sustained theatre

Further blogs from the Sector artists can be found be visiting this link The South Africa Blogs! Sector Artists Respond

A key extract from the blog written by Regional Hub member Sâmir Bhamra on his recent visit to Grahamstown Festival.

South Africa and I

It was an incredibly random moment when I heard an answer phone message from Simon Fitch talking about an opportunity to travel to South Africa to attend the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. I have to admit that initially I was a little stunned because I had been planning on travelling to South Africa for a project I was developing, and one that I had been specifically involved with to bring to London.

Grahamstown was founded in 1812 and is renowned for the largest arts festival in Africa, Rhodes University, the International Library of African Music and the Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity.

I didn’t have much time to plan because of the schedules or learn more about Grahamstown (I was directing a play at the time which was an intensive and challenging process) and in the run up to the flights I had literally no sleep. It was a gruelling 19hr flight via Dubai. I am not one to sleep on planes, especially when you are sitting next to an irritable/sadistic 3 years old child who was on route with his mother to Beijing. Slightly bruised from his kicking and a little smelly (he threw up on me) – I was in Johannesburg. There is a god!

That was the first time it hit me – I’m in South Africa. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was armed with my father’s advice to visit Cape Town because it was heaven on earth and my aunt’s advise to be careful and not to venture out alone, especially in Johannesburg. I wondered as I walked through passport control if South Africa was anything like Kenya, where I was born and lived until I was 14 years old? Or would it be like India, a country that I’d travelled to the first time almost 10 months earlier.

As I walked out with my luggage at 11am and headed towards domestic departures (I have another 2hr flight to Port Elizabeth Airport), I started to absorb the colours and images surrounding me. I was only distracted by the smells of breakfast – real food. I didn’t have much time to explore and I saw a sign for Nandos – yes I know what you are thinking. I walked in and was a little disappointed by the menu – it wasn’t the same – they didn’t have prego steak with pineapple! Gasp. I ordered a chicken thing – which actually was very good – fresh, delicious, flavoursome. I stood recharged and disappointed no more.

I had the energy to continue and as I did, I bought myself a South African sim card for about £5 and topped it up. I called my family to let them know I had arrived in SA safely and text Pervais too with my SA number as I headed to check in – the next leg of the journey to the Eastern Cape.

The flight to Port Elizabeth was pleasant. I had good company – an accountant Faisal from Joburg who was also travelling to the festival – his first time. His actor friend had organised his itinerary and so I thought he could give me some tips about what shows to see. Alas, to my dismay, he knew jack and was also staying an hour drive away from Grahamstown because he couldn’t get accommodation. Hmmm.. seems like G-town is a bit of a busy festival – I’ve not heard of a festival where you can’t get accommodation anywhere near.

On arrival at Port Elizabeth at 3pm, I could sense the sea breeze. Port Elizabeth is a small airport, something you might have seen in films like Pearl Harbour. It feels like Nairobi’s Wilson Airport in size, it could almost have been just a hangar. I understood what Faisal meant when he described it as a ‘ten minute airport’. With my luggage, I looked out for my group taxi – and I saw my first friendly face – Felix Cross from Nitro, who is also part of the Sustained Theatre, London hub.

The taxi driver tells us to wait for a few minutes while he was counting all the passengers or something to that effect. As he disappears, I notice to the left a range of car hire vendors as I took in the sheer expanse of land. It is a cross between mainland America and somewhere mildly colonial. It reminded me of photographs of Kenya, when my father was in his early twenties. Felix and I, with some ladies stood watching the sun set. Where is this driver? We are going to be late to meet the rest of the group if he doesn’t return soon. Also, I want to have a shower, because even though I changed my clothes at Johannesburg Airport, I still feel icky. Almost an hour and a half later, with no explanation, he driver returns and we are finally on our way to Grahamstown, which is a further 90minutes drive.

The drive reveals Port Elizabeth as a major seaport that houses one of the largest car manufacturing industries. And with this history, I start to fall asleep – my first bit of forty winks in 26 hours. Whilst I cannot sleep in an aeroplane, it’s different in a minibus. I hope I don’t snore, which when I am extremely tired I am capable of. Every now and then, I manage to wake up and notice the landscape. It’s green, hilly, bushy farmlands. Sleep. Sun is setting. Sleep. When I eventually feel the minibus slowing down, I realise we are approaching Grahamstown and its dark. It’s about 8pm. The driver drops us all at our ‘hotels’.

I am booked into the Festival Hotel – which is basically one of the nicer halls of residence at Rhodes University. Felix and I are given our keys – we are practically neighbours, we walk the 3 or 4 flights of stairs to our rooms – no lifts. Ho hum, the sleep should help muster some energy. The room is a little bigger than Elvyn Richards Halls at Loughborough University (I lived in halls throughout university). It has a sink and a mirror in one corner. Not far from it is a chest of drawers which have a lamp, a kettle with tea/coffee making stuff, and the bed. There is a blue armchair by the side. Behind me are a lot of cupboards. More than Lufbra ever had! Felix knocks on my door as he’s received a call to see some show and he decides to go exploring. I on the other hand, want my shower and some proper sleep. I unpack a little and walk down a flight of stairs (our floor has the female showers and toilets, and the male ones are downstairs). The showers are fantastic. Powerful, hot and absolutely invigorating.

Back in my room, I can feel the South African winter chill and so I switch on my heater. As it heats up, it also smokes my room up. Arrrgh, not good. I switch it off and open my window to clear it up.

Feeling refreshed and recharged, I decide to walk back to the centre to meet Pervaiz and some of the ST peeps at the Long Table. Here, I am introduced to Philippa, a performance poet who fantastically becomes my surrogate mother and tells me what shows I should go and see. I am not complaining, I much rather someone help me sort the chaff from the wheat.

The next day, as I walked down towards the Village Green and Rhodes Theatre, I couldn’t distinguish Grahamstown from Loughborough. They are so similar in many ways. I can’t imagine that there is much business here when there are no students.

As I walked towards the Village Green, I realised that there were 2 village greens, one on the university grounds and the other out by Fiddlers Green. Later that night, at the Long Table, I was speaking to a very drunk theatre maker – who spoke to anyone who so much as made eye contact with him. It emerged that this was the first year that there were two Village Greens, and there was a lot of tension brewing between the market sellers and the festival management. That explained the huge scary guards with big guns at the university grounds. Hmm.. this is so Kenya and so not Loughborough now.

I went to South Africa with no idea of what to expect, what I would learn and gain from the experience.

While I was in South Africa, the director of 'Ncamisa: Kiss The Women' kindly ran a workshop for me in Cape Town which I know will be incredibly beneficial to my practice. We have discussed a little about collaboration, and we are exploring avenues and a possible project.

In the meantime, to share the experience of South Africa to the wider UK theatre loving audience, I agreed to bring Peter’s show 'Ncamisa: Kiss The Women' to the UK and offer it to theatre during Black History Month in 2010. The play is a fantastic story, based on the real life murder of a black football loving lesbian living in the townships. I’d also like to bring 'The Famished Road' to the UK and I may do so if I can gather enough support from venues.

It has been an enormous opportunity to see the greatest festival in Africa and broaden my horizon. The journey has been a platform to share ideas and collaborate for me to raise the profile of BAME theatre nationally and internationally.