32 lavender close // writer & director
National Arts Festival
Standard Bank Bronze Ovation Winner
Finding a flatmate on the internet is risky business. But desperate times call for awkward situations. When Carly moves into Melo's flat unexpectedly, the two twentysomethings embark on a journey of figuring out their mental health, sexuality, finances, careers and mysterious vaginal discharge in the bathroom of 32 Lavender Close. An ode to a time of uncertainty in which you are neither mature enough to not make the sex joke, nor cool enough to impress your 15-year-old brother.
Starring Grace Matetoa and Christie van Niekerk, this new work by award-winning playwright Andi Colombo was produced under the Theatre Arts Emerging Director Bursary in Cape Town. Now, for the first time at National Arts Festival, Andi Colombo and Theatre Arts present: 32 Lavender Close. Keep your friends close, but your flatmate closer.
Written, directed and lighting design by Andi Colombo
Performed by Christie van Niekerk and Grace Matetoa
Set and poster design by Ntobeko Ximba
Set assistance by Siphiwe Gumede
Produced by Theatre Arts and Andi Colombo for submarine productions
Made possible through the Theatre Arts Emerging Director Bursary and Woordfees
I want to write you a submarine // writer & performer
Running at a tight 45 minutes, Columbo performs seven self-penned songs, as well as a poignant cover of the Hoagy Carmichael jazz standard “I Get Along Without Very Well”. In between the songs, she tells stories of wince-inducing hook-ups, mistakes in love, genuine affection and coming to terms with one’s foibles. At first glance these interludes seem conversational and off the cuff, but a keen ear will hear the razor-sharp employment of carefully constructed script. This is what makes SUBMARINE a stand-out: care has been taken in all aspects of its creation. Too often in independent theatre, the words fall by the wayside or are regarded as an impediment in the search for honesty; in Columbo’s play, words and how they are used, are the tools used to carve out an authentic depiction of the struggle to make sense of life and love.
Theatre Scene CPT Q and A: https://www.theatrescenecpt.co.za/post/spotlight-q-a-with-andi-colombo-on-i-want-to-write-you-a-submarine?fbclid=IwAR0SUDLcAoc8Ze70dlYFjn8cpvs_GKrbKQ-kamcDT1EPuCebIhLim1yaLXo
Theatre Scene CPT Review:
Broadway World: https://www.broadwayworld.com/south-africa/article/I-WANT-TO-WRITE-YOU-A-SUBMARINE-Announced-At-ToneelHuis-20221111
Dying in the now // writer & director
It happens. You turn around and then seven years have passed, and the home you grew up in is half-empty, packed to the brim with ghosts, and memory. Where you wore down the carpet walking familiar pathways. Where you fell in love. And out of it. And where you left all the questions you should have asked, but didn't. And now it's too late.
In Dying in the Now, Carla returns to pack up her Ouma's home, and unpack her past with her childhood friend, Sebastiaan. Dying into Now asks key questions about heritage, family and relationships. What do we wish we could forget? What do we try and fail to remember? And how do we pack away the things that can never be completed?
Text by Andi Colombo
Created under the Woordfees Writer’s Lab 2020, with script mentorship by Saartjie Botha and Janice
Honeyman
Presented at TEKSMARK 2021
Extract directed by Philip Rademeyer
Performed by Celeste Loots and Dean John Smith
Double star // writer & director
DOUBLE STAR, introduces the audience to Jess and Lu at different stages of their relationship, while in the end leaving it up to the audience to decide how this "once upon a time" tale concludes.
Having found each other in the anxiety enduring pre covid reality that is app-driven match-ups, these two competitive writers put their fledgling fragile relationship to the test while stuck in limbo in a small apartment –falling prey to the deception that they are moving forward while the world outside has pressed a panicked pause. Dealing with their different perspectives of loss and the confusing reality of feeling lonely even when being with someone you love, the audience is treated to glimpses of their relationship through a nonlinear narrative lens.
Theatre Scene CPT: https://www.theatrescenecpt.co.za/post/sceneitdoublestar
Broadway World: https://www.broadwayworld.com/south-africa/article/DOUBLE-STAR-Announced-At-The-Baxter-Theatre-Centre-20221111
VERLOREN // writer
National Arts Festival
Standard Bank Silver Ovation Winner
'Verloren' - a re-imagining of the myth of Alcyone and Ceyx set up the West Coast. It was an honour to bring this piece to life, written by Andi Colombo and voiced by Emma Kotze and Daniel Richards. Animated by Sophie Joans and Maggie Elizabeth Gericke, sound editing by Ethan Goldberg and Kieron Brown.
Kroon se krank // lighting designer
Forgot only // cocreator
forgot/only began as a live art installation which was created and performed by Naledi Majola and Andi Colombo. Later, it became a short film, co-created with Andi Colombo, Naledi Majola and Matthew Griffiths, produced by the Live Art Arcade.
forgot/only is a live art film by Grouping and Ungrouping Forever that explores themes of loneliness, the abstraction of humanness and the endlessness of reaching for something just out of grasp. It asks the question: why, in a world with so many opportunities for connection, do we find ourselves plagued by loneliness, uncertainty, and fear? How can it be possible that the more we are connected digitally, the harder it is to reach out to one another?
LIVE ART PERFORMANCE - 2019
Created, designed and conceptualised by Naledi Majola and Andi Colombo
Photograph by Liese Kuhn
ART FILM - 2021
Created, designed and conceptualised by Naledi Majola and Andi Colombo
Directed by Matthew Griffiths, Naledi Majola and Andi Colombo
DOP and Edit by Matthew Griffiths
Executive-produced by Live Art Arcade
Featured:
National Arts Festival under the Live Art Arcade
(un)Infecting The City 2021
On DSTV as part of Woordfees.tv, 2021
Delela // Lighting designer
Set in motion // Lighting designer
Fake NEWS // Lighting designer
Lighting Designer
Nelisiwe Xaba and Mocke Jansen van Veuren in funded by the National Arts Council and in partnership with the University of Cape Town’s Institute for Creative Arts (ICA) is to present an iteration of FakeN.E.W.S, an initiative of InfluenZArt. Fake N.E.W.S. framework is multi-disciplinary, an integrating of performance and digital art, exploring pertinent concepts of misinformation, conspiracy theories and science denialism that is rampant on social media and traditional media platforms. Focusing on contemporary South African socio-political and cultural context, it aims to process aspects of media politics as well as incorporate a critique of the emergent predominance of virtual presence that has characterised the pandemic normal. Fake N.E.W.S. pushes boundaries, provokes important conversations and models new avenues of thought.
Featured as part of the ICA’s LANA Gathering Programme
Credits for this run:
Produced by InfluenZA Art
Production Management by Mandisa Gumbi
Created by Nelisiwe Xaba and Mocke Jansen van Veuren
Assistant Direction by Iman Isaacs
LIKE HAMLET (2018) // writer
Like Hamlet is a postmodern, poetic interpretation of Shakespeare's classic text, Hamlet, which lifts four key characters, namely Hamlet, Ophelia, Gertrude, and Claudius, out of the context of the play and into a liminal, cyclical space, where all their human emotions, such as lust, betrayal, love and jealousy, become magnified.
These characters find themselves speaking through, against, around and away from one another, exploring the dualities of light and darkness; truth and deceit; voice and the body. Like Hamlet was borne out of a desire to see what the characters in Shakespeare's Hamlet would do in other spaces, how they would operate divorced from their context, and what would happen if the characters in Hamlet were given an opportunity to speak for themselves, and speak truthfully to their feelings.
Weekend special:https://weekendspecial.co.za/review-like-hamlet/
Broadway World:https://www.broadwayworld.com/south-africa/article/Anex-Theatre-Productions-Presents-LIKE-HAMLET-20180419
Vulture Productions: https://www.vulture-productions.com/single-post/2018/05/14/In-rehearsal-Like-Hamlet-A-post-modern-poetic-interpretation-of-the-Shakespearean-classic