Drifting

Drifting is a tribute performance done for Reza de Wet by staff and students of the Drama Department at Rhodes University, curated by Rob Murray, Andrew Buckland and Illka Louw.

The original text

Devised in memory of the actress, playwright and lecturer Reza de Wet, it is a mixed-media, multicultural, and many-faceted response to her plays and physical theatre texts, created by senior postgraduate students, staff members and professional performers under the curatorship of Rob Murray, Andrew Buckland and Illka Louw.

The text is unpublished and is housed at National English Literary Museum (NELM) in the FPTC archive.

The production is discussed in an unpublished Masters research paper by Ilana Cilliers. "Nostalgic Dialogues: Drifting between Present and the Irretrievable Past in a Tribute to Reza de Wet" (Rhodes University, 19 August, 2013).

A forthcoming publication by the Juanita Finestone-Praeg provides a discussion of origin, creation and performance of the play. The article, provisionally entitled "Drifting: Reminiscing. Remembering. Reinventing. Reza", will be included in a commemorative collection of essays dedicated to the playwright. (Edited by Temple Hauptfleisch and Marisa Keuris, the volume is due to be published by Protea Boekhuis and the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns in 2019.)

Performances

2013: Performed at the Rhodes Theatre during Graduation on 4, 6 and 9 April 2013 at 7:00pm, featuring choreographic input by Athina Vahla and Juanita Finestone-Praeg, dramaturgy by Rob Murray and Andrew Buckland, and performances by Andrew Buckland, Juanita Finestone, Lindsay Reardon, Liezl de Kock, Ilana Cillers, Pumelela Nqelenga, Hannah Lax, Tristan Jacobs, Sifiso Sikhakhane, Levern Botha, Leonhard Praeg, and animation by Bianca Binneman.

Sources

Juanita Finestone-Praeg. 2018. "Drifting: Reminiscing. Remembering. Reinventing. Reza" (Draft manuscript, courtesy of the author.)

Rhodes University. 2013. "Drifting - a Reza de Wet tribute at Rhodes", Artslink.co.za News - 03/26/2013[1]

Ilana Cilliers. 2013. "Nostalgic Dialogues: Drifting between Present and the Irretrievable Past in a Tribute to Reza de Wet" (Unpublished Masters research paper, Rhodes University, 19 August, 2013).

https://www.ru.ac.za/drama/productions/productions2013/

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