International
award winning Theatre Company Curious Monkey announces new co-production
This
World Here… Nomhlaba Le'
North
Shields The Exchange, Saturday 26th May
Newcastle
Alphabetti Theatre Tuesday 29th - Thursday 31st May
Presented by Curious Monkey (UK) and Newcastle Arts Development Organisation
(South Africa)
Created By (cast):
Sanele Mzimela, Phelelani Mzimela, Velaphi Mthimkulu, Samu Khumalo, Sam
Bell, Alice Blundell and Stan Hodgson
Edited and Directed by: Amy Golding
Produced by
Sphiwe Xulu and Jen Dewar
Assistant Director Jonluke McKie
Assistant Director Jonluke McKie
Photo: RusbyMedia
A journey to
a new world full of song and discovery. When faced with a new culture or
visiting a n ew place, what do you bring with you? What do you leave behind?
This
international collaboration brings together original music intertwined with
traditional South African and Geordie songs, verbatim testimony and
storytelling. This World Here…Nomhlaba Le will take you on a journey exploring
community and belonging, celebrating diversity and uncovering our unconscious
biases. Asking...where is home?
Artists from
Curious Monkey and NADO met at the National Arts Festival of South Africa in
2015 where Curious Monkey was running the Remix Laboratory programme in
partnership with the Swallows Foundation UK. NADO, a theatre company from
Newcastle in Kwa Zulu Natal won a provincial competition to attend the Remix programme.
The work they make is political, provocative and tells the stories of township
life and the issues faced by their communities. The impressive a cappella vocal
skill of the group blows you away when they sing together and their encouraging
facilitation of others in supporting them to sing is inspirational. The two
companies had an unforgettable ten days working
together, most importantly they left knowing that they had to work together
again, they had developed a mutual respect and fascination with each other’s
processes of making theatre.
The show has
been developed through a series of international exchanges, originally
commissioned as the flagship cultural project of Newcastles of the World
supported by International Newcastle in 2016.
This May the
show will be staged at the Exchange in North Shields and Alphabetti Theatre in
Newcastle. The two companies will run workshops with Mouthful Voices at
Gosforth Civic Theatre who will perform a curtain raiser for the show on the
26th May at the Exchange. There will also be a workshop for year 5 and 6 pupils
at Hotspur Primary School and visits to Hexham and North Tyneside Hospitals in
partnership with the NHS Northumbria Healthcare Foundation Trust to share the
songs and stories from the show with patients.
The
production has been edited and directed by Amy Golding who founded Curious
Monkey in 2011. She has recently written
and performed Preggers , which toured the UK in 2016 and has many directing
credits to her name.
Amy
explains “We have been developing this show very slowly
over the last few years as the two halves of the creative tea m live in
opposite hemispheres, by coming together when we could and also on a Whatsapp
group. Everyone involved has had a chance to spend time reflecting on their own
home as they have hosted people from the other side of the world and through
doing so have been encouraged to look at their Newcastle with new eyes. We have
all also spent time in a new place that shares the same name as our home but is
very different in many ways, experiencing a new culture by becoming embedded in
it . Creating a show together in these international contexts (one much hotter
than the other!) resulted in such rich and powerful conversations about
everything from history to race, travel to home and everything in between. The
time we spent together was beautiful and challenging and I believe for all of
us in some way transformational. And the joy of it all being wrapped up in
learning and creating new music together with a group of truly talented singers
and musicians. We can’t wait to bring the show together.”
On
The Web
Website: https://curiousmonkeytheatre.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/curiousmonkey_
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/curious.monkey_/
Tickets:
North Shields The Exchange, Saturday 26th
May 7:30pm http://www.attheexchange.info/content/this-world-here-nomhlaba-le/
Newcastle Alphabetti Theatre, Tuesday 29th
- Thursday 31st May 7:30pm https://www.alphabettitheatre.co.uk/whats-on-menu/coming-up/17-whats-on-articles/285-this-world-here-nomhlaba-le
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