Puppet walk launches Out the Box festival
- By Yazeed Kamaldien
A mermaid, a two-faced woman, a giraffe and a few other very tall, colourful and commanding puppets walked through the streets of Observatory suburb in Cape Town to launch Out the Box Festival on Saturday, September 2.
The puppets were from Unima SA and its artists and they were accompanied by the musical beats of the Samba Freak band. The puppet walk included characters from the show ‘Benchmarks’. It got Observatory residents out of their houses and on to pavements to check out the commotion.
And then there was also a “heritage tree” pushed along by local environmental lobbyists. They told us to check out www.moving-planet.org or www.350.org for more. Do it. They’re planning a “low-carbon parade” at the Cape Town train station forecourt in the city on September 24 at 10:30am.
The puppets ended up at the Village Green in Observatory. By then a crowd of about 100 onlookers had gathered and were entertained by an outdoor theatre performance by Paris-based Companie Crache Larmes. Their hilarious physical theatre show ‘Ubla Dubla Trubla’ will be performed at the festival throughout most of this week.
Children with painted faces from Hout Bay handed out sustainable free gifts to the crowd: baby trees. The crowd then walked over to Magnet Theatre in Lower Main Road, Observatory, for the launch of the festival’s green platform called Arts for a Sustainable Earth.
If you’re going to Magnet Theatre check out the foyer for the crochet coral sculpture by the Woodstock Art Reef Project.
Two environmental consciousness shows were presented by community-based theatre groups for the green platform launch. The first was a traditional puppet show called ‘Funny Ocean’ by Natureal Fire from Ocean View. It was about how humans contaminate the ocean and threaten sea life with “drastic plastic”.
One of this community theatre group’s members Adin Adams said that they have been running for three years.
“Our production dealt with water pollution and environmental issues. We have performed this show in various farm villages and in our community. We want to continue covering environmental issues in our theatre. We are dealing now with climate change and recycling,” said Adams.
Learners from Prince George Primary School in Lavender Hill performed ‘PopArt’ as part of an initiative run by Greenpop tree planting activists. The learners teamed up with UK-based Libellule Theatre.
Greenpop director Lauren O’Donnell said they wanted to continue using theatre to spread green awareness among children.
“We do education on tree care but we want to teach this through different methods. With dancing and singing, children won’t forget the environmental education. It’s participatory. We want to continue using theatre to educate children about the environment,” she said.
Festival director Yvette Hardie said: “It’s great to start with a community focus”
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