Cue Online (Grahamstown)
Stephanie Pretorius
15 July 2011
Grahamstown — “There is no such thing as original content, but how we handle it makes all the difference,” said Professor Kgositsile, speaking about artistic responsibility at WordFest earlier this week. There are a number of Festival productions this year that treat similar content in vastly different ways.
Eccentric teaching styles in a historical context are dealt with in both The History Boys and Death of a Colonialist.
Somewhere on the Border and Abnormal Load both deal with questions relating to periods of violence and war in South Africa.
As far as legality goes, Festival Director Ismail Mahomed said, “The Festival’s contract with artists requires that they comply with all aspects related to intellectual property. In incidences where infringement comes to light, the Festival has the right to cancel a production.”
Two days ago Jori Snell, creator of last year’s Silver Ovation Award winner Inua, posted the following on Cue Online regarding the production The Anatomy of Weather:
“I was rather astonished…to see a direct copy of the original idea of the animation of sand turning around from a bag that I created for Inua…I am happy to inspire other performers, but to directly use my concepts is rather inappropriate and disrespectful.”
Snell later told Cue that she did not want to make a big fuss, but she felt that the issue needed to be raised.
Karabo Legoabe, designer of The Anatomy of Weather, said that she was surprised to hear of Snell’s comment.
Both she and choreographer Nicola Haskins claim to have no prior knowledge of Snell or Inua.
“We went on a creative journey with The Anatomy of Weather, and were inspired by many different sources,” said Legoabe.
She mentioned the production Rooster, in which a character’s jacket billows with smoke, as the inspiration behind the use of salt, rather than sand, in The Anatomy of Weather.
Are smoke, sand and salt the same thing, or variations of the same idea?
Perhaps each as a prop is a completely separate concept.
The debate rages on.
AllAfrica – All the Time
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Content Wars