The company is based in Bordeaux, France, and it partners locally with the environmental education organisation, Eco Children. The project encompasses creative skills transfer via mask-play workshops, from recycled material, and giving access to theatre through theatre performances of their multilingual object theatre show ‘Our South Africa’ to primary school learners incorporating themes of conservation and Ubuntu.
Carole Deborde and Oliver Borowski, married partners, are the founders of the company. Carole is French and Oliver is South African. “We both have a passion for theatre and the Lowveld. We met in a theatre school in Berlin, Germany before moving to Bordeaux. Initially, we created visual outdoor performances with masks but today we look to incorporate in our shows as many languages available to them, visual and spoken, French and English, mask play as well as object theatre,” says Oliver.
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In France, they perform in schools, libraries, and at festivals and also give workshops. They have already executed many theatre projects in different parts of South Africa, such as at the National Arts Festival and Schools Festival in Grahamstown, in Nelspruit, in Johannesburg at the National School of the Arts, and in Benoni with Sibikwa Arts Centre.
They have also participated in numerous cultural exchange programmes between South Africa and France and have been supported by the South African Department of Arts and Culture, the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS), the Department of Sports, Recreation and Culture in Mpumulanga as well as the Alliance Francaise Network of South Africa,” he said. He said that these many rich experiences in South Africa eventually brought him and Carole to Hoedspruit in October 2020.
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Oliver had already spent many holidays as a child in the Klaserie Nature Reserve and thus he wanted to share his love for the area with Carole. “Underneath my passion for theatre lies a deep passion for nature conservation and Carole has now indeed joined the bandwagon. We both believe that there is a strong symbiosis between creativity and nature. We found the Eco Children organisation on the internet, contacted them and a pilot project was born, (combining creative arts, conservation and education) – a mask-play workshop with learners at an Eco Children adopted school, Makwetse Primary School, in Acornhoek around the theme of rhino poaching.
Over five days 15 learners made their masks from recycled material and produced a short play. Learning and confidence-boosting whilst having fun,” he added. Carole and Oliver returned in 2021 addressing another school in Acornhoek, Kgwaditiba Primary School. This time they also added a performance programme for the whole school to watch: performances of their brand-new creation ‘Our South Africa’. “The piece tells of Carole’s premiere voyage to South Africa.
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Her guide is me and through different subjects Carole and I evoke travelling, our love story, the townships, Madiba, the bushveld and of course Ubuntu.” Navigating a scenography of craft paper, they are narrators, characters and object manipulators all at the same time. “It was a wonderful opportunity for us to grow the show and gain feedback. The show is ultimately a collaboration between French and South African artists. Ultimately it is important for us that our shows are accessible to a wide number of audiences and performance spaces (often non-theatrical).
A kind of 4X4 theatre (all terrain),” added Oliver. This year in September Carole and Oliver executed the Imaski project in Tshokolo Primary School in Acornhoek, another Eco Children adopted school. They once again made fantastic masks with the learners and performed ‘Our South Africa’ for the grades 5,6 and 7’s. The show even went on to perform at Southern Cross Schools in Hoedspruit for the grade 6’s and the college. “It was very well received. The show will have its official premiere in France in February next year. We are now also busy planning a heritage month tour 2024 of performances and workshops in the wider Hoedspruit area and Acornhoek,” he concluded.
