Fringe shows nab record 42 awards

Top  shows on the Fringe at the National Arts Festival (NAF) were recognised with awards on the weekend.

For the first time in six years, a stand-up comedy act did not receive any awards, with judges calling on South African comedians to “push themselves out of their comfort zones to present fresher, edgier and more boundary-breaking work”, said festival artistic director Ismail Mahomed.

The 42 Ovation Awards announced during the 11-day fes tival were was “the highest number of awards since the inception of the Standard Bank Fringe Ovation Awards in 2010 – and is indicative of the high quality of productions on the Fringe”, said Mahomed.

“The awards provide a valuable incentive for artists on the Festival’s Fringe programme to strive for excellence, experiment with innovation and to challenge and shift the boundaries of creativity,” said Mahomed.

“Audiences and visiting producers from other festivals enthusiastically look out for winning productions.For artists, the stamp of appro val opens doors to newer audiences, extended tours and, in some cases, even to funding.”

The winners of the Silver Ovation Awards were:

• A Man And a Dog, a poignant coming-of-age story about a young Zulu boy’s search for identity after being rejected by his father and step-father, written and featuring Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, directed by Penelope Youngelson;
• The saucy and sold-out We Didn’t Come to Hell for Croissants: 7 Deadly New Stories for Consenting Adults featuring Jemma Kahn and Roberto Pombo and directed by Lindiwe Matshikiza;
• Morwa the Rising Sun, a solo piece written and featuring Tefo Paya, which explores the chal lenges faced by young men in Afri ca;
• Phala O Phala’s production of Kafka’s Ape, Tony Bonani Miyam bo, which tells the tale of Red Peter, the ape who evolved into a human in five years;
• The darkly comedic physical theatre piece, Father, Father, Father!, directed by Toni Morkel;
• The hauntingly beautiful dance piece Barbed Wire Wallpa per, choreographed and directed by Nondumiso Lwazi Msimanga and;
• Hatchetman, the folk-rock trio from Cape Town.

The winners of the 2015 Student Awards contested by 17 student productions were: Overall Best Production:  Void (Rhodes Univer sity); Most Promising Director: Mariska Denysschen for Medea (Tshwane University of Technol ogy) and; Most Promising Writers: Katya Mendelson, Ameera Conrad, and Thando Mangcu, for the Uni versity of Cape Town play Don’t Shoot the Harbinger.