SYLVIA VOLLENHOVEN
The Elephants in the Room
KROTOA IS PRESENT PROJECT CONTEXT
The 17th Century story of Krotoa !Goa /Gõas ‘Eva’ van Meerhof of the ǁAmmaqua and Goringhaiqua has exploded onto the landscape of our awareness in recent times. She is alive at a time when the sparkling waters of the Camissa River flow freely from Hoerikwaggo to the Bay of ǁHui !Gaeb… from Table Mountain to the sea.
When a story returns in this way, say the Elders, it because it is not done with us. To delve into the modern meaning and relevance of Krotoa’s story I depart from the archives. The official record helps to flesh out her character, to assist with a bare skeleton. But to paint a fuller picture I journey with her story in a different way. It becomes a bold act of writing against the limits of the archive. Employing intuitive gifts, creativity, innovation and Ancestral guidance.
Rational exploration that uses divination to become excavation.
And so, in my play Krotoa Eva van De Kaap the audience finds themselves in conversation with her as she tells her own story, from her perspective. But we have taken the ‘conversation’ beyond the confines of theatre. During every run, here and abroad, the team has created an Impact Campaign, comprising mainly parallel Dialogue Forums and the Krotoa Is Present Project of Youth Workshops. Shedding a light on who we are, where we come from and our options for the future.
Krotoa Eva van De Kaap had its premiere in 2018 in the Netherlands to standing ovations before several sold-out runs in South Africa. The parallel Youth Workshops has been running for two years and has reached more than 2,000 young people around the country. At the launch of the project at the Woordfees in 2022 1,400 Western Cape youth participated. The Facilitators use innovative Theatre in Education principles to provide a ‘cognitive playground’ where young people experiment with different choices and experience the outcomes of their own and other’s behaviour in a safe, fun environment. Arriving at a fresh understanding of crucial issues of Culture, Heritage and Identity.
The facilitators guide the participants to make the themes relevant in their own lives with activities that are educationally sound as well as visceral and tactile. Focusing on sharpening and developing their creative skills, we use visual artistry, storytelling, video, text and performance to develop their own stories in their own voices… To help them connect the dots between modern social dysfunction, historic events and hidden histories.
Some of the youth work has been featured on a Krotoa Is Present Art Exhibition at the Stellenbosch University. Elements are still available online.
A climax of the Krotoa Is Present project was a Human Rights month performance in 2024. Once more the participants watched the play and then devised visual art and performance to integrate the themes of history, culture and identity into their own lives. They have chosen to call their work Elephants In the Room. The rationale is that in their engagement with Stellenbosch University and the broader South African society, the daily aggression they have to face with its roots in colonialism and Apartheid is not being addressed.
The story is not done with us…
