Circle Song is a memory piece. Spoken from a narrator’s perspective across an arc of time, it is a re-imagined past of people who left the shores of Ireland and England to begin a life in South Africa. It rests though on a story prompted by a real life event: After a severe brain operation, my mother wakes to the world as a fifteen year old version of herself. The production also about holding space for the memory of those that shimmer somewhere in the radiance of your own presence, to provoke a memory trigger of your own, so that whatever is being suggested, whatever begins to inhabit the space is shaped by your own memory.
The play reimagines ancestral stories and the migrations that have shaped the family’s history, while addressing the larger questions of what it means to be human, to belong, and to navigate the shifting landscape of memory and time.
Production Credits
'Circle Song' could not have found a voice without good friends - and performers themselves - Aldo Brincat and Rajesh Gopie in the collaboration on each other’s stories; Graham Hopkins and Tony Bentel in the early script revisions and the directorial eyes of Mbongeni Mtshali (UCT) and Caroline Rain.
Directed by: Caroline Calbur
Written by: Ashley Dowds
Performed by: Ashley Dowds
About the Artists
Ashley Dowds
Ashley is a Cape Town based actor, known for various TV roles on shows such as Scandal!, Isidingo and Binnelanders. His international work includes ‘Warrior’ for HBO, and ‘Deep State’ for UK-based Endor productions and as Mickey Purvis, Scottish husband of the endearing Tannie in the series 'Recipes For Love And Murder' for Mnet (SA) and Acorn TV (Scotland). He played the Milli Vanilli talent manager ‘Girl You Know It’s True’ released in SA cinemas June 2024.
Recent theatre work includes: Paul Slabolepszy’s ‘The Return of Elvis Du Pisanie’ (which appeared on the Fringe NAF, 2024), ‘The Curious Incident Of The Boy In The Night’ ‘Constellations’, as Roland- both for Pieter Toerien Productions, 'Pale Natives' (as Ashley at The Market Theatre), 'Soil' (as Nic - Theatre on the Square), 'Hard Love' (as Zvi) and Claudius in The Framework company's ‘Hamlet'.
He has hosted and co-presented Lifestyle and Travel shows such as ‘Another Side of Africa’ (initially for Amazon Prime) and ‘Going Nowhere Slowly’ (SABC3) and is the author of ‘Red Car Diaries’, published by Struik. He has produced a limited series podcast called ‘Landmark’: Land, Culture, Belonging.
Caroline Calbur
Caroline founded Theatre Arts, Cape Town in 2009, and is the Artistic Director and founder there. This follows a long history in theatre in which she has been a performer, theatre director, educator and mentor in both universities and communities, working at a local, national and international level. Theatre Arts, its ethos and its programmes, is a culmination of this experience.
Trailer
Publicity Info
- Venue: Victoria Theatre
- Location: Victoria Girls' High School
- Ticket price: ZAR 120.00
- Programme type: The Fringe
- Genre: Theatre
- Duration: 50 minutes
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Ages:
PG (PARENTAL GUIDANCE)
- M - MATURE CONTENT
- NOT APPLICABLE - Suitable for all ages
