Can the return of heritage bring healing?
AFROVIBES FRIDAY
Language No Problem
By:
Buhle Ngaba and Ilana Cilliers
Genre:
Theater, Physical theater
IN SHORT: The Cullinan diamond sparkled at King Charles’s 2023 coronation but carries a colonial past. In Bling!, actress Buhle Ngaba imagines the diamond's return to South Africa. Through fantasy and satire, she explores whether returning cultural heritage can heal historical wounds.
The largest uncut diamond on earth shined in the crown worn by King Charles at his coronation in 2023. But behind this magnificent stone, lies a less brilliant history. For instance, the Cullinan was born and excavated in South Africa in 1905. Yet it was cut in Amsterdam and traded under pressure to the English royal family. Many South Africans want the Cullinan back. Actress Buhle Ngaba dreams of succeeding. In the theatre performance Bling!
Ngaba depicts the Cullinan's journey home to South Africa. With a personification of the diamond, flickering images from the future and monologues from a court, she takes you from the early 19th century to today's South Africa. Thus, she follows the sharp edges of history with a naïve view of today. In doing so, the charismatic actress uses reality but also fake news. Thus, she takes the audience into an alternative history and future. In the process, she seeks the answer to the question: by returning this diamond, can the UK heal all the scars of the past?
PROGRAM
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Credits
Buhle Ngaba
Ilana Cilliers
Amber Fox-Martin
Nicolette Moses
About the makers
Buhle Ngaba is a multi-award winning South African actor, writer and speaker. Her research and performance interests include developing new thought processes around the role of storytelling and creativity in unearthing and amplifying African women’s voices from the archive; to inspire new narratives and push the boundaries of performance. Buhle studied Acting and Contemporary performance at Rhodes University and Processes of Performance at the University of Leeds (UK). She performed in the world premiere of John Kani’s play Missing at the Baxter Theatre (SA) and went on to tour internationally with the production earning her nominations for the “Best Supporting Actress” for the South African Fleur Du Cap Theatre Awards as well as the Naledi Theatre Awards.
Jay Pather is a choreographer, curator and academic. Based in Cape Town, he is a Professor and directs the Institute for Creative Arts at UCT, curates Infecting the City Public Art Festival and the ICA Live Art Festival. He also curates for Afrovibes in the Netherlands and for the Bienalle of Body, Image Movement in Madrid is curatorial adviser for Live Art for Season Africa 2020 in various cities in France. He has co-curated for Spielart in Munich and has been Adjunct Curator for Performance at the Zeitz MOCAA. Recent addresses include for Festival of the Future City (UK), Independent Curators International (New York) and at the Haus der Kunst (Munich). He has recently published a book, Transgressions, Live Art in South Africa with Catherine Boulle, Recent articles appear in Changing Metropolis ll, Rogue Urbanism, Performing Cities and Where Strangers Meet. He chaired the jury for the recent International Award for Public Art, was appointed Fellow at the University of London and was recently made Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of Arts and Letters) by the French Government.
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