Filling up at Festival

WORDS: Remy Raitt   PHOTOS: Sarah Schäfer

Grahamstown is alive! The National Arts Festival has swept the town and all its guests off their feet with a bedlam of culture and art.

VISI arrived among the flurry on Saturday, and we’ve been on our feet up and down the quaint streets of Grahamstown, lapping up as much as possible. Inside theatre spaces, out in the town, and in between the stalls at both the Village Green and the Fiddlers Green markets; there is so much to take in it can get a bit overwhelming. But don’t worry, we’re managing. 

On Saturday we were dazzled by the quirky charm of the Japanese kamishibai style performance ‘The Epicene Butcher and Other Stories for Consenting Adults’. Kamishibai is a Japanese form of storytelling that uses paper ‘scrolls’ to convey stories with moral lessons to a mostly illiterate audience. The audience at the weekend was certainly not illiterate but sure did get a few lessons in perversion, selflessness and the dream state of cats (all in different stories of course). Hilarious at times and also a test of the audiences’ scruples, it was a performance unlike anything else on the Fringe, and a real Grahamstown must-see. Just be sure to leave the kids at home.

Yesterday Guy Buttery and Nibs van der Spuy started our day off with the artful strumming of their guitars. Both are obviously deeply in love with their instruments and explore the strings and bodies in some unusual and extremely effective ways. Guy also treated us to some mbira, not something usually associated with acoustic guitar, but accompanied by Nibs’ nimble fingers, it was quite something. You don’t just listen to them; it’s impossible not to be drawn to their fingers, flying up and down their instruments, which turns the experience into an unexpectedly visual one.

Lunchtime was spent at the Village Green market, and after a thorough hunt for the best grub on offer, we settled for vegetarian fritters topped with guacamole and a Spanish style frittata jammed with gooey cheese and delicious fresh veggies.

Up the road from at the Village Green we visited ‘The Hanger to watch ‘Callum’s Will’, a moving drama that centres on a paraplegic man and his young employee. Callum is an ex-dancer who is wheelchair-bound after a car accident, and he has hired Will to help him with daily errands. What starts as a rather sour relationship transforms in front of the audience into a warm friendship that hints at both a paternal and homosexual bond. It was a beautiful piece that was expertly performed by the actors Darren King and Clinton Small – bravo to them and their director Janna Ramos-Violante.

Today we’re off to see the much talked about Brett Bailey exhibition ‘Exhibit A’, which the artists describes as a series of “human installations”. Its racist premise promises to be evocative and even disturbing, we’ll fill you in about it, and the other shows we got to see tomorrow. Until then you can follow us on Twitter for a stream of updates.