Brenda Fassie was a weekend special, Hungry Lion throws in a Coke but for song, dance and local comedy lovers, ‘1 Hour Special’ is a 60 minute theatre production featuring Harry Msimuko, Equipped Dance Academy, Nelago Shilongoh, Helouise Goraseb, Petrus Thomas and Lize Ehlers.
Directed by the Namibian Theatre Initiative’s (NTI) Ndino Ndilula, coordinated by Zellmari Brandt and conceptualised by Onesmus Upindi, ‘1 Hour Special’ is a creative collaboration that evokes “the journey of an artist’s dream” in one play told through song, dance, comedy, music and poetry.
“‘1 Hour Special’ is an ensemble art piece where artists from different disciplines work together to tell one story using their different mediums,” says Upindi.
“This time the base discipline is theatre, next time it will be comedy, the next time visual art but each time we will be using various talents handpicked from a preceding variety show to tell one story.”
Keen to feature all kinds of performers from jugglers, magicians to painters, contortionists or whatever talents are out there but won’t necessarily find a platform on stages like Free Your Mind, Spoken Word, Song Night or anything else going on, ‘1 Hour Special’ is the culmination of a variety show that would normally precede the production.
Essentially, and as an introduction, this new initiative is beginning at the end.
“The whole idea is to run variety shows to expose different artists to a commercial and corporate market and show them how to better present themselves to prospective clients,” says Upindi.
“The ‘1 Hour Special’ is a recurring event that will present the best of these talents in a unique showcase that can show them how they can work in theatre, film, comedy and concerts. It’s just a different way of telling a story and providing a stage for talents which don’t easily feed into the development platforms that already exist.”
Auditions for the first variety show are yet to be announced but if you want a taste of what the avant-garde outcome of such a show will be then ‘1 Hour Special’ is the place to be next Thursday to see how an artist’s dream to be a singer, a poet, a dancer and a comedian is interpreted as one story using various arts disciplines.
Upindi urges audiences to come out to see something different in an unexpected meeting of some of the country’s biggest talents.
Harry will provide the charisma, Lize is lending the production her voice and stage presence, Nelago is new on the scene but will be offering her acting skills as will Petrus and Stanley Mareka will be interpreting ‘The Artist’s Dream’ through dance while Weezil will be Weezil which means funny and a serious all-rounder.
“It’s an unexpected recipe but I trust in my ability to make connections and bring unlikely collaborator’s together,” says Upindi all but rubbing his hands together conspiratorially.
“It’s gonna be awesome.”
Awesome, eclectic and an intriguing lead up to a regular platform for all manner of performer, ‘1 Hour Special’ premieres next Thursday at The Warehouse for theatre lovers desperately seeking something a little different.
Tickets are available at The Warehouse Theatre at a cost of N$80 in advance and N$100 at the door. Show starts at 20h00 on 10 April.
– @marth__vader on Twitter
