An award-winning team will present the premiere of Themba Stewart’s Red Aloes, an exciting new production at the Magnet Theatre. The play features Richard September and Iman Isaacs, and melds poetic text and image-based language to explore a rarely documented time in South Africa’s history.
Written and directed by Themba Stewart and devised in collaboration with the performers, Red Aloes will run at the Magnet Theatre from 4 – 12 August.
The play follows a young man who discovers a box containing an assortment of letters, police reports, statements and murder diaries that relate to his mother’s death in 1993. He digs through the paper to find evidence of a person he once knew. When a dormant memory surfaces, he is faced with the question of whether to continue, and potentially remember something buried deep, or to stop.
Does the absence of a memory mean we have overcome the trauma connected to it? Is it worth tarnishing our memories with facts that have long been forgotten? Should these memories be left untouched?
Personal memories
Red Aloes is drawn from the writer’s life as a child, caught in the wake of political violence in the early 90’s. It traces a social amnesia connected to “those murky in-between times, in a forgotten part of the country”, where memories are buried in the shadows of red aloes.
The stellar cast has worked together for seven years, forging a strong connection as performers and theatre makers. In Red Aloes, they bring together their talents to tell a compelling story.
Red Aloes is written and directed by Themba Stewart (Sunflower Eyes, Imperfect Draft 1), and devised and performed by Richard September (Rondomskrik, Voices made night, The Rabble) and Iman Isaacs (Fullstops on your face, Nat, The Rabble). Music is by composer and sound designer Jannous Aukema. Set and lighting design is by Ryno Keet, Themba and Puleng Stewart, with creative input from Juanita Ferreira.
Themba Stewart
Themba Stewart works as the production manager for Magnet Theatre and has been immersed in production, design, theatre making and management since 2008, when he graduated with Honours in Theatre making from UCT. He has since been involved in many acclaimed theatre productions, including Magnet Theatre’s I Turned away and she was Gone and Every year every day I am Walking, Jay Pather’s Body of evidence and Qaphela Caesar, and Jemma Kahn’s In Bocca al Lupo. As a director Themba has directed Imperfect Draft (Amsterdam Fringe Festival), Listen the River (Grahamstown Festival) and Sunflower eyes (Arena Theatre).
Richard September
Richard September is a Cape Town based theatre maker and freelance actor. Since 2012 he has engaged professionally with a variety of artists and directors performing in both devised as well as traditionally directed works. In 2013 he played ‘Toek-toek’ in Athol Fugard’s Die Laaste Karretjie Graf. In the same year he also performed in Magnet Theatre’s Voices Made Night at the Edinburgh Fringe. He performed in Nat, by Penny Youngleson and Rachelle Greef’s Rondomskrik, for which he has received various awards and nominations including a Fiesta for Best Upcoming Artist and the Fleur du Cap for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. In 2015 he also performed the role of ‘The Dog’ from Joanna Evans’ award-winning script, Four Small Gods. In 2016 he collaborated with Iman Isaacs to create The Rabble, a two-hander in half-mask for Artscape Theatre’s Heritage Festival.
Iman Isaacs
Iman Isaacs is a performer, dancer, choreographer, musician, theatre maker, puppeteer and educator. She graduated from the University of Cape Town in 2011 with a BA in Theatre and Performance. Iman has already participated in an international exchange: in 2011 she lived in New Delhi for two months making a work there with students from the National School of Drama. Iman’s work ranges from feature films (she had a featured role alongside Orlando Bloom and Forest Whitaker in City of Violence) to movement, physical theatre, choreography and improvisation classes at City Varsity (a tertiary institution for actor training). She has also worked with the Zakheni Arts Therapy Foundation, where she partnered with a therapist and devised workshops and interventions for troubled children in underprivileged schools in Muizenberg. Most recently, Iman has performed in Full Stops on your Face, Nat, Warrior on Wheels, What goes up!, Four SmallGods and No Functional Language. She was awarded Die Distelle Jong Ster award at Die Suidoosterfees 2016 for her role in Nat.
What: Red Aloes
Where and when: Magnet Theatre, Observatory, 4 to 12 August
Book: Webtickets
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