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IOL News
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- IOL News
La Ronde: A Provocative Look at Love and Power in Contemporary Society
Lyle October and cast or La Ronde. Image: Mark Dobson Nothing is quite as it seems in Arthur Schnitzler's provocative play, La Ronde, directed by Leila Henriques, on the Baxter Studio stage this winter. Written in 1897 by Austrian author and dramatist, Schnitzler's La Ronde is a story of ten characters from different parts of society, all searching for escape and connection through sex. Henriques locates the story in 2025 with an all Fleur du Cap award-winning cast and creative team. The dynamic cast comprises The Baxter's resident Fire's Burning company; Awethu Hleli, Lyle October, Tamzin Daniels, Nolufefe Ntshuntshe and Carlo Daniels, along with Berenice Barbier and Aidan Scott. Crystal Finck is the assistant director and choreographer, set design is by Patrick Curtis, costume design by Wolf Britz, lighting design by Franky Steyn and music curation by Keir Mantzios. In a world obsessed with visibility, image and performance, this modern adaptation of La Ronde probes a world where intimacy is currency, sex is a calculated strategy and everyone is performing for someone. La Ronde is French for the round and refers to a dance performed in circle formation. It also means 'from one person to another' and creates the perfect metaphor for Schnitzler's play, driven by raw physicality, pulsating contemporary music and visceral dance. It takes a funny, provocative look at relationships now, delving into the complexities of power, desire and the relentless pursuit of connection. Through the ten characters and ten intimate encounters, it offers a sharp look at who holds power, who is exploited and who is seen. La Ronde is set in contemporary Cape Town and seen through the eyes of a DJ who finds the perfect track to cover each smooth or clumsy sexual encounter. 'We become involved with these ten characters in the play, all from different walk of life, all in search of something more, any kind of escape and intimacy through each other,' said Henriques. 'The play is funny, awkward and often poignant, as we watch how the characters chase love. It is a deeply human story and anyone who has ever pursued love will be able to recognise themselves in it,' Playwright Arthur Schnitzler is regarded as one of the most significant representatives of Viennese Modernism. His works, which include psychological dramas and narratives, dissected 19th century bourgeois life in Vienna. The sexual content of his works was considered controversial and were banned at the time. Over the years at The Baxter, Henriques was seen in Curse of the Starving Class, directed by Sylvaine Strike. She directed The List and Hani, which won a Golden Ovation award at the Grahamstown Festival. The entire La Ronde cast is a Fleur du Cap award-winning ensemble. Earlier this year, the Baxter's Fires Burning Company won the Best Ensemble award for Metamorphoses, while Aidan Scott clinched the Best New Director acknowledgement for The Dumb Waiter. In 2023 Berenice Barbier walked away as Best Supporting Actress for her role as Honey in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? La Ronde runs for a limited season from June 20 to July 12, 2025 at 8pm, with Saturday matinees at 3pm. There is an age restriction of 16 years and parental guidance is advised. Booking is through Webtickets online or at Pick n Pay stores. Cape Times
IOL News
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- IOL News
La Ronde: a provocative exploration of sex and power at the Baxter
Awethu Hleli, Carlo Daniels, Berenice Barbier, Lyle October, Nolufefe Ntshuntshe, Aiden Scott, Tamzin Williams Image: Mark Dobson La Ronde is set to ignite The Baxter Studio this winter with a daring and darkly comic new production directed by Leila Henriques, running from 20 June to 12 July 2025. Inspired by Arthur Schnitzler's once-censored 1897 play, this contemporary reimagining explores themes of sex, power, and longing through a chain of encounters between 10 strikingly different characters. In a world obsessed with visibility, image and performance, this modern adaptation of LaRonde probes a world where intimacy is currency, sex is a calculated strategy and everyone is performing for someone. Set in modern-day Cape Town, the play unfolds through the eyes of a DJ, who soundtracks each scene with music that reflects the emotional tempo of the characters' intimate exchanges. 'This play is funny, awkward and deeply human,' said Henriques. 'Anyone who's ever chased love or connection will see themselves in it.' Lyle October, Berenice Barbier and cast of La Ronde Image: Mark Dobson The production features The Baxter's acclaimed Fire's Burning Company — Awethu Hleli, Lyle October, Tamzin Daniels, Nolufefe Ntshuntshe and Carlo Daniels — joined by Berenice Barbier and Aidan Scott, both of whom have earned critical praise, with Scott recently honoured as Best New Director at the Fleur du Cap Awards. With design by Patrick Curtis, costumes by Wolf Britz, and lighting by Franky Steyn, La Ronde merges visceral choreography, sharp-witted dialogue, and a pulsing score into a theatrical experience that's provocative, poignant, and unapologetically bold. Cast members shared their thoughts on the production with Weekend Argus, reflecting on its emotional depth and cultural relevance. 'It's both exciting and scary,' said Awethu Hleli, reflecting on performing La Ronde in a contemporary South African context. 'As young artists in South Africa, we don't shy away from complexity — we embrace it. We're part of a generation that's evolved in how we think about sexuality, and we're using our voices to engage with topics that were once considered taboo.' Asked to choose a song that captures her character's experience, Hleli chose Dolly Parton's Just Because I'm a Woman. 'My character is very aware of her own strength and how that can be used against her — or judged — as if she's somehow less capable of loving.' For Carlo Daniels, the play unlocks deeper reflections on romantic relationships. 'La Ronde really gets you thinking differently and reveals some hard truths about relationships,' he said. 'They're often complex and layered — especially once they're consummated — but what the play shows is that these knots can be untangled, even if it takes time.' He added: 'It's always great working with this team. You're reminded of what a gift real teamwork is, and the kind of magic that can come from it.' For Berenice Barbier, it's the silence in La Ronde that speaks loudest. 'There's a moment where everything goes completely still — no lines, no gestures — just a quiet return to self-realisation,' she said. 'It's charged with unspoken tension and self-awareness. That silence says more than a monologue ever could. Every night it lands differently, and that unpredictability is thrilling.' Carlo Daniels, Awethu Hleli and cast of La Ronde, Image: Mark Dobson Though La Ronde is rich with emotionally charged and intimate scenes, it's also filled with unexpected moments of levity. 'I'm definitely the one most likely to burst out laughing during a serious scene,' Barbier admitted. 'But those moments are a gift — they remind us not to take ourselves too seriously.' It's this balance — between humour and discomfort, silence and revelation — that gives La Ronde its power. As Hleli put it, 'We're part of a generation that doesn't shy away from complexity. We embrace it.' In this bold new staging, La Ronde becomes more than a series of encounters — it's a mirror held up to modern intimacy, in all its vulnerability, contradiction and connection." [email protected] Weekend Argus
Montreal Gazette
5 days ago
- Montreal Gazette
Trip of a lifetime for Nunavik students who ‘deserve the world'
News By Some of the girls playfully chased each other while others batted balloons back and forth as they waited for the Ubers that would take them to the next stop on their field trip. But then Jini Papikattuk, who had just given them a tour of Nunavik Sivunitsavut, which offers post-secondary courses in the St-Henri district, began her farewell message in a mix of Inuktitut and English. The screeching and commotion of 20 girls, aged 11 to 15, suddenly stopped. The Inuit population worldwide is 180,000, Papikattuk told the group, which had arrived in Montreal with their teachers from the northern Quebec village of Salluit last Saturday. 'And in our region, we're only 14,000,' Papikattuk said, referring to Nunavik, which has 14 communities that include Salluit. 'So we're rare. We're rarer than a diamond.' Papikattuk's words seemed to resonate with the girls, who are on an eight-day trip to Montreal and Ottawa that was more than a year in the making. Thanks to their fundraising, they're being treated to the trip of a lifetime, including visits to La Ronde, the Montreal Science Centre and the Biodôme, pizza-making, nice hotels, shopping with their idol, Inuk-Mohawk singer and actress Beatrice Deer, and a tour of the Governor General's residence, Rideau Hall. What's your favourite place so far, they were asked? 'Everywhere,' two girls answered, almost in unison and without hesitation. 'I said it was going to be fun and I wanted to come to Montreal,' Lizzie, 12, said of why she had worked hard to be part of this group — the 'Girls Group,' as it's called by the four teachers at Ikusik school in Salluit who created it almost two years ago. This is their inaugural trip. The group was conceived to build life skills, self-esteem and a sense of community, Julianna Krupp, one of the teachers and organizers, said. 'We're really trying to build confidence, just showing the girls that in their future they can do anything they put their minds to,' she said. 'That's really the foundation of our girls' group. We want to show them that their hard work pays off.' Maintaining a good school attendance record is one of the criteria for membership in the Girls Group. That's not a given in communities experiencing trauma, severe poverty and overcrowding, and reeling from fatal police interventions. 'They deserve the world,' Krupp said of the girls. 'They go through so much every day and they still show up.' 'We give them some rules,' said Kemmley Charles, who like her colleagues is in her second year of teaching at Ikusik. The school belongs to the Nunavik school board, Kativik Ilisarniliriniq. 'They have to be responsible, they have to work, they have to be respectful, they have to come to school. And that motivates them because they know that if they do all that stuff, they can come on this trip.' The tour on Monday of the facility where Papikattuk teaches was meant to show the girls what's open to them if they continue their studies, said Olivia Hadar, another Ikusik teacher and group organizer. 'It was a labour of love,' she said of the hours that were dedicated to activities with the girls, such as sleepovers, as well as writing proposals, fundraising and planning the trip. The Girls Group even developed a community event during the past year. The group hosts a monthly elders' dinner where the girls serve meals, like caribou stew, to older people at the school. 'I'm seeing them smile,' Hadar said of the girls. 'It's so nice to see.' The school board has other projects to encourage students to stick with their studies, said Rochelle Mathurin, a student support professional at Ikusik and another founder of the Girls Group. For example, the board is preparing the annual Nunavimmiut Futures Fair in different villages, including Salluit, this October. 'It's so the students can learn about future opportunities with employers,' Mathurin said, adding that the event will end with a community feast. The itinerary for the trip was developed by the four teachers, who wanted to combine kid fun and education. 'They're learning a lot,' said Sarah Alaku, who teaches at Ikusik and joined her colleagues to chaperone the trip. Alaku, who was born and raised in Salluit, and many of the girls have visited Montreal before — but not like this, she said. Her daughter, Hailey, 15, is a member of the Girls Group and on the trip. The group departed for Ottawa on Wednesday, where they were scheduled to meet the Governor General of Canada, Mary Simon, on Friday. Simon, who was born in Nunavik, is the first Indigenous person to serve as Governor General. However, she wasn't available at the last minute. One of the girls, who had an accident in a pool, stayed behind in Montreal with one of the teachers. But the group was to meet up again in Montreal late Friday before their scheduled flight home Saturday. It's a 10-hour trip back to Salluit. Among the highlights of Montreal for Sophie, 11, were staying at Hotel Bonaventure and visiting La Ronde. But Papikattuk's guided tour of Nunavik Sivunitsavut also left an impression. In partnership with John Abbott College, the facility offers 25 high school graduates from Nunavik a year of CEGEP-level courses that help them connect with their culture and, for many, transition to college. A message on a wall at Nunavik Sivunitsavut reads: 'Honour my culture with pride, pursue my ambitions with purpose and move forward with strength and love.' Papikattuk asked who would like to attend Nunavik Sivunitsavut when they're older, and most of the girls raised their hands, including Sophie. And when Papikattuk remarked that Quebec's Inuit population is rarer than a diamond, Hadar closed her eyes. They're all gems in the Girls Group, she said when she opened them. 'Sparkle like a diamond.'
