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Mahomed becomes festival boss
13/05/2008 10:48 - (SA)
Grahamstown - An angry fringe artist who once "smoke bombed" the offices of the Grahamstown National Arts Festival's official newspaper, Cue, is to become the next director of the festival.
Renowned playwright, actor, producer and arts journalist Ismail Mahomed, 48, said he and his cast became upset by the failure of the newspaper to review shows at the Children's Festival.
"I walked into the Cue newsroom, asked a student where the power plug was. This student naively pointed it out to me," Mahomed said.
"I plugged in our smoke machine in and as it got going and the room filled up with smoke; the cast and I started to demand that they review the shows. We then got a review and it was very good."
Mahomed, 48, who was the victim of two forced removals while still a boy, once from Sophiatown and again from Vrededorp to Lenasia, was forced to become a maths and science teacher as a young man.
The government refused to give him a permit to study in the arts at the old RAU university and Wits.
Despite all of that, he became such a good maths and science teacher, that he was made teacher of the year by the old education system.
Mahomed decided to leave teaching for the arts in 1982 "even though the stereotype was that Indians became merchants or accountants".
Sell-out shows
He proved them wrong by taking hordes of shows produced by his Community Arts Workshop theatre company in collaboration with other artists to the festival.
In 1995 he took six sell-out shows, and the next year he took 13.
Even though he watched from Lenasia as Soweto burned and the kids were shot in 1976, he says his works are not bitter nor do they grandstand.
"It is about characters taking audiences on a journey. It is about excellence and value for money," he said.
The first festival director of colour, Mahomed says he wants to see more shows that hold up a critical mirror to power, especially on issues of succession, corruption and bureaucracy.
The festival started in 1974 as a Shakespeare theatre convention for tea-drinking old white ladies with purple rinse hairdos, but played a big role in promoting protest theatre during the struggle.
It has since become a major annual event bringing hundreds of shows to Grahamstown.
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South Africa
