Ouroboros is a unique production by Janni Younge Standard Bank Young Artist for Drama 2010. It is a visual theatre production, using puppetry and multimedia to weave a story of love, life and death.

What the Press have said about Ouroboros:

Theresa Edlmann (Cue Review July 3) describes Ouroboros as “a complex epic, and an ambitious directorial undertaking. Janni Younge provides a remarkable level of conceptual coherence, especially in her weaving of transitory everyday interactions with the symbolic and archetypal inner life of such moments.” The reviewer comments further that the puppets are “exquisitely crafted” the manipulation is “remarkable” that “the movements onstage unfold with a balletic sense of ease and fluidity” and that the show is marked by “images and the stories they depict, inhabiting a space beyond time, that stay with one long after the show is done.”

Sheena Stannard (Artsblog- July 3 2010): “When I see shows like this I believe there is hope for the planet we are so blindly destroying with our eyes wide open.  Poignant, visually lovely, beautifully crafted… the show is gentle and full of heart. I let go and allowed myself to be swept into it, as if in a dream…”

Fiona Gordon (Creativity Thinks 07/12/10): “Young Artist for Theatre Janni Younge’s ‘Ouroboros’ …was my ‘if you see one thing’ prediction for this year’s festival. It was …every bit the visual and theatrical treat I had hoped for. I sat open-mouthed through most of it, in awe at the detail. Using shadows with the ‘multimedia projection’ backdrop, much of the story is told through the manipulation of diminutive, but incredibly life-like moving puppets, by a khaki-clad team of puppeteers. The dream-like quality of the experience contributes to the subject matter which, through two characters who interact with one another at various stages of their lives, explores the cyclical of aspects nature, through love, dreams and death.”

IN BRIEF

A contemporary puppet theatre production about life, death and…tea

Ouroboros is a story of love, dreaming, imagination and death. A multiplot, with 10 characters formed of different aspects of 2 people, it reflects interconnected relationships, the battles of growing and the complex beauty of the moment. Using puppetry, projection and movement, the play paints images as it moves through time and space, weaving together the lives of its two main characters as they encounter themselves and each other.  Ouroboros is inspired by the poetry of Billy Collins.

MORE ABOUT OUROBOROS

Adults in the distance are laughing and talking loudly. Glasses tinkle. In the foreground Andre the baby is crying and sucking on his hands.

Nokubonisa the old woman wakes up. She puts on slippers and takes tea to old Andre who is sitting at his writing desk.

Nokubonisa the woman, dancer, stretches

Andre the man clears his desk, sits down, lifts his pen and looks off into the distance

Nokubonisa the baby is bouncing on Andre the old man’s lap.

Andre the 5-year-old boy holds a present. He strokes it. He carefully opens the wrapping and slides out a book.

Nokubonisa the girl puts on her ballet shoes and does a few clumsy, childish ballet moves.

Andre the old man pushes an empty wheelchair.

So begins the dance of Ouroboros, the snake who bites his own tail.

DEFINITION OF OUROBOROUS

The Ouroboros is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent swallowing its own tail and forming a circle. The Ouroboros often represents self-reflexivity or cyclicality, especially in the sense of something constantly re-creating itself, the eternal return, and other things perceived as cycles that begin anew as soon as they end.

OUROBOROS CREDITS

Created and designed by Janni Younge

Directed by Janni Younge

Music: Neo Muyanga

Choreography:  Mamela Nyamza

Poetic text: Aristotle by Billy Collins

Cast: Jason Potgieter, Cindy Mkaza, Gabriel Marchand, Tali Cervati, Beren Belknap and Alude Mahali

Shadow manipulation: Zandile Bekwa

Wardrobe: Hillette Stapelberg

Lighting design:  Daniel Galloway

Animation:  Micheal Clark

Studio Assistants:  Amanda Ganca, Sandile Qagana, Maggie Winston and Daya Heller

Set construction:  Gavin Younge

Puppet furniture construction: Matthew Rademeyer

Backdrop painting: Yolandi van Jaarsveldt

Mentors: Janice Honeyman (directing) Illka Lowe (set & costumes)

Stage Managers:  Jessica McCarthy, Jade Bowers

Thanks to the Handspring Puppet Company, the Theatre Arts Admin Collective, Lara Foot, Jenny Marchand, Marybelle Donald and Nik Rabinowitz for support, to Tara for inspiration and to Luke for everything.

Directed by Janice Honeyman

with John Kani and Anthony Sher

Puppet design, construction and  choreography by Janni Younge

Set on a fictitious island off the coast of Africa, this production of The Tempest interpreted the text from a post-colonial perspective, reading into the role of Prospero and Caliban the power dynamics of oppression. The enchantment of the island is captured in the doings of the spirits and made concrete in the form of puppets, masks and props. Forces, spirits, the seemingly ‘inexplicable’ are carried in on the wind from all across the continent. In creating the piece we drew on images from animistic and ancestral traditions from various parts of Africa. In working with this eclectic African aesthetic we aimed to evoke the power of these traditions rather than illustrating any culturally specific rituals or objects.

The Gardian (UK) gave the production 5 stars and said of it: “…brilliant…combines racial politics with visual playfulness in a way that liberates this all-too-familiar play”

Blameless Productions, directed by Sanjin Muftic, Puppets by Janni Younge

Helen Brain is and award winning children’s author. One day she writes a story so dark her publishers reject it as “not suitable for children”.  By weaving this shadowy fairytale into her adult journey towards healing, Here Be Lions reveals the truth behind that “unprintable” story. The book is interpreted through a single actress animating a group of expressively created, larger-than-life brown paper puppets who represent the figures of her memory and imagination.

Goat for comedian Nik Rabinowitz’s show “Anyone Seen My Goat?”
created by Janni Younge.

The goat is a free standing sculpted beast with a movable head.

Animal puppets mingle on the set of the Cape Town International Comedy festival. The top dog opens the show.

Dog created for the promotion of Vawter as a ventriloquist’s dummy.

Operated by Conrad Koch.

SURF

Commercial produced by Sonny (London) and Farm Film (Cape Town)Shadow puppetry by Janni Younge