Butterflies Group

For four days I've been working with Annie Rigby, Zamuxolo and Nolutu with a wonderful group of young performers in a place called Dordrecht. Dordrecht is a very small rural place with not much going on, everything closes at 7pm and there are little opportunities for anyone wanting to get involved with the arts. The township or location that sits on the outskirts of Dordrecht is home to some of the most dedicated young performers I have ever met. These young peole are living in the most basic of houses, some still resembling shacks. They are lucky enough to have a huge hall that they have been entrusted the key to where they meet 7 days a week to create theatre together. The hall is dusty and very cold and has one chair and one wobbly table but is the home to an abundance of talent and creativity.



We picked up Clement on the way who was stranded in Queenstown with no money to get home. Having spent two weeks with Paul and Tearlach last year he was so happy to see us and welcomed us to come and work with them for a few days. It's been very inspiring and also slightly depressing as this group are so committed but face so many challenges. Having lost their director, Clement stepped up to lead the group, but he is now away in Queenstown training and trying to find opportunities for himself to move forward leaving the group unsure of their future.

We worked with the group on a piece they are working on that they are entering into a competition so thay can get to go to the dance and drama festival in Port Elizabeth. The piece was about HIV and myths about cures, it was pretty shocking as I haven't seen much of the theatre groups are creating yet. One myth is that if you have sex with a child under 6 months you will be cured of the virus, the piece included very explicit scenes that were very difficult to watch. There are a lot of young groups wanting to make theatre with strong messages to educate their communities and having seen a lot more since Dordrecht it's clear there is a lack of originality and subtlety in the telling of these stories. The use of dance and singing is a real strong point and many scenes are underscored with incredible improvised harmonies that can create a chilling atmosphere. With the butterflies it's been really difficult the struggle of not wanting to wade in with new ideas and changing their piece but wanting to improve it and for them to go away with new skills they could use in the future. But they were very open and worked so hard, and when we left the piece had been injected with some humour and we'd persuaded them through trying out different ways that it was more powerful to not see the rape scene.

We ran many exercises that we taught them to run themselves and left them with some books full of new ideas and a new stereo so they can practise dance too. It was quite an emotional farewell as we'd had a wonderful few days. I hope to see them again in the future.