A physical theatre group has based its latest venture on something everyone has in common: dreams
Matthew Simpson
Let’s put it in perspective: it all began with LSD. Like it or not, modern cultural expression of all kinds would not be the same without the hallucinogenic generation.
Never before had an essentially alternative lifestyle had such a huge cultural impact and, for the first time in decades, art descended from its lofty tower and entered the gritty world of the masses. As a result, artists of all kinds, from photographers to painters, began to collaborate and experiment, utilising new technologies in order to propagate the neoteric worldview their generation had given birth to.
In the late Nineties and in the beginning of this new century, traditional notions of the separation between different forms of art are once again being questioned, even here in our own little corner of the globe. Recent examples are the Red Eye shows at the National Gallery in Durban, Soft Serve in Cape Town, Artichoke multimedia performances in Johannesburg as well as the Durban Designer Collection’s idea of performance fashion.
Dreamzzz’n’Frisbees is such an event. It is organised by the Heel Arts Collective, a Cape Town-based physical theatre group, and is soon to take place in the laid-back atmosphere of the Coffee Lounge in the heart of the city.
The purpose of the event, which the collective call a ”performathon”, is largely to workshop ideas and raise funds for their show, Falling Awake, which will take place in September as part of the One City Festival.
This is not the group’s first performathon, although the last two were low-key affairs. It seems, however, that what was originally a curtain-raiser for someone else’s main act has actually become a main attraction itself.
Although the group is still using the event as a workshop, it has also become an experiment in artistic collaboration, using the supercharged energy of a club to generate ideas.
As Sarah Tudge, leader of the troupe points out: ”I’ve felt for a long time that the party is an ideal place to bring all these artistic elements together. It allows for a great deal of artistic expression”
Not only will the evening bring together the work of film-makers, painters, photographers, dancers and DJs, but it will also involve the Cape Town Ultimate team, a group of frisbee throwers. They will be performing a piece called Fling Flong Flung, which they presented, together with the Heel Arts Collective, at the last multimedia Soft Serve event.
Although the collective will also be doing a choreographed piece with Krushed &Sorted, a DJ outfit, almost everything else will be improvised which is, after all, the point.
Most important for Tudge, though, is the thematic thread of the evening because she believes that if the performathon becomes just another party then her group has failed to achieve their aims.
”The last performathon, and as a result our show, centered around society’s relationship with bombs, which was particularly pertinent at the time because of the blast at St Elmo’s in Cape Town. This time we’re looking at a more universal, personal, experience; that of dreams,” says Tudge.
”Dreams are one thing we all, without exception, have in common. We dream when we sleep, we dream when we are awake. We dream about our futures. We place so much importance on them that we even allow dreamers to shape our social and political destinies.”
Despite Tudge’s misgivings, it seems unlikely that Dreamzzz’n’ Frisbees will be just another party. The audience itself will help to generate the ideas that the collective and their collaborators hope to use, which is the difference between this and other events like it.
While, at events like Soft Serve, the audience can interact with the art and the artists, they can never truly be a part of the creative process. At Dreamzzz ‘n Frisbees the audience’s presence is an essential part of it. This is the evolution of that grand Sixties innovation, the ”happening”, and it promises to be a fascinating affair.
Dreamzzz’n’Frisbees takes place at the Coffee Lounge, 76 Church Street, Cape Town, on June 24 at 8pm