Abnormal Loads Trailer.avi

Abnormal Loads
Written and designed by Neil Coppen
Directed by Neil Coppen and Janna Ramos- Violante
Trailer shot and edited by Marcello Maffeis
Music by Gary Thomas
Sound Design Tristan Horton
Writer/director Neil Coppen (creator of Tin Bucket Drum and Tree Boy, and winner of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Theatre, 2011) has set his latest play in a fictional battlefield town situated in the once war ravaged valleys of northern KwaZulu-Natal. It has been described in the national press as a breathtaking amalgamation of ghost story, love drama, historical epic and dark comedy.
When thirty-year-old loner Vincent Liversage meets sixteen-year-old Katrien Joubert (the rebellious daughter of the local NG Kerk dominie) an unusual friendship is forged and soon the two hatch a plan to escape the oppressive town of their birth. However, to obtain freedom they must first confront and challenge their divided family histories.
As an annual town re-enactment from the Anglo- Boer war approaches, Vincent and Katrien find themselves cast in the roles of their long-lost ancestors, playing out and -- often unwillingly -- repeating events from their ill-fated love affair. Its isn't long before the young lovers come to realise that history has a much stronger pull on them than they had imagined. Setting out to rewrite its undesirable conclusions is a task not without its own set of creative challenges.
With a narrative that whisks audiences through two centuries of South African history, Abnormal loads presents a theatrical world in which the past runs in tandem with the present and events shift seamlessly from the grandeur of a battlefield in 1879 to the intimacy of the bedroom in 2011.
Coppen's acclaimed production features a multi-talented cast comprising of some of the country's finest talents, including Allison Cassels, Mothusi Magano (of Tsotsi and Plein Street fame) and Jenna Dunster (of Isidingo). Once again, Coppen has collaborated across disciplines and mediums to bring his new work to life. Movement, sound, music, multi-media and shadow combine to create breathtaking theatrical experience.
Abnormal Loads is running The Market Theatre in Johannesburg till May the 13th 2012 .
Press Response
"Abnormal Loads is a structural triumph in a medium that is often infested by creative repetition. Coppen's play tackles social prejudice and race relations without being bogged down by intellectual utopia. The confident and intelligent use of space and lighting is almost like seeing a film without compromising the intimacy of the stage. Abnormal loads does equally well as source material for a master class on creative complexity or a conversation starter on a blind date."
Sihle Mthembu, Mind-Map SA
"Abnormal Loads is a profound and complex piece of theatre."
Margaret Von Klemperer, The Witness
"Abnormal Loads is a production where so many elements contribute so perfectly that it feels like an experience, rather than just a play."
DAILY MAVERICK
"Go and see 'Abnormal Loads' because it is there; because someone young and talented, committed and intense has created it to be seen, because it calls to the voices of the past and sings to the choruses of the present, because it is meaningful and beautiful and moving and original."
Going Places.
"The historical/present mix is often underscored by tableau type groupings lit to emphasise the unreality of it all and the exquisite stylised movement in places as we see the action in shadow, silhouette or in a half remembered mist. Many themes are explored, including dealing with ancestors, the neurotic fear of HIV and AIDS, the illicit love of our hero's forebears 'unto the generations' as well as the bond forming between him and the young Katrien, life and death, and that eternal colonial feel of rural KwaZulu Natal landed white people. The work is profound in the sense that it captures a part of our being so neatly and succinctly. The contrasts are subtle and nothing is ever overtly forced on the audience. Abnormal Loads is bound to become a classic of South African theatre."
Moira de Swardt- Artslink
"Now this is a play that will stand the test of time -- Neil Coppen has produced a notable addition to South Africa's theatre. Cleanly and dramatically it reverberates across time and space, deftly revealing characters that have depth, meaning and life. Abnormal Loads is a relevant and gripping play by a young playwright and director who can only go to greater heights!"
Artslink.
"This is a South African production that makes you glow from within. Coppen se Abnormal Loads is geniaal verfrissend."
Beeld
"Refined and soulful theatre."
Tonight
"Best show here for a long time."
David Smith, Guardian in Africa

[@DanBothafilms]

This looks amazing!