- By Brett Bailey
- Technical Manager: Iain North
'TERMINAL is not a play. There is no drama here. No beginning/middle /end.'
Performed in Grahamstown’s abandoned Victorian railway terminal, the piece originated as a response to the social, economic and historic inequalities that characterize Grahamstown – and every other town in South Africa (see the text on the ‘programme text’ link below).
It took the form of a series of live installations or tableaux vivants that foregrounded and set up a web of connections and associations between aspects of the social-historical environment of the region. The audience, led by the hand by a small child in silence, travelled through the installation one by one. A thought-provoking, sometimes disturbing and often very emotional journey.
We are keen to make similar works in other centres. The intention of the work is to ask people to look at both the history and current social situation of a given town/region, and to see how these are inter-tangled: how the roots of the troubled present reach way back into the complex and multi-layered past; how the world we live in tells an extraordinary story that we seldom have the time or concentration to read or interpret deeply.
Out of research – which Brett conducts by interviewing local historians, social workers and other people, and through reading and observation – Brett creates a landscape of performance installations that are exhibited or staged at night in a location that has historical or social significance. The performers are all people from local communities.
On the links at the bottom of the page you can find the programme notes and press reviews.
‘ Like no other this year, this brilliant piece forges a shift in your emotional equilibrium and touches your understanding of others and of the social flaws in a Festival of this nature. ’CUE ONLINE
‘ …it causes you to interrogate the rest of the festival and question the validity and the import of the cultural expression. Does our art address our problems or is it just frivolity in the face of oppression? And while you’re rushing from show to gig to show, frustrated that you don’t have time to eat, Bailey’s exhibition functions as a voice for the voiceless. A stark reminder that just around the corner there are people who don’t have food to eat. ’CUE ONLINE