Lara Foot’s award-winning Life & Times of Michael K, returns to The Baxter this July, before heading to the Galway Festival in Ireland and the Edinburgh Festival.
Based on Nobel Prize-winning author, JM Coetzee’s Life & Times of Michael K, it was adapted for the stage by Lara Foot, in collaboration with the Tony Award-winning Handspring Puppet Company (of War Horse and Little Amal-fame), in The Pam Golding Theatre at The Baxter.
It was met with huge acclaim last year, and shows sold out quickly. It is now set for a limited run from 5 to 15 July 2023 only.
The hauntingly beautiful story follows Michael K, a simple man who embarks on a journey through South Africa, ravaged by civil war, to return his mother to die on the farm where she was born. He finds strength in his own humanity, his profound connection to the earth and his unique path which, as it unfolds, reveals to him, his reason for living.
The production has won numerous awards, including the Fleur du Cap Best Production and Best Puppetry Design awards, and it also received five further nominations for Best Lighting Design, Best Costume Design, Best Performance by an Ensemble, Best Sound Design, Original Music, Soundscape or Live Performance (for Original Music and Sound Design).
It truly gives life to Coetzee’s Booker Prize-winning novel and brings together some of South Africa’s most revered, multi-award-winning artists and creatives.
Written and directed by Foot, it is the largest and most illustrious undertaking by The Baxter over the past decade.
The world premiere was live streamed from The Baxter to Dusseldorf and in November 2021 and 2022, the company traveled to Germany to perform live for the first time, to great acclaim.
The creative team is made up of Lara Foot (adaptor, writer, director), Handspring Puppet Company (adaptors, puppet directors, design and makers), Patrick Curtis (set design) Kyle Shepherd (original music composition), Joshua Cutts (lighting), Fiona McPherson and Barrett de Kock (directors of photography and film), Yoav Dagan (videography and editing), Kirsti Cumming (projection design), Phyllis Midlane (costumes) and Simon Kohler (sound design).
The impressive South African cast includes theatre legends Sandra Prinsloo, Andrew Buckland, Faniswa Yisa, puppet master Craig Leo, Roshina Ratnam, Carlo Daniels, Marty Kintu, Billy Langa and Nolufefe Ntshuntshe.
The South African and German media raved, with Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung describing it as “… a brilliant Coetzee adaptation …” and “… the lights went out and a spectacular evening of theatre began …” while report-D said, “It was beguiling. Different. Great.”, and RP Online described it as “Great theatre.”
South African arts activist and critic, Faye Kabali-Kagwa, called it “… nothing short of amazing. It’s ambitious, bold, and quite honestly is a great example of the power of theatre”, while radio personality and speaker coach at TEDxCapeTown, Andre du Toit, called it “an absolute triumph” and The Critter said, “… a sublime musical score, the overall effect is epic, making Life & Times of Michael K an accomplished, and pertinent work …”
Life & Times of Michael K runs at The Pam Golding Theatre at The Baxter, from 5 to 15 July 2023, at 7pm nightly and Saturday matinees on 8 and 15 July at 2pm.
Booking is through Webtickets online or at Pick n Pay Stores. For discounted block or schools’ bookings and fundraisers contact Leon van Zyl at leon.vanzyl@uct.ac.za.
