Boyzie Cekwana I South Africa


A silent musical about nourishment and taste
Influx control was the name given to laws passed in South Africa in 1923. These measures were used to regulate the inflow of Black Africans into the urban areas, thus restricting their access to culture, education, economy and power. They were abolished in South Africa at the end of the Apartheid. Inspired by the metaphor that in the meantime these laws are valid worldwide, Boyzie Cekwana has created a trilogy about cultural identity, Apartheid and global colonialism. Cekwana is a choreographer, performer and artistic chronicler of neocolonial realities in the world, and one of the most important performing artists in post Apartheid South Africa. Part I & II of Influx Controls were performed at Festival Theaterformen 2010 in Braunschweig. The third part is concerned with our creature comforts: it is a story of nourishment, food and stomach politics. Whereas hardly any topic better demonstrates the inequality in the world, Boyzie Cekwana is never simple or straightforward. He gives an intelligent and emotional story of food and its intricate, uneven and invisible poetics. Three "Universal" characters representing love, power and privilege, comment on the disquiet of angry stomachs grumbling at the deafening din of culinary correctness.

Choreography and Direction Boyzie Cekwana Performance Bhekani Shabalala, Bheki Khabela, Boyzie Cekwana Lighting Eric Wurtz Dramaturgy Guillaume Bernardi Technical Manager Matthews Phala Coproduction Zürcher Theater Spektakel, Les Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis, Centre chorégraphique national de Montpellier Languedoc Roussillon - Programme Résidences, Festival Theaterformen Hannover/Braunschweig, KVS Brüssel, Fabrik Potsdam

Within the framework of SHARED SPACES sponsored by the German Federal Cultural Foundation