Johannesburg, 2020 – Strange things happen at a local TV-Station: In the midst of a party for the launch of an investigative news-segment, an uncanny phenomenon is spreading. Its archival-material is corroded by white specks. And parts of the team suffer a selective amnesia …
«Converting Eviction» is developed between Sello Pesa/Ntsoana (Johannesburg, South Africa) and Tim Zulauf/KMUProduktionen (Zürich, Switzerland). The project invents a kaleidoscopic theatrical installation of performance, video-interviews, acting and music, which delves into South Africa’s dense and extraordinary de-colonising struggles for reparation, debt relief and the history of Swiss-South African relations. The project deals with the history of property, belonging and the ability to create meaningful lives within dysfunctional structures. It is concerned with global and Swiss involvement into Apartheid, how the structures from these former economic relations perpetuate today. In relation to nations in transformation, «Converting Eviction» asks: What political and economic structures lead to people being evicted? What are the appropriate and minimum conditions needed to make a home? What traumas from the past are restricting people? And how can people convert hostile environments in a way that suits them? Link: Research material
Shows in South Africa 2019: 23rd of November, 2pm – Uncle Tom’s Hall-Community Centre, Soweto; 28th till 30st of November – WITS Theater, Johannesburg; 2nd of December, 4pm – South African State Theatre, Marble Foyer, Pretoria.
Shows in Switzerland 2020: 14th of January 8pm, 16th of January 8pm, 17th of January 8pm, 19th of January 6pm, 21st of January 8pm, 22nd of January 8pm – Gessnerallee Zürich; 23th and 24th of January, 7pm – Kaserne Basel; 8th and 9th of Februray 8pm – Dampfzentrale Bern.
First showing May 30 2019, The Centre for the Less Good Idea, Johannesbug.
Length: 80 minutes | Languages: English as well as Sesotho, isiZulu, isiXhosa and German
Collaborators, Directors: Sello Pesa and Tim Zulauf, with MoMo Matsunyane and the team | Performers: Vivien Bullert, Humphrey Maleka, MoMo Matsunyane, Sello Pesa, Christoph Rath, Tim Zulauf | Music, songs, performance: Sandiso Ngubane aka MX Blouse, Tracy September | Text: Tim Zulauf, with Zamo Mkhwanazi and contributions by Sandiso Ngubane, Sello Pesa, Tracy September and the team | Interviews: Tim Zulauf | Dramaturgy: Andreas Storm | Light design: Marek Lamprecht, Michael Omlin | Sound: Susanne Affolter | Digital support : Alexander Tuchaček | Stage design and costumes: Sello Pesa, Tim Zulauf and the team | Production managers: Alexandra Le Maitre and Lukas Piccolin | Photographer: Nik Spoerri | Video documentation: flimmern.ch – Susanne Hofer, Katrin Oettli | Research-partners: Hennie van Vuuren and the team of Open Secrets (Cape Town), KEESA/ADR – Apartheid Debt and Reparations Campaign (Basel) and the Khulumani Support Group (Johannesburg)
Voices
«And at the premiere in Zurich's Gessnerallee the tent is boiling, we are all dancing along. Then again, interview videos will be thrown onto the wall of the tent, and experts on Swiss complicity with the apartheid system will have their say. The performers in turn reenact the difficult re-/search for evidence in suspenseful crime thriller noir sequences. Thus "Eviction" is transformed into a pulsating theatrical event, converted into a touching community experience, a temporary home for everyone. The tent becomes an agora, a meeting place of equals.» Tages-Anzeiger, 16.01.2020
A production of KMUProduktionen (association, Zurich) and Ntosana Contemporary Dance Theatre (association, Johannesburg) coproduced with The Centre for the Less Good Idea, Gessnerallee Zürich, Kaserne Basel, Dampfzentrale Bern together with Schlachthaus Theater Bern | Supported by Stadt Zürich Kultur, Fachstelle Kultur Kanton Zürich, Fachausschuss Theater & Tanz BS/BL, Pro Helvetia Schweizer Kulturstiftung, Südkulturfonds, Ernst Göhner Stiftungn, Schweizerische Interpretenstiftung SIS, Migros-Kulturprozent, Burgergemeinde Bern, PRO TENT AG Switzerland
Photos: Nik Spoerri
