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Daily Maverick
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Maverick
Everything, everywhere and all at once
Theatre-maker Wessel Pretorius talks about directing 'Die een wat bly' and explains why arts festivals are his lifeblood. Actor, playwright, screenwriter and theatre director Wessel Pretorius was strangely anxious ahead of his trip to Europe to perform the role of Mephisto in Faustus in Africa!, an expensive revival and reworking of the 1995 production featuring live actors, charcoal animations and astonishing puppetry. Helmed by directors William Kentridge and Lara Foot, featuring a top-notch cast and exacting production values, it's an astonishing theatrical event, polished and professional, with significant international financial backing. It's currently in Europe for a six-week tour, being performed at a number of theatres and at such prestigious events as the Athens Epidaurus Festival in Greece (where it played this past weekend). Expectations for Faustus in Africa! are huge, yet it's not the show, nor the thought of getting lost in foreign cities, nor even the physical labour of theatre move-ins, performing in new spaces and various connecting trips between venues in different cities that have had Pretorius in a knot. Rather, there have been pangs of FOMO. This is the first of three such European tours scheduled for the year (it'll be at the Edinburgh Festival in August), and his biggest regret is that he'll be missing several of the arts festivals that have been his bread and butter for more than a decade. 'When we heard that Faustus is travelling overseas, I was on the one hand so grateful, but on the other hand I was sad that I won't be able to do the Vrystaat Arts Festival, or go to Aardklop. These festivals are very much our lifeblood, something I've been doing for the last 12 years and they're the only thing I know. I've performed in school halls more than I've performed in actual theatres. It's pretty rare to have an actual dressing room. 'At one recent festival I directed two shows, performed in another, and had one 20-minute show that was playing in a tent. It was like everything, everywhere, all at once. Some of these shows are fortunate enough to get to go to the next festival and then the next festival. 'The festivals have become a substitute for the old state-run performing arts councils. Instead of working for a repertory company, today's theatre-makers have this dynamic festival circuit.' Not that South African festival-goers will entirely miss out on Pretorius's creative output while he's out of the country. Although he'll be in Italy with Faustus, performing at the Campania Teatro Festival in Naples on 2 and 3 July, this year's National Arts Festival, which starts this week, features Die een wat bly ('the one who remains'), which Pretorius directed for the Figure of 8 Dance Theatre and wrote alongside the cast. With it, Pretorius effectively navigated into new genre territory. While his plays have always tended to be physical, and often comically so, this is his first time working with dancers, and his first time creating a 'play' that might just as credibly be called a dance show, or physical theatre. The show was initiated by Figure of 8 and originated with an idea the company's principals had. Grant van Ster and Shaun Oelf wanted to tell a kind of stream-of-consciousness story about their own mothers – about mothers whose sons are gay. 'They wanted to create a play with a strong dance element and they wanted to tell the story about their mothers and about being the queer son… and the relationship queer sons have with their mothers,' says Pretorius. 'This is something I find endlessly fascinating and something I think about a lot in my own life.' Starring Oelf, Van Ster and actor Daneel van der Walt, it's in many ways an homage to childhood, those memories that are filtered by the passage of time and by the thoughts that interfere with the way in which memories are formed. Watching it is like slipping into a dream; when I saw it at Suidoosterfees in May, I was buoyed, invigorated, heartbroken and genuinely carried away. The closest I've come to describing how it made me feel is to say that it was like being inside a René Magritte painting, a surreal universe where memory, dreams and the subconscious slip, slide and sometimes collide with reality. It has the effect, too, of leaving you suspended in an altered state. It's powerful stuff. The sort that makes you feel far more than it encourages you to think. While the poetry of the words washed through me, the play's resonance was felt in my gut, not in my mind. For 75 minutes, I was witness to a living dream: very beautiful, very powerfully executed. It was a strong reminder of theatre's potency, its potential to transport us. Pretorius says the response to the show has been surprising. 'It was a surprise because it's actually a very small show. It looks quite big, perhaps, because a lot more people are involved than are usually involved in the stuff that I make. My plays are typically very much independently produced. This show was given money. Has been given wings to fly.' Some of that money has come from Festival Enterprise Catalyst (FEC), which supports new works, specifically enabling them to travel to more festivals, grow and indeed fly, find wider audiences and – yes – look 'bigger' than their physical dimensions might otherwise suggest. The fact is that Pretorius and his cast created something that not only feels bigger than the sum of its parts, that transcends the physical dimensions of what it is – a three-hander that is somewhere at the crossroads between dance theatre, physical theatre and dramatised dream – but that, thanks to its theatricality, sends you back out into the world feeling like you have spent time away from reality. It possesses some special spark, something magical that transports you far from the here and now. Pretorius loves work that is literary but not literal. 'Something that uses words to sort of go against the grain of the literal and breaks open the imagination even further,' is how he describes the kind of text that interests him. 'When I read poetry, I seldom 'get' what I'm reading; I kind of just let it wash over me. But I'm left with some residue of feeling or imagination that usually sits underneath the skin.' He says it's this ethereal, indefinable quality that he's reaching for with theatre. 'If I can leave people feeling as though their body temperature has changed, then I feel like I've done my job. I think that only happens when you avoid tying them into those literal things that they see in everyday life. That's why I work minimalistically. Because then people can project their own imaginations onto what's happening on stage.' Looking at his work and hearing him speak about his process, you might assume he's been hanging out in theatres all his life, writing since before the nappies came off. That's not the case at all. 'The reason I went into the arts is because my life at home was so incredibly average and boring,' he says. 'Boring is a terrible thing to say, but I have a very middle-class, Christian nationalist family background. My father had many jobs, but was a plumber for most of my childhood. My mother was a teacher. Acting definitely wasn't on the cards other than maybe as a weekend hobby. They were incredibly sport-frenzied people for whom rugby is worshipped just below god. I fell in love with movies. Those were my escape.' In Nelspruit, where he grew up before the launch of its annual Inniebos arts festival, he didn't even see a play until he was 18. And it took a lot of parental persuading for him to end up at drama school in Stellenbosch. He says that after graduating from university, 'it was like a wasteland out there, nothing except castings for ads, which depressed me no end'. But the wasteland also fired up the need to make work. 'I knew nobody was going to offer me Hamlet, so I had to create something just to keep myself motivated and busy. That's why I wrote Ont-. I booked four nights at a venue in Stellenbosch, and I told myself that, come hell or high water, I was going to fill those four slots with a show.' He did. And he's never looked back. He says that, while creating Ont-, he was going through a lot of 'personal angsty stuff' – his mom's cancer diagnosis, a boyfriend breaking up with him, and he'd moved from Stellenbosch to Cape Town. It all fuelled his creative fire. 'I had a lot going on inside, and so when I sat down and started writing I realised that it was a way for me to actually articulate all of these very intense emotions, and use theatre as an outlet.' He recently revisited Ont-, directing a new production of it for KKNK. 'I did it with Wian Taljaard in the role. It was phenomenal to return to it, because I can't remember who wrote it. I don't know who that version of me was. I was 24 when I first did Ont-, and I performed it until I was 29, yet it's now so removed from me. I wanted Wian to do it because he's basically the exact same age now that I was when I performed it for the first time in 2010. 'That was at a time when I was very interested in Grotowski and a school of theatre that only uses the body and space and very little else. I still work that way, I think… I still feel that's the way to go.' Which is perhaps why Pretorius finds such a strong affinity with the physicality and poetry of Die een wat bly. He says part of the strength of the show is that it was created specifically for dancers – performers who weren't trained in acting, whose bodies create the vocabulary. He says there's something instinctive in the way dancers process ideas and communicate feelings and thoughts and memories through physical expression. It meant that he had to approach writing the show in a different way, was able to strip away much of the prosaic, literary elements. Die een wat bly flowed out of 'lots of conversations' and from 'a hotbed of memories and feelings and opinions'. 'I just jotted down everybody's vague memories of what they'd experienced growing up and their relationship with their mother,' says Pretorius. 'Grant's mother passed away and Shaun's father passed away on the way to the hospital while his mother was going to give birth to him – those realities were there and I wrote from what I remembered in order to weave everybody's stories together. It included my own memories and that became the master copy of the play. 'During a read-through with the cast, I saw that it didn't quite work… so I went and stripped down the text a bit and was reminded that, since it's a dance piece, I could rely on these incredible poets of physicality to do a lot of the work… So, although I've worded it very precisely, it's born from our collective stories.' While Pretorius says he wasn't specifically trained in physical theatre, he has a strong affinity for the work of Complicité, a UK theatre company known for its extreme use of movement, with the Jacques Lecoq school of physical theatre, and with the approach of local actor-director Sylvaine Strike, who is known for work grounded in strong physicality. 'I'm not a choreographer so I relied on the performers' physicality and their instincts as movers. Later, Natalie Fisher came in to punctuate and clean up the choreography and put all the movement together.' Although Pretorius won't be in the country to see the show being performed in Makhanda, he says the National Arts Festival was pivotal in helping to launch his career. 'Way back when I started doing Undone [an English version of Ont-], I took the show to the Vienna Festival in Austria and the AfroVibes Festival in the Netherlands. The organisers had seen me at NAF, and then they invited me to tour.' He says that, even with his overseas engagements, the local arts festivals will continue to be at the heart of his work. 'I think the people who run these festivals, the people who make them happen and the artists who attend are the most resourceful people in the world.' Also difficult to ignore is the rush he gets from performing in the more rugged context of a festival – without all the relative extravagance he's no doubt experiencing on tour in Europe with Kentridge and company. 'For years I performed only at festivals,' he says. 'You become a bit addicted. It's the unknown. The unexpected. And the adrenaline.' DM


Gulf Today
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Gulf Today
Athens' ancient theatre closes for three-year restoration
For visitors to Athens, the ancient Odeon of Herod Atticus is the must-see theatre at the foot of the Acropolis. Artists revere it for the majestic stage where legends have performed. And for the Greek capital's residents it is the touchstone of their summer cultural calendar. The Odeon of Herod Atticus recently opened the 70th season of the annual Athens Epidaurus Festival, a cherished annual tradition for many Greeks. But this edition marks the last before the theater that's more than 18 centuries old shuts down for maintenance and restoration work that is expected to last at least three years. While theatre and dance grace its stage, music is its cornerstone. Renowned artists who have performed here include Luciano Pavarotti, Frank Sinatra, Coldplay, and Greece's own Maria Callas. Its closure will be a profound loss for spectators who have long enjoyed first-class performances under the stars in one of the world's most iconic open-air theatres. 'When (people) think of the Athens cultural scene, everyone thinks of the festival and Herodion,' said Katerina Evangelatos, the festival's artistic director since 2019, calling the theater by its commonly used Greek name. 'It has become a synonym of the festival. It is the heart of the festival.' When the Greek National Opera opened this season's festival with Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot, it erected temporary structures behind the Roman-era odeon's arched walls to expand available space for performers' dressing rooms. The permanent underground facilities weren't enough. The production also needed more space inside the venue to accommodate the scale of the production. To meet the opera's scenic and casting demands, a crew constructed a wooden, balcony-like platform to partially extend over the orchestra pit. Ushers prepare the Odeon of Herodes Atticus ahead of the dress rehearsal of Giacomo Puccini's "Turandot" by the Greek National Opera under the ancient Acropolis hill during the 70th Athens Epidaurus Festival in Athens, Greece. File/AP This adaption allowed space for the large cast and complex staging, including the emblematic scene in which the emperor, Turandot's elderly father, is ceremonially rolled out in his towering throne to watch suitors attempt to solve his daughter's riddles at the risk of execution. The scene requires significant simultaneous on-stage presence by multiple performers. Giorgos Koumendakis, the Greek National Opera's artistic director, describes the Herod Atticus Odeon as 'a strained, fatigued space' which still commands widespread veneration. 'People who are conscious, cultivated, educated — who understand what this space is, its historical significance, the importance of the festival, and the history of the Greek National Opera — respect it deeply and enter it almost reverently,' said Koumendakis. 'It's like entering a temple — a temple of art — and it truly has an impact. I can see it from the singers and the orchestra, too. When they come here, they genuinely want to give their all.' Dancers warm up at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. During previous restoration and conservation projects, the Herod Atticus Odeon had surfaces cleaned, cracks filled with grout and new seating installed. This time, the scope of the work will depend on findings from the studies still underway. Culture Minister Lina Mendoni said that although the venue's closing date is certain, at the end of summer, its reopening is not. 'This will depend on the problems that the studies will reveal,' she said in an interview to Greek radio station Skai last month. 'What is certain is that at least three years will be needed.' The closure of the Herod Atticus means the Athens Epidaurus Festival will need to consider alternatives for the next few years. Evangelatos reflected on the festival's 70 years, noting that it began during Greece's turbulent postwar years of political division and economic hardship. 'It's a miracle of survival and artistic legacy,' she said. On the festival's opening night, the backstage area was abuzz with final preparations, with wigs styled, masks adjusted and costumes touched up. Soprano Lise Lindstrom, who starred as Turandot, took in the gravity of the setting. Associated Press


South China Morning Post
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Host to Coldplay and Pavarotti, Athens' Odeon of Herodes Atticus to close for renovation
For visitors to Athens, the ancient Odeon of Herodes Atticus, the theatre at the foot of the Acropolis, is a must-see. Artists revere it for its majestic stage. And for Athenians, it is the touchstone of their summer cultural calendar. The Odeon of Herodes Atticus – known in Greek as the Herodion – recently opened the 70th season of the annual Athens Epidaurus Festival. This edition is the last before the theatre – which first opened in AD161 – closes for maintenance and restoration work that is expected to last at least three years. While theatre and dance grace its stage, music is its cornerstone. Renowned artists who have performed there include Luciano Pavarotti, Frank Sinatra, Coldplay and American-born Greek singer Maria Callas. Its closure will be a profound loss for spectators who enjoy first-class performances under the stars in one of the world's most iconic open-air theatres. 'When [people] think of the Athens cultural scene, everyone thinks of the festival and the Herodion,' said Katerina Evangelatos, the festival's artistic director since 2019. 'It has become a synonym for the festival. It is the heart of the festival.' Denia Mimerini (centre) and Nikos Egglezos (left) of the Greek National Opera prepare ahead of the staging of Puccini's Turandot at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus in Athens, Greece, on June 3, 2025. Photo: AP When the Greek National Opera opened this season's festival with Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot, it erected temporary structures behind its arched walls to expand the available space for dressing rooms, because underground facilities were not large enough.


Nahar Net
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Nahar Net
Ancient theater in Greece opens for final season before 3-year restoration
by Naharnet Newsdesk 23 June 2025, 17:20 For visitors to Athens, the ancient Odeon of Herod Atticus is the must-see theater at the foot of the Acropolis. Artists revere it for the majestic stage where legends have performed. And for the Greek capital's residents it is the touchstone of their summer cultural calendar. The Odeon of Herod Atticus recently opened the 70th season of the annual Athens Epidaurus Festival, a cherished annual tradition for many Greeks. But this edition marks the last before the theater that's more than 18 centuries old shuts down for maintenance and restoration work that is expected to last at least three years. While theater and dance grace its stage, music is its cornerstone. Renowned artists who have performed here include Luciano Pavarotti, Frank Sinatra, Coldplay, and Greece's own Maria Callas. Its closure will be a profound loss for spectators who have long enjoyed first-class performances under the stars in one of the world's most iconic open-air theaters. "When (people) think of the Athens cultural scene, everyone thinks of the festival and Herodion," said Katerina Evangelatos, the festival's artistic director since 2019, calling the theater by its commonly used Greek name. "It has become a synonym of the festival. It is the heart of the festival." When the Greek National Opera opened this season's festival with Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot, it erected temporary structures behind the Roman-era odeon's arched walls to expand available space for performers' dressing rooms. The permanent underground facilities weren't enough. The production also needed more space inside the venue to accommodate the scale of the production. To meet the opera's scenic and casting demands, a crew constructed a wooden, balcony-like platform to partially extend over the orchestra pit. This adaption allowed space for the large cast and complex staging, including the emblematic scene in which the emperor, Turandot's elderly father, is ceremonially rolled out in his towering throne to watch suitors attempt to solve his daughter's riddles — at the risk of execution. The scene requires significant simultaneous on-stage presence by multiple performers. 'It's like entering a temple' Giorgos Koumendakis, the Greek National Opera's artistic director, describes the Herod Atticus Odeon as "a strained, fatigued space" which still commands widespread veneration. "People who are conscious, cultivated, educated — who understand what this space is, its historical significance, the importance of the festival, and the history of the Greek National Opera — respect it deeply and enter it almost reverently," said Koumendakis. "It's like entering a temple — a temple of art — and it truly has an impact. I can see it from the singers and the orchestra, too. When they come here, they genuinely want to give their all." During previous restoration and conservation projects, the Herod Atticus Odeon had surfaces cleaned, cracks filled with grout and new seating installed. This time, the scope of the work will depend on findings from the studies still underway. Culture Minister Lina Mendoni said that although the venue's closing date is certain, at the end of summer, its reopening is not. "This will depend on the problems that the studies will reveal," she said in an interview to Greek radio station Skai last month. "What is certain is that at least three years will be needed." A long intermission The closure of the Herod Atticus means the Athens Epidaurus Festival will need to consider alternatives for the next few years. Evangelatos reflected on the festival's 70 years, noting that it began during Greece's turbulent postwar years of political division and economic hardship. "It's a miracle of survival and artistic legacy," she said. On the festival's opening night, the backstage area was abuzz with final preparations, with wigs styled, masks adjusted and costumes touched up. Soprano Lise Lindstrom, who starred as Turandot, took in the gravity of the setting. "It's an absolutely magical atmosphere here. To be able to stand on the stage and look directly up and see the Acropolis is a little bit mind-blowing, I have to admit," she said. "And then also to look out and see all the people sitting there and just being so absorbed into the performance. It's very, very powerful and magical." All eyes were on Lindstrom as she took center stage beneath the stars — marking the start of a final season before a long intermission.


Hindustan Times
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
An ancient theater in Greece opens for its final season before undergoing a 3-year restoration
ATHENS, Greece — For visitors to Athens, the ancient Odeon of Herod Atticus is the must-see theater at the foot of the Acropolis. Artists revere it for the majestic stage where legends have performed. And for the Greek capital's residents it is the touchstone of their summer cultural calendar. An ancient theater in Greece opens for its final season before undergoing a 3-year restoration The Odeon of Herod Atticus recently opened the 70th season of the annual Athens Epidaurus Festival, a cherished annual tradition for many Greeks. But this edition marks the last before the theater that's more than 18 centuries old shuts down for maintenance and restoration work that is expected to last at least three years. While theater and dance grace its stage, music is its cornerstone. Renowned artists who have performed here include Luciano Pavarotti, Frank Sinatra, Coldplay, and Greece's own Maria Callas. Its closure will be a profound loss for spectators who have long enjoyed first-class performances under the stars in one of the world's most iconic open-air theaters. 'When think of the Athens cultural scene, everyone thinks of the festival and Herodion,' said Katerina Evangelatos, the festival's artistic director since 2019, calling the theater by its commonly used Greek name. 'It has become a synonym of the festival. It is the heart of the festival.' When the Greek National Opera opened this season's festival with Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot, it erected temporary structures behind the Roman-era odeon's arched walls to expand available space for performers' dressing rooms. The permanent underground facilities weren't enough. The production also needed more space inside the venue to accommodate the scale of the production. To meet the opera's scenic and casting demands, a crew constructed a wooden, balcony-like platform to partially extend over the orchestra pit. This adaption allowed space for the large cast and complex staging, including the emblematic scene in which the emperor, Turandot's elderly father, is ceremonially rolled out in his towering throne to watch suitors attempt to solve his daughter's riddles — at the risk of execution. The scene requires significant simultaneous on-stage presence by multiple performers. Giorgos Koumendakis, the Greek National Opera's artistic director, describes the Herod Atticus Odeon as 'a strained, fatigued space' which still commands widespread veneration. 'People who are conscious, cultivated, educated — who understand what this space is, its historical significance, the importance of the festival, and the history of the Greek National Opera — respect it deeply and enter it almost reverently,' said Koumendakis. 'It's like entering a temple — a temple of art — and it truly has an impact. I can see it from the singers and the orchestra, too. When they come here, they genuinely want to give their all." During previous restoration and conservation projects, the Herod Atticus Odeon had surfaces cleaned, cracks filled with grout and new seating installed. This time, the scope of the work will depend on findings from the studies still underway. Culture Minister Lina Mendoni said that although the venue's closing date is certain, at the end of summer, its reopening is not. 'This will depend on the problems that the studies will reveal,' she said in an interview to Greek radio station Skai last month. 'What is certain is that at least three years will be needed.' The closure of the Herod Atticus means the Athens Epidaurus Festival will need to consider alternatives for the next few years. Evangelatos reflected on the festival's 70 years, noting that it began during Greece's turbulent postwar years of political division and economic hardship. 'It's a miracle of survival and artistic legacy,' she said. On the festival's opening night, the backstage area was abuzz with final preparations, with wigs styled, masks adjusted and costumes touched up. Soprano Lise Lindstrom, who starred as Turandot, took in the gravity of the setting. 'It's an absolutely magical atmosphere here. To be able to stand on the stage and look directly up and see the Acropolis is a little bit mind-blowing, I have to admit,' she said. 'And then also to look out and see all the people sitting there and just being so absorbed into the performance. It's very, very powerful and magical.' All eyes were on Lindstrom as she took center stage beneath the stars — marking the start of a final season before a long intermission. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.