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Powerful, passionate and desperate – after winning over the festival fringe circuit in South Africa and abroad, the multiple award-winning production CRAZY IN LOVE is coming to Johannesburg.
CRAZY IN LOVE is the tragicomic story of a father-daughter search for a missing bride and mother. Devised and performed by the inspirational pairing of Andrew Buckland and Liezl de Kock, CRAZY IN LOVE is presented by A Conspiracy of Clowns in association with the Market Theatre, under the direction of Rob Murray, with design by Jayne Batzofin.
When the independent and free-spirited Leon (Buckland) is abandoned at the altar by his bride to be, he is left literally holding the baby. From his grief comes a solemn resolve: to travel the country with his infant daughter, Ginny (De Kock), until he finds his lost love and pieces his family back together. His quest quickly becomes an obsession, and at each town they don’t find her, he tattoos that town name on his skin. It is now fifteen years later. Ginny is coming of age and starting to realise the desire to achieve her own independence, while Leon has retreated into alcoholism and despair – his body a roadmap of tattoos. As their individual obsessions spiral out of control, and they become lost in their own personal routines and mythologies, a massive shift in their relationship is imminent – if they have the courage and conviction to break out of their own cycles.
“This piece CRAZY IN LOVE is a basket full of such exciting elements. Andrew Buckland, Rob Murray and Liezl de Kock. It is an award-winning production that is going to wow Joburg audiences,” says James Ngcobo, artistic director of The Market Theatre.
CRAZY IN LOVE has created a significant impression on the fringe festival circuit, where it won the Best International Production at 2014 Amsterdam Fringe Festival and the Standard Bank Ovation Award at 2013 National Arts Festival Fringe. It was also the top selling show on debut at 2013 National Arts Festival Fringe·and at the inaugural Cape Town Fringe Festival 2014, and was a box office success at Witness Hilton Arts Festival in 2013.
This is the fourth work created by the “open door collective” that is A Conspiracy of Clowns. Other works it has produced have been the smash hit Pictures of You (multi Fleur du Cap winner and top selling 2009 theatre production on the National Arts Festival Fringe), Kardiāvale (the cult cabaret clown noir show created under Jayne Batzofin and first presented on the National Arts Festival Arena Programme in 2011), and Benchmarks (first presented, in association with FTH:K, on the 2011 National Arts Festival Main Programme and then at Out the Box where it won a Handspring Puppet Company Award).
“Liez and Andrew are fantastic together on stage, which we discovered in 2012 creating Through Blue for Ubom!” says director Rob Murray. “The kind of stage chemistry they tap into is very rare and one we couldn’t ignore, so looked for the vehicle to best provoke that.”
“I’ve always been fascinated by deceptively small human stories that tell a much larger archetypal tale,” says Murray. “And two that have always stuck with me have been James (Cuningham) and Helen’s (Iskander) Baobabs don’t grow here and John Wright’s On the verge of exploding. In many ways CRAZY IN LOVE pays homage to these, as well as existing in its own right, in the telling of a very moving and hilarious tale. I guess the scale of it makes it a form of road-movie theatre.”
Design has always featured prominently in Conspiracy works. “We were very fortunate to get Jayne Batzofin to come play with us,” enthuses De Kock, “And she has really made the world come alive. From the gritty day to day life of Dad and Ginny’s journey with their junk trolley to Ginny’s obsessive, almost fetishist, shrine to her missing mother – Jayne has given us so many toys to play with!”
In 2013, the original creation of CRAZY IN LOVE was supported by the Eastern Cape Provincial Arts and Culture Council as well as some support from the National Arts Council of South Africa. In 2014, CRAZY IN LOVE was taken to the Amsterdam Fringe Festival thanks to support from the National Arts Festival and Amsterdam Fringe Festival. Also in 2014, the Rhodes University Drama Department supported CRAZY IN LOVE to get to Cape Town Fringe Festival.
With the stellar pedigree of Murray, Buckland, de Kock, and Batzofin, CRAZY IN LOVE looks forward to its premiere season in Johannesburg at the Barney Simon Theatre from 24 March to 12 April 2015.
Performances are:
Tuesday to Saturday nights at 20h15, R90-R180,
Sundays at 15:15, R130.
Bookings are through Computicket with special rates for students/learners, block bookings, and pensioners. The production is not suitable for children and is rated 16 for violence and language. The performance runs at 65 minutes with no interval. Tickets are available at Computicket. There is an early bird special for any bookings running until 16 March. Keep an eye out for #crazyloveJHB on Twitter.
