“Cruise”
a live Theatre stage show
Directed by: Josh Lindberg, Written by: Jack Holden, Produced by: Colin Law, Lighting Design: Jane Gosnell, Designed by: Wilhelm Disbergen, Musical Direction: John Elliot.
Starring: Daniel Geddes
winner:
Naledi Theatre Award
-Best Production: Independent / Fringe Theatre
&, -Daniel Geddes -Best Performance in an Independent / Fringe Theatre Production
I was immediately attracted to Cruise as a powerful story of acceptance of otherness. I wanted to create a world where each individual story found home -and there are many. A space where each audience member’s personal story felt at home. This is what holding space requires, what so many stories and individuals, each one of us, simply should have, but sadly crave as absent. No one should feel that they are not enough or that their story is not acknowledged.
I always start with, ‘how can we move an audience’. When directing I watch our audience as much as the actor/s; it was an obvious privilege to share this story and our production with our audiences in our first run. Their reactions were firmly rooted in a shared and remembered experience, one carrying so much pain, loss, discovery and joy (even with those who had not lived through those decades). The warm and generous reception we received moved me in a profound way.
This play sits perfectly relevant here in South Africa, within our current time. Now more than ever (somewhat sadly) our world still has so much further to travel in terms of acceptance of all. To ‘live every day like it is your last, in the present -This story can be related to individual stories and can find home with each of us.”
I deeply honour the fact that we have the opportunity to share this production with a Cape Town audience (and beyond). I respect our team, each who joined my vision and contributed profoundly to what it has become. Light, set structures and sound become storytelling tools -architecture, lines and boxes that metaphorically hold each individual story -and then release them.
This is the kind of work that grows. Each time we played it I learned more about it, each character, each story and the world the play embodies. Importantly, how this play still lives today.
