All on offer at this year’s Hilton Arts Festival

KZN’s premier arts festival, the 23nd annual Hilton Arts Festival will be hosted in the picturesque Hilton College from 17 to 20 September.

“The focus is on freshening the face of the festival and secure another excellent programme, all with a view to ensuring that our loyal patrons can expect a characteristically entertaining event,” said festival chairman, Iain McMillan.

The festival represents what is hot and happening in the creative industries in South Africa: Theatre, dance, comedy, musical theatre, family theatre, classical music, music as well as a series of mind-scape lectures and discussions. There is a special emphasis on visual arts this year with extended exhibition space and elevated focus being given to crafters and art makers.

The four-day festival caters for everyone, young and old – including a huge market, book stalls and great food.

Some of the drama highlights are Neil Coppen’s brilliant African adaptation of George Orwell’s allegorical novel Animal Farm; the psychological thriller three-hander Blue / Orange by British playwright Joe Penhall and directed by Clare Stopford; Magnet Theatre’s I Turned Away and She Was Gone… with Jennie Reznek in her first solo show in two decades in a poetic reworking of the Persephone story; Siembaba, which looks at a South African phenomenon we often take for granted – the relationship between a black domestic worker and the white children she helps to raise, written by Philip Rademeyer and Penelope Youngleson; Nik Rabinowitz in his one-man comedy What the EFF; and A Voice I Cannot Silence, a play based on the life and work of Alan Paton by Greg Homann and Ralph Lawson; Darrren King and Antony Stonier in The Art of Being Ugly, and a bouquet of productions and workshops from festival stalwarts, the Actors Unemployed.

There is a bumper Jongosi schools arts festival embedded in the main festival, for high schools and primary schools to have a tailor-made package ahead of the main event, which takes place over two days on Thursday, 17 September for Primary Schools and on Friday, 18 September for High Schools.

For more information, visit www.hiltonfestival.co.za or like the Facebook page, Hilton Arts Festival. Follow updates on Twitter @HiltonFest or download the free APP Hilton Arts Festival for both Android and IOS.