Jungle Theatre Company presents Vallende Maan as part of the Artscape Heritage Festival 25-28 September
Heritage month is an opportunity to explore the icons; symbols and roots not only of one’s own culture, but to marvel at universal heritage and to celebrate the shared themes and stories that can unite us.
As part of the Artscape Heritage Festival, Cape Town’s Jungle Theatre Company is presenting Vallende Maan, an interactive play for young people, directed by Jaqueline Dommisse, which grew from themes in a traditional Khoisan myth about the moon falling out of the sky, thanks to the generous support of the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund.
Vallende Maan explores this seemingly impossible natural disaster and three characters from very different cultural backgrounds are drawn together into conflict and chaos by this earth-shattering event. The characters try to exploit the moon for individual profit but they come to realise that they need to work together to restore the balance of nature. The play invites the audience, quite literally, on stage, to take part in forging unity in diversity. Performed mainly in Afrikaans, Vallende Maan weaves English and Xhosa into an original story based in the Klein Karoo.
The moon was particularly significant in the cultural and spiritual practice of the Khoisan. The phases of the moon would guide when rainmaking rituals would be performed. In fact in Dorothea Bleek's A Bushman Dictionary she records 38 Khoisan words for the moon. The world over, the moon is central to religious observations; agricultural practices and many many folktales, fables and children’s stories, a universal and elusive symbol attributed to female power.
Vincent Meyburgh, Artistic Director of Jungle Theatre Company and actor in Vallende Maan, said: “When I am far from home and look up at the moon I think to myself ‘Well that’s the same moon that my loved ones are looking at’. Who doesn’t feel the power of the moon? ”
Vallende Maan, directed by Jaqueline Dommisse, stars Stacey Francke, Unathi Speelman, Candice Waries and Vincent Meyburgh.
Performances are at 10h30 in the Artscape Arena, from Wednesday 25 to Saturday 28 September. Tickets are R50 and can be purchased through Computicket.
