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.

Puppetry is still seen as a fringe art and awards like this help to bring it further into the public consciousness. Hopefully, more and more people will get excited about puppetry.

As for the show that I’ll be presenting at Grahamstown, watch this space.

Here’s what some other people have said about the award:

BASA:

“The newly announced Standard Bank Young Artist Award winners for 2010 embody a group of artists that are multi-talented, collaborative and eclectic. These artists personify the era of creative cross-pollination that is fast becoming the new standard of artistic expression in the emerging arts-leadership generation.”

“These awards, recognised as one of the most prestigious of their kind in the country, honour young South African artists who are on the brink of national acclaim. Besides providing them with financial support and a platform for experimentation, it gives recognition to their exceptional talent.”

National Arts Festival Director, Ismail Mahomed:

“Over the past 26 years, the Standard Bank Young Artist Awards have been heralded by the artistic community as the most sought after accolade to catapult the careers of young artists into the national and international arena.”

“Thrilling combination of shadow puppetry, live performance, marionettes and video. Stunning visuals and great acting.” Cue 2005

Highly entertaining… Sunday Independent 2008

Elise’s Adventures in Congoland is a satirical comedy about a white Capetonian who tries to get in touch with her ‘true’ Africanness. Falling down a long-drop, she finds herself on a surreal journey in a land formed from her ideas and fears of Africa. Shadow theatre, marionettes and live video combine with live performance in this a fast-paced and exciting piece of theatre.

Dolos is a works with the use of objects to create a layering of identity in characters. It plays with the questions: Do we know ourselves as we are, or are we holding on an idea of a ‘self’?  And then in the context of relationship – How long before love becomes just an idea to be held onto?

Dolos is staged using Bonraku-style puppets, Live performance and shadow theatre.

The play starts in a restaurant on present-day Vergelegen.  Waitresses introducing the specials of the day get carried away into telling the story of the historical figures, after whom the dishes are named. They take us back to the early 1700’s in the Cape Colony where a slave woman, Suraya, meets Adam Tas – leader of the ‘free burgher’s rebellion’. Fineline is a story of impossible love and a fight for freedom.

In Fineline, the Waitresses are played by actresses while the historical characters are large puppets. Freed from the constraints of the human body, the puppet characters move expressively. These sewn, stuffed figures remind the audience that the story and the characters, as well as their own views of them, are but constructs based on a skeleton of ‘truth’.