So So1o Singles Theatre

So So1o is a theatre festival of one-person plays presented by The Wits Theatre from 7 ¨C 19 October 2014.

Each play uses a single voice to communicate through the medium of drama, performance art, autobiography, confessional poetry, stand-up comedy, or narrative. No fewer than 10 alumni contribute to So So1o, either as directors or performers.

¡°The So So1o festival was designed to achieve several Wits Theatre objectives related to the arts and to shaping the professional performing arts industry,¡± explains Theatre Director, Gita Pather. ¡°As a University, we train future artists and thus prioritise our obligation to grow the arts sector by creating more opportunities for performance, creating new work, showcasing new voices and affirming the careers of our graduates.¡±

Tony Miyambo and William Harding (BADA 2014) with Wits lecturer Gerard Bester respectively perform and co-direct So So1o¡¯s first commissioned play, Cenotaph of Dan wa Moriri.

Pather says, ¡°We hope to be able to publish an anthology of these commissioned plays every three years as a Wits Theatre publication.¡±

• In Cenotaph of Dan wa Moriri, a son tries to reconstruct his notion of his ¡°father¡± through barely remembered moments from the past.

• Irene Stephanou (BADA 1984, PGDA 2012) performs Searching for Somebody. In this play, ¡®Gaby¡¯ reflects on the reality of living with being ¡®white¡¯ in South Africa and living with multiple sclerosis.

• Nicos Renos Spanoudes (BEd 1982, BA Hons 1982, MA 1988) performs the docu-drama Verwoerd¡¯s Assassin, a play set in the prison cell of Dimitri Tsafendas who fatally stabbed the apartheid Prime Minister in 1966. The play explores issues of identity and belonging and draws on archival texts from the trial.

• The Kreutzer Sonata is adapted for stage and performed by Nicky Rebelo (BADA 1982) from the 1889 Russian novella by Leo Tolstoy in which he offers insight into why husbands murder their wives and proposes a radical, uncompromising and drastic solution.

• Cherae Halley (BADA 2010, MA 2012) performs What the Water Gave Me, an exploration tracing the darkness of Cape Town¡¯s history through the stories of four characters and a narrator who weaves their worlds together.

• Benjamin Bell (BA Hons 2013) wrote and co-directs Crayon Tower with Raezeen Wentworth (BADA 2014). ¡®Rachel¡¯ must deal with the death of her father while her overbearing grandmother makes life hell for Rachel and her mother.  With themes of wicked old witch, the status quo and homophobia, the play challenges the traditional fairy-tale.

• Ashalin Singh (BADA 2012) performs Salaam Stories, a portrait of a Cape Muslim community with themes of identity, history and group belonging viewed through an intimately personal lens.

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