11 July, 2014

Birth of a new theatre form



Chanté Petersen

“I am trying to dig up the secrets of the backyard. –it might be good. It might be bad,” said  Mhlanghuli George, New Born Theatre Productions director, this week, about his new developing theatre-form, Backyard Theatre.

Wishing to break some theatrical roles and to go beyond the word acting, George places both audience and actor within the same space. “In this form of theatre there is no auditorium, there is no stage”. Moving off the stage to perform within a backyard, the idea came from how he saw the shaping of the average yard.

“…when you are walking [down] the street you can see the front view of the yard [but] we don’t know what is happening at the back”.

Aiming for an official launch this coming November, George hopes to debut his new theatre form through the new production, Fourth Person in the Yard, about a boy who was kidnapped at an early age.  

“…I am not a comedy guy. That’s me. I love this dark side where I move the audience. I love to see the audience react and I like to take the audience to another world. Pushing the envelope because that’s me.” 

Based in Cape Town, New Born Theatre Productions has grown to consist of 18 emerging actors and plans to continue growing through incorporating professional actors.

No comments: