After the tragedy that was the opening night of Covid-19, the second year of the pandemic has been a little less brutal on the local performing arts.
As artists stoically learn to navigate the new normal, 2021 has actually seen a crop of wonderful new platforms revive the hard-hit industry.
Perhaps this year’s most popular new addition is Drag Night Namibia, which burst onto the scene at Café Prestige in February. The brainchild of Rodelio Lewis, aka Miss Mavis, Drag Night – an evening of drag artistry, lip syncing and all-out fabulousness – was this year’s hottest ticket.
Regularly selling out on Friday nights, upgrading to two monthly shows, and earning a somewhat cult following, Drag Night Namibia’s The Triad – which consists of Gigi Has Arrived, MO ‘Nick’ Critique and Miss Mavis – brought us a slew of new queens, as well as all things Broadway, the 90s, disco, ghetto fabulous and cabaret, before ending its smash hit year with ‘A Very Proud Christmas’.
Two-thirds of The Triad (Miss Mavis and Gigi) were also the supporting cast in Lize Ehlers’ ‘Boet & Sus’, the National Theatre of Namibia’s entirely online production, starring Ehlers and Adriano Visagie. An ambitious response to the pandemic’s chilling effect on indoor theatre, ‘Boet & Sus’ was an Afrikaans talk show-slash-drag show concerned with the bitter and the sweet of the local coloured experience.
A few months after Ehlers premiered the fruit of her playwright pen, the multitalented Namibian announced the end of the city’s beloved Song Night.
After a decade of song, the developmental platform, which helped launch the careers of singers such as Sean K, Savannah Afros, Sade, Bradley Anthony and Priscilla the Namibian Dessert Queen, came to a close at an impact-affirming final event in October.
As Song Night came to an end, the National Theatre of Namibia (NTN) and Goethe-Institut Namibia’s Otjomuise Live Arts Festival (Olaf) made a promising start. Intent on decentralising the arts while “bridging life and the arts in the city”, Olaf debuted in a splash of theatre, mural painting, pantsula, art installations and spoken word that harnessed the talent of more than 30 local artists.
One of various stimulating offerings from the NTN, Olaf was the theatre’s feather in the cap amid a year that saw exciting contemporary dance workshops with Trixie Munyama, Nikhita Winkler and Stanley Mareka, and the Applied Theatre Workshop Series with Nashilongweshipwe Mushaandja, Veronique Mensah and Esmeralda Cloete.
The Owela Theatre and Performance Seminar, in association with Owela Festival and the Odalate Naiteke Practice-as-Research Programme, which featured a selection of industry stakeholders discussing contemporary Namibian performance cultures, was another highlight, as was the NTN’s duo of readers.
The ‘Theatre Practices and Business in Namibia’ reader features insights from 18 Namibian theatre and creative practitioners, including Hazel Hinda, Girley Jazama and Fellemon Ndonga, and the ‘Music Business in Namibia’ reader offers perspectives from 20 local musicians and industry experts, such as Gazza, Oteya, Erna Chimu, Elemotho, ML Musik, Rukee Kaakunga, Emily Dangwa, Lize Ehlers, Suzy Eises and more.
Closing the year with the ‘Namibians Be Like…’ comedy show, the NTN ended a productive year with a little funny, which brings us to the comedians.
Though Free Your Mind comedy has not returned to its traditional monthly stage, this year the comedy company has taken the amusing to the airwaves with the ‘Free Your Mind’ podcast on Eagle FM, where hosts Ndemufayo ‘Chicken’ Kaxuxuena and Justin Hango skewer current affairs weekdays between 09h00 and 10h00.
With FYM alum Courage the Comedian securing the corporate comedy bag with collaborations with DStv and Real Good Chicken after landing a slot on the Simuka Comedy’s International Ketchup Comedy Show, it’s safe to say our local stand-up comics, though relatively scarce and mostly offstage, are alive and well.
This includes Xuro Milton, aka OC Ebs, who won the RealGood Giggles comedy stand-off and is their 2021 king/queen of comedy.
As for performing arts spaces, this year Vinyls, Chicago’s and Café Prestige regularly welcomed performing artists with open arms.
With comedy shows, drag nights, live music, spoken word and open mic nights, local artists found much-needed stages from which to launch their careers, test new material and build their fan bases.
A far better year than the last, but also the year in which the performing arts experienced the unimaginable – the tragic death of beloved playwright, veteran actor and director David Ndjavera – 2021 hurt, but it also began to heal.
– martha@namibian.com.na; Martha Mukaiwa on Twitter and Instagram; marthamukaiwa.com
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