Directed by theatre maker Jaqueline Dommisse, OLDING is a provocative solo performance by John Cartwright that unflinchingly examines ageing, privilege, and legacy. Blending poetry, movement, and live jazz improvisation by Daniel Zachariah Franks on the violin, the piece explores what it means to grow old in this country and on this planet, confronting identity, mortality, and the climate crisis.
Jaqueline Dommisse, Artistic Director of Hearts & Eyes Theatre Collective, brings her rich experience in solo performance, personal narrative, and collaborations with leading dance and poetry artists to this production.
John Cartwright, whose career spans academia, activism, and acting, delivers a performance infused with intellectual depth and emotional vulnerability. His background in theatre and contact improvisation dance lends fluidity and spontaneity to his storytelling and expressive physicality.
OLDING is a powerful reflection on personal and planetary concerns, leaving a lasting impact on its audience.
John Cartwright was born in Muizenberg in 1938. After a career in Departments of English (Stellenbosch, Toronto, UCT), he ‘retired’ in 1998 and has since been engaged in projects and programmes in community safety. In the 1960s and 1970s he was very active in university theatre. In the late 80s he was enthused by classes with Jazzart, and since 2006 he has performed in Brett Bailey’s productions of Orpheus and Verdi’s Macbeth, in Jay Pather’s Body of Evidence, and in a solo show, Into the River, based on his poems, and has been active in Music/Dance improvisation in Cape Town and Amsterdam.
Daniel Zachariah Franks is a working musician; a rare-breed of multi-instrumentalist who is able to draw from a range of instruments in his quiver at any time – from double-bass to violin, guitar to mandolin. If it has strings, he can play it.cHe does this because he’s a self-admitted jazz-junky, with a special bent for wild gypsy jazz. He also gets a kick from playing live – as a soloist and in a variety of ensembles.
But nothing tantalizes more than performance projects, except perhaps titillating session work. Daniel also owns and operates Franks Musical Instruments, an instrument repair workshop and fine instrument salesroom in the heart of Muizenberg.
Jaqueline Dommisse is the Artistic Director of Hearts & Eyes Theatre Collective, a small independent theatre company in Cape Town; and served as Festival Director of ASSITEJ South Africa’s Cradle of Creativity, an international festival of theatre for young audiences and Out the Box, a festival of puppetry and visual theatre.
Jaqueline is a passionate theatre maker with an eclectic style which includes everything from puppetry and circus skills to contemporary dance and spoken-word. Her professional theatre productions have toured nationally as well as to Canada, The Netherlands, France and the UK.
Frans Mandilakhe Zunguze began as a rigger of lights at Theatre Arts in 2015, and now runs all technical aspects of the venue. He has a growing love of lighting design and specialises in lighting designed in real time, a skill he acquired through his collaboration as an artist in MusicDance.