Two highly rated shows about disability, fresh from the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, have included East London in their Ability Tour.
The tour is driven by NGO Chaeli Campaign, which focuses on mobilising the minds and bodies of children with disabilities and highlights issues of disability, ability and inclusion.
The plays – Warrior on Wheels, aimed at 7-11-year-olds, and In the Wings, which stars veteran actor/director Bo Peterson and will appeal to high schoolers – are on at the Alexander Playhouse until next Wednesday.
A Daily Dispatch team attended a moving performance of Warrior on Wheels in which four multiskilled actors and two life-sized puppets portray the story of a little boy who is struck by a mysterious disability that leaves him unable to speak or walk.
The little boy becomes a wheelchair-riding warrior, and with the help of his doting mother, friends and fairies, overcomes both his fears and the taunts of detractors, and discovers who he is meant to be.
The energetic cast have multiple roles – actors, voice artists and trees – but mainly they manipulate the puppets.
As if by magic, they become invisible as the eye is drawn to the puppets coming alive. Children’s movements – right down to a coy turn of the head or uncertain roll of the foot – are depicted with impressive precision.
Aesthetically the show is also a triumph, as the simple set evokes fantasy characters and locations with a shadow screen and the contortions of flexible actors.
Confined to a wooden wheelchair, the little boy transcends his terrors which swoop down on him in the form of the diabolical monster Skadibaba, but even she is eventually disarmed by his courage.
So convincingly lifelike are the puppets that at the end of the poignant play a little girl from the audience insisted on taking a closer look at them to make sure there really were no signs of life.
Chaeli Campaign arts and culture project manager Danieyella Rodin, who also appears in In the Wings, said the plays had been very well received at the National Arts Festival, with In the Wings receiving a prestigious ovation award. “The plays challenge people’s perception around disability and how we engage with the disabled,” said Rodin.
She said the Ability Tour had moved from Grahamstown to East London and would then move to Port Elizabeth.
Both shows can be seen daily (with the exception of Sunday) from today t the Alexander Playhouse until next Wednesday.
lWarrior on Wheels is on at 10am daily, while In the Wings is performed daily at 2pm as well as at 7pm on Friday and Saturday nights.
Tickets cost R20 and can be booked by phoning Danieyella on 073-796-6466 or by e-mailing her on dani@chaelicampaign.co.za — barbarah@dispatch.co.za
Play lights up magical new world
The tour is driven by NGO Chaeli Campaign, which focuses on mobilising the minds and bodies of children with disabilities and highlights issues of disability, ability and inclusion.
The plays – Warrior on Wheels, aimed at 7-11-year-olds, and In the Wings, which stars veteran actor/director Bo Peterson and will appeal to high schoolers – are on at the Alexander Playhouse until next Wednesday.
A Daily Dispatch team attended a moving performance of Warrior on Wheels in which four multiskilled actors and two life-sized puppets portray the story of a little boy who is struck by a mysterious disability that leaves him unable to speak or walk.
The little boy becomes a wheelchair-riding warrior, and with the help of his doting mother, friends and fairies, overcomes both his fears and the taunts of detractors, and discovers who he is meant to be.
The energetic cast have multiple roles – actors, voice artists and trees – but mainly they manipulate the puppets.
As if by magic, they become invisible as the eye is drawn to the puppets coming alive. Children’s movements – right down to a coy turn of the head or uncertain roll of the foot – are depicted with impressive precision.
Aesthetically the show is also a triumph, as the simple set evokes fantasy characters and locations with a shadow screen and the contortions of flexible actors.
Confined to a wooden wheelchair, the little boy transcends his terrors which swoop down on him in the form of the diabolical monster Skadibaba, but even she is eventually disarmed by his courage.
So convincingly lifelike are the puppets that at the end of the poignant play a little girl from the audience insisted on taking a closer look at them to make sure there really were no signs of life.
Chaeli Campaign arts and culture project manager Danieyella Rodin, who also appears in In the Wings, said the plays had been very well received at the National Arts Festival, with In the Wings receiving a prestigious ovation award. “The plays challenge people’s perception around disability and how we engage with the disabled,” said Rodin.
She said the Ability Tour had moved from Grahamstown to East London and would then move to Port Elizabeth.
Both shows can be seen daily (with the exception of Sunday) from today t the Alexander Playhouse until next Wednesday.
lWarrior on Wheels is on at 10am daily, while In the Wings is performed daily at 2pm as well as at 7pm on Friday and Saturday nights.
Tickets cost R20 and can be booked by phoning Danieyella on 073-796-6466 or by e-mailing her on dani@chaelicampaign.co.za — barbarah@dispatch.co.za
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