PRESS RELEASE – 2 May 2017
The Songmakers’ Guild and Umculo present:
SCHANDE!
SKANDE! / SHAME!/ IHLAZO!
with: Albie van Schalkwyk (piano); Palesa Malieloa, Christine Bam, Ronald Melato, Nick de Jager (singers)
– a scenic evening of Schubert songs for four singers, piano and video directed by Kobie van Rensburg
From the graveyard’s gloom, a figure emerges. Is he a mourner? A murderer? Death himself?
“Schande” takes the music of Schubert to trace a series of dark tales inspired by life in and around Cape Town. Loss and longing, violence and violation, love, sexually transmitted disease and death are explored through music, video projection and live blue-screen techniques.
Berlin-based director Kobie van Rensburg returns to Cape Town to stage “Schande”, a dramatic journey in search of atonement and acceptance.
Franz Schubert was a 19th-century composer whose songs represent the pinnacle of vocal art. He died of syphilis at the age of 31, lonely and ashamed. In “Schande”, many of his lesser-known songs will be performed for the first time in South Africa.
Umculo was founded in 2010 by Cape Town-born Shirley Apthorp with the goal of contributing to social development in South Africa through international networks in music theatre. The organisation’s work has been awarded several international prizes. The Songmakers’ Guild has been exclusively dedicated to the performance of the art song since it was founded in 1994.
In the lead-up to “Schande”, Umculo’s education team will be presenting 90-minute interactive creative workshops to high school learners and community choirs in and around Cape Town. The production will be brought to three previously disadvantaged communities around Cape Town, with the aim of giving access to young people and their communities who would not otherwise have the opportunity to attend a professional performance for this nature.
Performances: Nassau Theatre, Groote Schuur Hich School, Newlands
20 May: 7:30pm; 21 May: 4pm
Tickets: R 120, pre-book through Hanna van Schalkwyk, hanna@musicumbrella.co.za, 082 824 1007. Also available at the door.
For press information or to arrange interviews, please contact Shirley Apthorp, 082 686 3049, info@capefestival.com.
Additional performances in Hout Bay, Kraaifontein, and Langa on 22, 23, 24 May. For details regarding these performances and education workshops, call Mimi Makapela, 074 287 8562.
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