New Magnet Theatre show comments on present times

A new production, mAnJE ! MaNJe (an epic) premieres at the Magnet Theatre in Observatory for a limited season from Wednesday November 6 to Saturday November 16.

Directed by Mark Fleishman with a musical score composed by Neo Muyanga and immersive visual projections by Vienna-based, South African artist, Marcus Neustetter, the show draws on the story of the ancient Greek inventor and super-engineer, Daedalus, to stage a prophetic lament on the human condition in the age of the machine, big data and the climate catastrophe.

“The production is built around a series of mythic stories of the so-called Minoan civilization on the island of Crete, between 3000 and 1100 BCE, and their relationship with the figure of Daedalus reimagined from a perspective in Africa,” says Fleishman.

“These stories were never part of a coherent collection, a continuous mythic poem for instance. And yet they do suggest a chronology that might be understood as a cycle of stories. In other words, we can assemble the various story fragments into episodes that together form an epic construction,” he says.

“In the production we are trying to create an epic form for the 21st century that reveals something about the contemporary moment and our sense of time.”

Performances are at 7.30pm nightly, excluding Sundays, with Saturday matinees at 2pm. Tickets cost R200 for general admission and R100 for pupils, students and pensioners through Webtickets.