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.

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

Directed by Rob Murray, shadow puppets by Janni Younge

The premise of Imbew’embi is a doomed love story between a young man and his sweetheart. The love story plays out against the backdrop of a civil war that is set in motion through the maliciousness and jealousy of the heroine’s assistant. This is the “imbew’embi”, the bad seed, whose poison spreads through and affects the entire community.

PICTURES OF YOU

Directed by Rob Murry, masks and puppet by Janni Younge

“Pictures of You” is a nostalgic tale of love, fear and darkness, conveyed with insensate masks and extremely ably maskers. The challenge of sustaining a work with no verbal dialogue, without the facility of labile facial expression and with a story that hinges on mystery and taboo is not an easy feat. The three collaborators who have created this stunningly impressive work really do deserve a full season on the boards. This is a play which attempts to slice open its own red herrings, chops to tail, and explore them with a freneticism that is mesmerising. (My View by Robyn Sassen)

QUACK!

Directed by Rob Murry, masks and puppet by Janni Younge

QUACK! is an Afro-gothic fantasy – a visual tale of clown noir and dodgy deeds. A man lies dying in hospital, lost in fever and seemingly unknown illness. Yes we canIn his delirium, he fantasises himself away into a parallel universe, where the roles are reversed and he is a figure of substantial power. Part quack doctor, part motivational speaker, part politician, and part alchemist, he travels the land spreading his sermon of pop psycho-babble and other homilies. With the aid of his long-suffering assistant, and the dour presence of a number of acolytes, he builds up hope and expectation within his audience, and then harvests that hope, extracting from it the very essence of people’s dreams.

Pictures of You

Ten2One

Performed at Oude Libertas, the V&A Waterfront as part of the Cape Town festival, Artscape, and at the National Arts Festival (main).

Performed in the sudio in Transwerk, and at the Aardklop festival Potchefstroom, this piece was a site-specific experimentation with dripping water, baking bread, performers hanging upside down and giant burning houses. Odd Experiments evoked a world where domesticity has gone awry and human activity is simply a cog in a chain of bizarre and senseless activity.

By  Max Frich. A Magnet Theatre production.  Puppet Design and construction  by Janni Younge

Performed in The Baxter Theatre, Cape Town; Schlachthaus Theater, Bern; La Parfumerie, Geneva; Temple Allemand, La Chaux-de-Fonds.

Puppet design nominated for a Fleur du cap Award

The chorus of puppets for The Fire Raisers were developed as a group of municipal city workers, alive in their everyday duties yet with constructed ‘work’ identities. They are individual people of the city but as firemen they are unified in their role and way they present themselves. They are naturalistic but clearly constructed which plays into their role as both chorus and mob in the production.

A Kilkis puppet company production. Directed by Victoria Marinez and Janni Younge. Puppets designed and created by Janni Younge.

Performed: The International Festival of puppetry and Mime of Kilkis, Greece, The international Puppet festival of Bilbao, Spain.  Also toured in Greece and performed in Hungury and Croatia.

A visual interpretation of the classic novel by Swift, Guliver takes its audiences on a poetic journey to encounter the strange and wonderful beings that populate Guliver’s travels.

A child is hospitalised for discovering his sexuality. The production raised questions about normality, sexuality and our human response to situations which challenge these concepts.