Hilton Arts Festival

One of the country’s most established and respected arts festivals, the Witness Hilton Arts Festival, now in its 19th year, takes place on the beautiful grounds of the Hilton College from 16 to 18 September 2011.

The annual festival is broadly considered to be KZN’s foremost arts and culture festival, consistently producing a sterling programme of cutting-edge drama, comedy, music and cabaret, as well as an impressive array of arts and crafts appealing to the thousands of visitors who attend the festival each year.

The festival attracts an enticing mix of phenomenal South African performers and artists gleaned from the most prestigious stages around the country, including the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.

There are some great innovations and developments this year. Building on from last year, the festival starts with a full day’s programme of age-specific arts events aimed at schools, designed to educate, entertain and allow learners to expand their world view. The day has been dubbed “Jongosi” – Johnny Clegg’s word from the Afrikaans meaning “jong os”, which has become absorbed into isiZulu parlance.

The Witness Flagship Production is The Timekeepers – one of three productions from Israel. When Hans, an outrageous young camp German homosexual, and Benjamin, a conservative elderly Jewish man are thrown together in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, they appear at first to have little in common…

This award-winning drama, which has toured Israel to great acclaim with this cast for over seven years, deals with the Holocaust in a way that accentuates the private experience amidst a tragedy of millions. The Timekeepers has performed in many countries, receiving excellent reviews and several international awards.

Some of the highlights nationally to look out for this year include London Road, which tells the tender, beautiful and funny story about a friendship between two women from diverse backgrounds living in the same block of flats in London Road, Seapoint. It has enjoyed sell out seasons at the National Grahamstown Festival for two consecutive years and is directed by Lara Bye,

Sailing Somewhere is a much anticipated world premiere featuring a brilliant cast and production team: directed by Vanessa Cooke and performed by Fiona Ramsay with Tony Bentel on piano (pictured above), and evocative original songs by Conor Mitchell, this one-woman play by South African Matthew Hurt is a sometimes funny, sometimes haunting portrait of a mother’s guilt.

Cochroach is a beautifully-crafted trilogy, written and performed by Jonathan Khumbulani Nkala and directed and edited by Bo Petersen. Jonathan Khumbulani Nkala is a young man from Kwekwe, Zimbabwe, living in Cape Town. The delicious, poignant, gentle one-hander bears witness to his eventful life and reminds us of the power of hope.

Closer to home, a myriad excellent shows have been gleaned from KZN:

Abnormal Loads was commissioned as part of Neil Coppen’s 2011 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Theatre and is set in a fictional battle-field town nestled in the once war ravaged valleys of Northern KwaZulu-Natal. The play is a rich amalgamation of ghost story, love drama, historical epic and dark comedy, where events, both past and present, unfold seamlessly.

Kickstart brings two productions to the festival: two delicious relationship comedies: The God of Carnage – a wickedly funny social comedy, featuring a brilliant local cast of multi-award winning actors which was the hottest ticket on Broadway, and I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change – an hilarious international musical looking at love and relationships. Both are coming to Hilton after sell-out seasons in Durban.

The intimate two-hander Mein Soldat, featuring Janna Ramos-Violante and Clinton Small, is a freshly conceived new South African piece written by Ramos-Violante. It debuted at the National Arts Festival in 2010 and was one of three Durban productions to win a coveted Standard Bank Fringe Ovation Award.

Also on the menu from Durban are a new production of spoken word poetry performance by Durban’s own award-winning published rapper and performer Iain EWOK Robinson; and after four years at the festival, Actors Unemployed finally have a venue! An irreverent, fast-paced romp through the Bard’s plays, Compleat Wrks (abridged) – 37 plays in only 80 minutes!!

Complementing the astonishing theatrical line up is always some great music. Christopher Duigan will be presenting his always anticipated fabulous Music Revival Concert Series. There is also live music for free on the public stages at the festival.

As well as the performance, there is also the Grindrod Bank Mindscape, a series of lectures, debates, documentary movies and workshops covering a variety of themes from crime writing and fine art to green issues and trips to China!

In-between shows, visitors are invited to peruse a selection of art exhibitions situated in venues around the Hilton campus, and the comprehensive arts and crafts market on the lawns. And of course enjoy a selection of refreshments to suit all tastes.

For more information, visit the festival website or phone 033 383 0126 /7.