available online. This really is an opportunity for you to support the making of theatre history.

Sunday 28 June 2015

July 2015 news

Leah Moyo is currently in the air on her way to Grahamstown for the National Arts Festival. She will be blogging about it soon ... This is a great partnership as she is accompanying Jan Ryan from UK Arts International and representing both Bilimankhwe and Black Theatre Live. She is looking for two things: plays to present as rehearsed readings at Afrovibes 2016 and actors for our production of Brothers in Blood which will be touring with Afrovibes, with a cast drawn from both South Africa and the UK. can't wait to hear more ...

In other news, Amy Bonsall has just completed a two week R&D for Romeo and Juliet - the first draft of the Chichewa translation is complete and she worked Professor Mufunanje Magalasi's students at Chancellor College. Again, watch this space for more details.

Work on The Tempest is also continuing. With a new partner on board, the York International Shakespeare Festival, the plan is to go out for our R&D in 2016.

So there's a lot in development for a very busy time in the coming year.  If you've discovered our blog but not yet signed up on our mailing list, please do ... The link is here: http://www.bilimankhwe-arts.org/#!contact/cvrh

Wednesday 28 January 2015

2015 and beyond

Welcome to new Associate Artist Leah Moyo

Back in the autumn it became clear that we had put together an amazing team for our rehearsed readings at Afrovibes. Travelling to 5 cities performing staged readings of two plays with extremely limited rehearsal time concentrated the mind wonderfully. One of our actresses, Leah Moyo, stood out as a committed, talented, intelligent artist and we are very, very pleased to be able to announce that she has joined Bilimankhwe as Associate Artist.

Leah graduated last year from The Drama Studio following a career change; she moved out of International Development into Theatre. She was born in Zambia and speaks both chitumbuka and chichewa (Nyanja), two of the main bantu languages spoken in Malawi so is the perfect fit for us. Amy, George and Kate couldn't be more delighted to have her on our team.

Three Shows in Development

This year is going to be a busy one, as we have 3 plays in development for production in 2016 and 2017. 

Brothers in Blood

After a very successful tour of the Mike Van Graan play readings at Afrovibes, we are working with Jan Ryan of UK Arts International to produce a tour of Brothers in Blood as the audience response to the readings was so positive. The play investigates frictions and relationships between Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities in South Africa; with the recent events in Paris and the Jewish Community in London now shockingly saying they don't feel safe here it seems the perfect time to re-visit this award-winning play. 

Shakespeare - The Tempest and Romeo & Juliet


The other two projects being developed at the moment are an inter-cultural production of The Tempest which will tour Malawi and the UK, and a chichewa language version of Romeo and Juliet, developed in association with the Universities of Malawi and Leeds. 

Throughout June our two Artistic Directors, designer Hazel Albarn and actress Leah Moyo will be in Malawi working on the R&D phase of both Shakespeares; Amy will be in Zomba at the University working with Professor Mufunanje Magalasi and the students there on Romeo and Juliet, and Kate, Hazel and Leah will be in Blantyre working with the artists of Nanzikambe, our partners.

The Globe in Africa

As well as all that, Amy and Kate will be in Malawi at Easter for the Globe-to-Globe touring production of Hamlet. Nanzikambe are hosting the show which gets to Malawi on 8 April.  For more information about the Globe production have a look at the Globe-to-Globe website.