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Published on April 3, 2008

 Apiya," cries the ashen-faced leader.

"Malengele," we respond, following unquestioningly, deeper and deeper into a dream world.

"Apiya!"

We leave our seats in the theatre where we thought we were to be mere observers of a show.

"Malengele." We follow into a hall of darkness where a woman, convulsed with pain,washes clothes with manic vigour.

"Apiya!"

"Malengele!" We witness four men in impossible states of madness. Finally, we enter a chamber where fires burn, drums beat; dreams of the cycle of life unfold. A surreal wedding is enrobed in darkness. Death is laid before us. And then we witness a rebirth in fire and water.

The audience had become participants in Magnet Theatre's "Isivuno sama Phupha" ("Harvest of Dreams") - a nightmare of rapturous beauty. We became intoxicated with the heat, then were redeemed by the most fantastic drumming and by a wailing chant whose laying bare of the essence of the human soul was pure Africa.

"Isivuno" was the most thrilling and artistically brilliant event of the Spier Performing Arts Festival's "Infecting the City", held in Cape Town from February 26 to March 2.

Spier, a wine company, has long sponsored the arts, but traditionally white-dominated art forms. The appointment of festival curators Jay Pather and Brett Bailey brought a commitment to broaden audiences and to stage artistic events in public spaces as well as theatres with the intention of drawing passers-by into the experience.

If "Isivumo" was the most disturbingly intense event of the Festival, "I am Cinnamon", a high-energy dance-performance piece brought to life in Cape Town Railway Station by Jazzart Dance Theatre (www.jazart.co.za) succeeded most in the festival's audience-broadening agenda.

The dance, choreographed by Sbonakaliso Ndaba, was intense, ranging from pyrotechnics on stilts to animated gyrations with trash cans, with a change of pace and mood seemingly every few moments. The extremely high energy, serious and at the same time joyous, never let up.

Cape Town Railway Station is a striking symbol of apartheid and the pain of segregation: the racist white regime excluded blacks from living in the city centre, placing them in squalid external townships. The railway ferried black workers to town very morning to serve white employers, and banished them again at night. Almost all users of the railway are still blacks and many of them still live outside the city in settlements plagued by crime and poverty. But on the morning of February 29, the station became a place of joy as commuters stopped, became engrossed and stayed to enjoy the performance. Many children, forgetting they were on the way to school, stood frozen in admiration and enchantment.

Other major events included "Dreamtime", a lavish evening presenting a range of prominent South African artists; and "Not With My Gun", a powerfully focused play about race and violence, dominant themes of discourse in today's South Africa.

In contrast to the free outdoor presentations, the major ticketed events drew a predominantly white audience. For true broadening, next year's festival should be staged in one or more of the townships. That way it will be white and not black audience members who have to be brought in.

Jonathan Richmond

Special to The Nation