Season 10 of The Centre for the Less Good Idea

Name: Season 10 of The Centre for the Less Good Idea
Start: 2023-10-18
End: 2023-10-22
Location: The Centre for the Less Good Idea

Wednesday Oct 18 - Sunday Oct 22 Arts on Main, 264 Fox St, Maboneng, City Centre

Season 10 of The Centre for the Less Good Idea will take place from 18 to 22 Oct and will be a celebration of seven years of collaborative, experimental and interdisciplinary work in Johannesburg. Image courtesy of The Centre

"The Centre continues to grow and establish deep collaborations with individual artists and with other organisations in South Africa, in Africa, and across the world.” – Bronwyn Lace, co-founder and director. Image courtesy The Centre

“My own work has been made immeasurably deeper and richer by the people that I’ve met and worked with through The Centre.” – William Kentridge. Image courtesy The Centre For The Less Good Idea

The Centre for the Less Good Idea is a space for responsive thinking through experimental, collaborative and cross-disciplinary arts practices. Image courtesy The Centre For The Less Good Idea

It might be hard to believe, but The Centre for the Less Good Idea celebrates seven years of collaborative, experimental and interdisciplinary work with the staging of Season 10 from Oct 18 – 22.

Both a reflection on, and a celebration of the journey that The Centre has taken since its inception in 2016, the 10th Season features a combination of new performances incubated at The Centre and created using some of the key processes, methodologies, and ways of working that have come to define The Centre over the years.

Expect a new programme of Pepper’s Ghost performances focusing on Activating the Archive, a newly devised collection of 11-minute Epics, a Public Procession programme, and a revisiting of the Collapsed Concert format. Also central to Season 10 is William Kentridge’s A Defence of the Less Good Idea, a performance lecture that is deliberately drowned out and collapsed through the performance of other artists.

Around 60 artists will form part of the 10th Season. Those selected have not only deeply nfluenced The Centre, but have also in turn been influenced by The Centre, co-developing the particular methodologies and strategies that have become seminal to its growth as an organisation.

NEW WORKS SHOWING IN SEASON 10

Newly incubated works planned for Season 10 include an evening of percussion composed and conducted by South African percussionist Tlale Makhene and Benin-born percussionist Angelo Moustapha along with two new programmes of Pepper’s Ghost focussing on Activating the Archive, curated by Bongile Lecoge-Zulu and Bronwyn Lace.

Phala Ookeditse Phala and Tony Miyambo also debut a new work, Eribuweni Ra Lwande | On the Shoreline, born out of a recurring dream full of fragments, while Sbusiso Shozi and Nhlanhla Mahlangu’s internationally renowned African Exodus returns to The Centre.

Further original works include new short-form theatre by Khayelihle Dom Gumede and Gregory Maqoma, while Magnet Theatre’s Mark Fleishman and Jennie Reznek work alongside Neo Muyanga and Marcus Neustetter in a new take on Antigone’s Ode to Man.

THE GREAT YES, THE GREAT NO

The Centre has been significantly involved in many of William Kentridge’s recent, large-scale theatre and opera works, including The Head & The Load and Sibyl. Central to Season 10 is a showing of the first iteration of his latest theatre work, The Great Yes, The Great No, a co-production between The Centre, The William Kentridge studio, and THE OFFICE performing arts + film.

MULTIMEDIA EXHIBITION: MOMENTS OF MAKING

Running throughout the course of Season 10 is Moments of Making, a multimedia exhibition and installation that reflects on the playful, intangible and oftentimes vulnerable moments that emerge during the pursuit of the "less good idea". The exhibition features a short process-based film, photography, text and a sound installation, curated by The Centre's Director of Cinematography and Editor, Noah Cohen.

In the lead-up to Season 10, keep an eye out on the Centre's website and social media for regular updates, as well as behind-the-scenes moments from their workshops.