RIVER AND REDFIN
Water has been at the forefront of public awareness in recent years. Water is life and the importance of active awareness around this precious resource has been made all the more urgent in the Western Cape due to drought and water shortages, most notably in the Mother City of Cape Town.
This year’s giant puppet parade in the quirky Klein Karoo town of Barrydale, celebrates and reclaims the power, mythologies and awareness of the local River, the Klein Huis Rivier that runs through the Tradouw valley, and its age old significance to the people and animals of this scenic, fertile part of the Langeberg. It raises the plight of the highly endangered Redfin Minnow, a unique fynbos fish that is only found in the Barrydale region and which is fast disappearing. Professor Jane Taylor, Andrew W Mellon Chair of Aesthetic Theory and Material Performance at the Centre for Humanities Research says ‘it is well known how wasteful and irrational planning and economic practices of the Apartheid State had a profound impact on the communities compelled to live in divided racially-defined spaces. What is increasingly evident is the environmental impact of these policies.’
Bringing awareness to the way water has been used and abused in dividing and separating the community and people itself, this production asks us to reconsider our own relationships to water, to come together to save the Redfin Fish and to celebrate the streams and rivers that connect us all.
Watch the River and Redfin Documentary
In partnership with the Laboratory of Kinetic Objects (LoKO) led by Professor Jane Taylor of the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape, the Annual Net Vir Pret Puppet Parade and Performance in Barrydale takes place on Sunday 16 December at 6pm. This landmark public performance event is part of the Barrydale Arts Meander (BAM) and organised by the award-winning Magpie Arts Collective. On offer is a feast of creativity in which all the galleries and artists in this highly creative town on the R62, open their doors to the public for the whole weekend. Every year the parade itself draws puppeteers, musicians, performers and public both locally and from around the world to work with local youths to celebrate and explore powerful, relevant issues of community, conservation, ecology and culture through the art of puppetry.
The team of puppeteers from uKwanda Design and Puppetry Collective in Cape Town, who made the finely crafted life-size rhinos of 2017, will be creating new giant puppets for this free live event. The new puppets will be performed amongst hundreds of creations by local puppeteers Clarisa Jonas and Herman Witbooi as well as by local school learners through the creative programmes of Net Vir Pret. The musical performance, created via a year-long process of workshops with international musicians and theatre makers, will be directed by Cape Town puppetry artist and postdoctoral fellow, Aja Marneweck, based at the Laboratory of Kinetic Objects in the Centre for Humanities Research and assisted by Sudonia Kouter and Martin Kintu. Original music has been composed by traditional Riel Dans leader and director of Net vir Pret, Peter Takelo, Hip Hop artist Selanvor Platjies and Jazz musician Gari Crawford.
This free public performance event promises to inspire young and old alike, bringing urgent awareness to the plight of the Redfin Fish as well as the shared connections between people and the River, celebrating life and our magical relationship to the waters that sustain it.
The annual Puppet Parade will begin on the banks of the Huis Rivier on Tinley Street, Barrydale and proceed to the BF Oosthuizen Primary School on
Sunday 16 December at 6pm.
For more information contact:
Laboratory of Kinetic Objects (LoKO), Centre for Humanities Research, UWC
taylor.taylorjane.jane@gmail.com
082-8541199
Aja Marneweck
Parade Director, Centre for Humanities Research UWC
ajamarneweck@icloud.com
083-4396117
Donna Kouter
Assistant Parade Director and Youth Manager, Net vir Pret
netvirpret@mweb.co.za
072-7707494
Images from River and Redfin 2018
Some Images from Olifantland in Barrydale 2016
Watch the Olifantland Documentary
For videos or information on previous year’s performances, please take a look at:
The Net vir Pret Barrydale Puppet Parade and Performance: 18 December 2022
Rehearsals are full steam ahead in Barrydale for the 2022 Puppet Performance and Parade created and produced by members of the CHR and aesthetic education partner, Net vir Pret.
What A Wonderful World
The 2021 Barrydale Puppet Parade and Performance centres on a family living in Barrydale and the connection a young woman has with an ancient indigenous tree, Old Gwarrie, as well as with the wonderful world she calls home.
From the Office of the Vice-Chancellor: Statement on the Barrydale Reconciliation Day Festival
Statement from the University of the Western Cape Vice-Chancellor and Rector, Professor Tyrone Pretorius, on the Tenth Anniversary of the Barrydale Reconciliation Day Festival.
Reboot Eden: Celebrating Ten Years of Puppetry in Barrydale
The Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape (CHR), in partnership with Net vir Pret are celebrating 10 years of puppetry in Barrydale. Reboot Eden will be an online program of four new puppet performances that will be available online from the 16th -19th December 2020.
Reboot Eden: The Art of Recovery
For the past ten years the Centre for Humanities Research’s Laboratory of Kinetic Objects has been engaged in a mutual education and arts initiative (along with partners Net Vir Pret, Handspring Puppet Company, uKwanda Puppetry and Design Collective, and Magpie Collective) in the village of Barrydale some three hours outside of Cape Town. Given the COVID-19 pandemic, this years Barrydale parade is set to convene remotely.
Die Virus
The song was inspired by a request made to Selanvor (who is fast becoming one of Barrydale’s celebrated young artists) from residents of the village, to create an artistic response to the virus and the time we are in now.
The Final Spring (Barrydale 2019)
The Centre for Humanities Research and partners Net vir Pret present the ninth annual Barrydale Giant Puppet Parade and Performance.
Net vir Pret at the Assitej Creative Arts Training Programme for After School Practitioners and The Future Focus Education Conference
Five new interns and three staff members from Net vir Pret participated in the week long workshops focused on Creative Arts development for After School Practitioners.
Renosterbos: Barrydale Festival 2017
The end of each year, for Handspring Puppet Company and the Centre for Humanities Research (CHR, DST-NRF Flagship), has in the past eight years culmin
Olifantland
The Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape, Handspring Puppet Company, Ukwanda, Net Vir Pret, Magpie Art Collective and Stanley John Films present […]
Olifantland – Trailer
A Film by Stanley John The 2016 Barrydale Puppet Parade and Performance, called Olifantland, a multilingual visual theatre show featuring five majestic life size elephant […]
Olifantland – Barrydale Parade 2016
The 2016 Barrydale Puppet Parade and Performance brings you Olifantland, a multilingual visual theatre show featuring five majestic life size elephant puppets by Adrian Kohler from Handspring Puppet Company in collaboration with UKWANDA Puppet and Design Collective.
