DFL brings poignant plays to WALE 5.0

The Wits Drama for Life Programme is one of the big showcases of the dramatic arts at the WALE 5.0 festival.

Consisting of academic, research and community engagement projects that focus on social transformation through Applied Drama, Theatre in Education, Communities and Social Contexts, Drama Therapy and Drama in Education, Drama for Life (DFL) will present two performances with immediate relevance at the WALE 5.0 festival.

One of the DFL’s most anticipated productions in 2012 is February 32^nd  Movement. The play explores the biography of Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe whose life is the story of a country’s destiny.

It takes the form of a birthday interview where ‘The Man Himself’ looks back at his life as the leader of his country. When being asked about his age, he says that he is “32 with his country and 88 alone”. The play shows video clips taken from the critical parts of the trajectory of the country.

The performance premiered on 21 February, the day of the 21^st February Movement of the country where the nation celebrates the president’s birthday. February 32^nd movement will be performed on 9 May 2012 at 18:00 at the Wits School of Arts (Mafika).

Besides Mugabe’s birthday, DFL also tackles another sensitive topic: How will we survive in a world that is changing rapidly? How will we cope in a changing climate? Can we connect to Mother Nature again? Or are we already lost? Inspired by installation art and image-narration, Stories of the Future traces our earliest beginnings of creation and development.

Three weeks before the 17^th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 17), which took place in November 2011, an ensemble of ten DFL artists – actors, musicians, dancers and graffiti artists – began an imaginative and explorative process of devising a mixed media theatrical installation that was further developed and performed every day at the conference.

The performance intervention aims at raising a focused awareness on environmental sustainability, the severe effects of climate change on the individual, as well as our global survival into the future. At COP 17, the DFL Company used improvised performance interventions to capture the imagination of the public. Young filmmaker Xolelwa Ollie Nhlabatsi followed the artists on their daily mission to create awareness at COP17. His documentary Stories of the future will premiere at WALE on 11 May at 19:00 at the Wits School of Arts (Appolonia).

Don’t miss these performances!