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Ngqwele Dube, Sunday Life Correspondent
ACCLAIMED arts ensemble, Iyasa are set to explore new markets this year during their traditional European tour of Europe, with the group expected to perform in Luxembourg and China.
The seven-month tour will also see them breaking new ground as they head for Berlin, Germany after striking up a partnership with German outfit, Theatre Strahl and also host the second edition of the Bulawayo in Vienna Festival.
The group leaves today (Sunday) for Johannesburg, South Africa where they will catch a flight to their European base, Austria. Iyasa director, Nkululeko Dube, who is leading the nine-member crew, said the highlight of their 2017 tour would be the collaboration with Theatre Strahl, a venture they hope to nurture and reap more from it in the future.
He said they would be working on a collaboration that has been three years in the planning and is targeted at tackling the race issue.
“The play titled ‘Black and white are not colours’, would be research-based with German actors coming to Bulawayo to ask young people on their perceptions of race and racial stereotypes and the same process will be done in Germany but would be led by Iyasa.
“We will host workshops involving children we mainly work with in our theatre programmes. We would then create the play out of the research findings,” said Dube.
He said they have been in discussions with Theatre Strahl on the play for the past three years and they are partnered by the Geothe Institute.
The play is also earmarked for Bulawayo and could be part of this year’s Intwasa Arts Festival although agreements are still to be finalised, said Dube.
He added another interesting part of the play is that one of Theatre Strahl’s actors is Zimbabwean-born. Derrick Tafadzwa Nowak will be making the trip to the country after leaving for Germany at a young age.
“Black and white are not colours” will premiere in Berlin on 29 June and will run until 8 July.
Dube said an expanded Bulawayo in Vienna Festival is in store this year with theatre technicians set to get the opportunity to learn from their Austrian counterparts.
The inaugural mini-festival was held last year and featured Iyasa, Insingizi, Futurelove, Nkwali and United Kingdom-based Tsungai.
Dube said this year they are hoping to have one or two artistes travelling to Vienna from Bulawayo for the festival.
“The festival involves any artiste with a link to Bulawayo who would be close to Vienna on the date it is held and this year we are likely to feature Nobuntu but we would also be inviting artistes from Bulawayo, specifically to come and perform at the event.
Iyasa would kick off the tour with performances in Luxembourg this week and are also set to take some of their previous productions with Theatro Piccolo to countries like China, Czech Republic and Taiwan.
He said a collaboration with Stephan Rabl is in the offing and it borders around fire and firemen.
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