The Waterfront Theatre College has once again been selected by the organising committee of Theatrical BRICS to take part in their 2018 festival in Moscow.
This year the topic is “Commedia dell’arte” and the play each country will be working from is The Servant of Two Masters.
Based on the Goldini classic, the Waterfront Theatre College has condensed the English translation of the play into a one-act farce and given it a distinctive African flavour.
“Commedia dell’arte” means comedy of the profession in Italian and is a theatrical form that flourished throughout Europe from the 16th through the 18th century.
Financed by the grant project of the President of the Russian Federation, the festival includes companies from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS). The Servant of Two Masters is about two love- struck young lovers; warring fathers; a disguised sister on a quest to save her lover who has killed her brother; a hungry and mischievous servant and an eligible young lady’s maid.
The festival begins on Sunday May 27 with a showing of last year’s combined performance of Romeo and Juliet and continues until Saturday June 3, culminating with a combined performance of the Goldini classic, where each country will contribute different scenes in a full production of the script. Directed by Paul Griffiths, scored by Garth Tavares with original masks supervised by Jayne Batzofin, the cast of eight travel to Moscow tommorrow, Friday May 25.
The team includes, Michael Fenn, from Sea Point, who returns to Moscow having played Romeo last yeaR and Sindiswa Ndlovu, from Gugulethu, who also returns as Juliet. First year students in the cast include Jeanni Heyns, from Stellenbosch, Nkosinathi Mazwai, from Johannesburg, and Chad Baai, from Philippi.
Second year student Cleo Dampies, from Atlantis, is joined by third year students Mika Calitz, from Table View, and Jevano Julies, from Wellington.
For Chad, Cleo and Jevano this will be their first experience abroad.