On the Main programme at the National Arts Festival this July are two Canadian plays, presented in partnership with the High Commission of Canada, as well as a charming adaption ofAntoine de Saint-Exupéry’s timeless tale, The Little Prince. 

Wajdi Mouawad’s ALPHONSE 

Translated by Shelley Tepperman. Directed and Performed by Alon Nashman (KAFKA AND SON). Presented in partnership with the High Commission of Canada and support from the Canada Council for the Arts

Wajdi Mouawad is the playwright who penned the multi-award winning SCORCHED (National Arts Festival 2016). He is also an Academy Award nominee and one of Canada’s most acclaimed contemporary playwrights. In the dazzling solo play ALPHONSE, Mouawad contemplates a meeting between the grown-up Alphonse and the child Alphonse on a journey that provokes reflection on the loss of freedom and imagination for the sake of reason. With the impeccable delivery of Mouawad’s writing, Nashman practices storytelling at its finest.

Greg MacArthur’s A CITY 

Directed by Alby Michaels. Co-produced by UJ Arts & Culture (a division of FADA) as part of the new STAGED Play Development series. Presented in partnership with the High Commission of Canada and support from the Canada Council for the Arts

Presented as a gallery installation or tableaux vivant, A CITY is an intimate, personal study of four artists/friends, who tell the story of a famous friend who died under mysterious circumstances, and how he transformed them. The story is revealed through direct address in a disarmingly casual atmosphere, as if the audience were eavesdropping on a personal conversation. Based on the members of a real indie theatre company in Montreal (Sidemart Theatrical Grocery), A CITY is inspired by documented stories, recorded text, confessional monologues and fictional writing. An intimate, painfully funny testament to a time and place, it is about the end of a friendship and a shifting world.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s THE LITTLE PRINCE 

Presented by the Market Theatre Laboratory and Windybrow Arts Centre Youth Drama Company in collaboration with Art of Synergy Circus School and supported by the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS)

This adaption of the timeless and magical French storytelling masterpiece is presented by the Market Theatre Foundation’s brand-new youth drama company with choreography and circus skills by Art of Synergy Circus School. Described as the story of a grown up meeting his inner child, it is a philosophical contemplation of loneliness, friendship, adulthood and authority. It tells the story of a little boy who leaves the safety of his own tiny planet to travel the universe, learning the vagaries of adult behaviour through a series of extraordinary encounters.  

• The full programme will be released when bookings open in May 2018

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