Arts writer
WORLD-RENOWNED British theatre company Complicite makes its South African debut at the Baxter Theatre for five performances only with Lionboy– a revival of their hit-production for families and youngsters from Wednesday to Saturday at 7pm nightly, with a school performance on Thursday at 11am.
Adapted by Marcelo Dos Santos and inspired by Zizou Corder’s bestselling trilogy of novels, Lionboy fuses storytelling, circus and live percussion in an adventure for everyone aged eight and up. Zizou Corder is the pseudonym of Louisa Young and her daughter Isabel Adomakoh Young.
“We wrote the books when I was very young, so I made up a lot of friends and adventures for me and mum to share. Becoming an author at such a young age was exciting. Suddenly we were travelling to all the countries we’d been published in, signing books and even going onto television”, explains Isabel.
At its heart, Lionboy teaches the youth to search for the truth. It tells the story of Charlie Ashanti who lives in a future where phones are powered by the sun, cars are banned and companies are more powerful than countries. Charlie is a perfectly normal boy, except for one thing: he can speak to cats. So when his parents are kidnapped, he sets off on a rescue mission – with a little help from a floating circus and its pride of performing lions.
Fresh from its performances at the Hong Kong Arts Festival and the National Theatre of Korea in Seoul, the company’s run here marks the end of their world tour.
Complicite has been regarded as physical theatre pioneers who have dazzled audiences for over 30 years with their performances at festivals and in theatres all over the world. The London-based theatre company was founded in 1983 by Simon McBurney, Annabel Arden and Marcello Magni under its original name Théâtre de Complicité.
The company’s work has been influenced by maestro Jacques Lecoq and therefore its distinctive style of visual-and-devised-theatre, places emphasis on strong, corporeal, poetic and surrealist imagery. The company uses extreme movement to represent their work. Their productions often involve projection and cameras to convey lyrical and philosophical contemplation on serious themes.
This revival production is directed by Complicite associates Clive Mendus and James Yeatman. Adding to the appeal of Lionboy is the fact that most of the cast perform multiple characters. They are Femi Elufowoju, jr (Maccomo/ Aneba Ashanti), Victoria Gould (Madame Barbue/Magdelen Start), Martines Imhange (Charlie Ashanti), Lisa Kerr (Pirouette/ Ninu), Angel Lopez-Silva (Rafi Sadler), Eric Mallet (Sergei), Clive Mendus (chief executive), Dan Milne (Mr Ubsworth/Major Tib/ King Boris) and Stephen Histock (composer/percussion).
Some of the company’s major productions include The Master and Margarita, A Dog’s Heart, Endgame, Shun-kin, The Elephant Vanishes(performed in Japanese and adapted from the work of the writer Haruki Murakami), The Noise of Time(about the Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich), Mnemonic and The Street of Crocodiles.
l R110 Wednesday, Thursday, R120 Friday, Saturday, 0861 915 8000, or Shoprite Checkers.