The year of the much-feared end of the world has brought a tendency on the part of film-makers, writers and storytellers to portray their own vision of the Apocalypse.
Stories of alien invasions, nuclear holocausts and deadly viruses spreading uncontrollably across Earth have been a predominant subject in fiction for the past few years.
The year of the much-feared end of the world has brought a tendency on the part of film-makers, writers and storytellers to portray their own vision of the Apocalypse.
Stories of alien invasions, nuclear holocausts and deadly viruses spreading uncontrollably across Earth have been a predominant subject in fiction for the past few years.
These stories are usually intended to lead us into questioning our attitudes and actions.
This type of hypothetical scenario arrives at the National Arts Festival in a very interesting format.
If you're looking for an entirely new kind of experience, the play Discharge is one of your best options on the programme.
In this piece, the audience will be picked up in front of the Rhodes Theatre by large military trucks and then transported to a hangar at the military base – which becomes the site of a terrible nameless catastrophe that has decimated humanity.
Here the audience will experience life in one of these decaying improvised shelters and how it feels to be relocated to a new home without the material possessions or personal identity of one's past. It's a place where every culture and ideology ends up in the melting pot and where the survivors must connect and co-operate in order to survive – no matter who they are or what background they come from.
This multidisciplinary collaboration was orchestrated by designer and choreographer Gavin Krastin, winner of the Standard Bank Ovation Encore award, with the collaboration of First Physical Theatre's choreographer Alan Parker and Grahamstown-based digital artist and lecturer Rat Western.
Performers include founding members of First Physical Theatre Juanita Finestone-Praeg and Andrew Buckland, as well as other local performers and artists.
Various spontaneous fragments will be performed in various spaces across the festival as guerilla street theatre and from the Tuesday to Saturday, members of the audience will be picked up from the Rhodes Theatre at 6.30pm to be transported to the military base.
Tickets are already available at Computicket with a limit of 44 audience members per show.
