House of Holy Afro Comes to Newtown
Market Theatre
A slick, glamorous package of Afro-kitsch performance, House of the Holy Afro, is set to electrify your eyes, ears and bodies on the dance floor this use of the Holy Afro 11th June 2010 – 11th July 2010 at South Africa’s Market Theatre in Newtown , Johannesburg.
In shamanistic ceremonies ancestral spirits are summoned and likewise, in the churches of the townships, soaring gospel songs lead people into states of spiritual communion and trance.
Performed by seven singer-dancers, House of the Holy Afro weaves these spiritual melodies together with celebrated DJ Dino Moran’s driving housebeats and over-the-top club poetry of Odidi Mfenyana.
“As much fun as you can have in a church hall before midnight.” The cast promised.
The Market Theatre, founded in Johannesburg in 1976 by Mannie Manim and the late Barney Simon, was constructed out of Johannesburg’s Indian Fruit Market – built in 1913. The theatre went on to become internationally renowned as South Africa’s “Theatre of the Struggle”.
The Market Theatre challenged the apartheid regime, armed with little more than the conviction that culture can change society. The strength and truth of that conviction was acknowledged in 1995 when the theatre received the American Jujamcyn Award. In providing a voice to the voiceless, The Market Theatre did not forego artistic excellence, but, rather, made a point of it. Its twenty-one international and over three hundred South African theatre awards bears eloquent testimony to the courage and artistic quality of its work.
During the past three decades, The Market Theatre has evolved into a cultural complex for theatre, music, dance and the allied arts. Today, The Market Theatre remains at the forefront of South African theatre, actively encouraging new works that continue to reach international stages.
