SPAfrica

Julian Hetzel (Netherlands / Germany) & Ntando Cele (South Africa / Switzerland)

Minimum age 16+
90 minutes
English spoken
Dutch & French surtitled
Full: € 15,00
Reduction: € 13,00
Young Rate: € 6,00
Follow live the launch of a subversive new product: bottled drinking water from Sub-Saharan Africa imported to Europe as a luxury item. While at the same time European tears flow back to African sources.
Theatre-maker Julian Hetzel and performer Ntando Cele expose the problematic workings and hidden racism of empathy. An abrasive performance that combines theatre, music and video, as well as an invitation to think critically about capitalism and alliance.
SPAfrica is a solo performance about empathy and extractivism, exploring how closely racism is linked to capitalism. Julian Hetzel explores the limits of empathy - the ability to understand or feel what another is experiencing. What if empathy does not abolish or change existing power structures and privileges, but is a tool that reinforces them?
Through water and tears as conflict materials and metaphors for the extraction of natural and emotional resources, the performance builds on the transaction of these enduring resources between Europe and Africa - water for tears and tears for water. On the one hand, Sub-Saharan drinking water is imported to Europe: SPAfrica - the world's first empathy drink. On the other hand, tears are extracted in the heart of Europe and transferred to the origin of water in Africa. The project combines the exploitation of natural and emotional resources to expose neoliberal strategies in the search for alternative resources.
In corealisation with
CC De Schakel
Concept: Julian Hetzel & Ntando Cele
Direction: Julian Hetzel
Performance: Ntando Cele
Dramaturgy: Miguel Angel Melgares
Artistic advisor: Sodja Lotker, Khanyisile Mbongwa
Music & composition: Frank Wienk
Light design: Nico de Rooij
Technical coordination: Vincent Beune, Aengus Havinga (previously: Cesco van der Zwaag, Martijn van Nunen, Bea Verbeek)
Technicians: Tom Doeven, Simon Kelaita, Bea Verbeek, Wout Jansen
Technical solutions: Merijn Versnel, Guido Bevers
Production coordinator: Marieke van den Bosch
Production Cape Town: Lungile Mbongwa
Galerist Cape Town: Mpilo Ngcukana
Production assistant: Jana Riese
Assistant costume designer: Merel van Erpers Roijaards
Mask artist: Carly Heathcote
Make-up artist: Julia Markow
Prop maker: Saskia Hartog
Video Documentation: Reynold Reynolds, Bongeka Ngcobo
Photography: Alexandra Masmanidi, Anouk Maupu
Special thanks to the local hosts of the artist talk
Produced by: Studio Julian Hetzel
Co-produced by: Schauspiel Leipzig (DE) CAMPO Gent (BE) Theatre Vidy-Lausanne (CH) SPRING Performing Arts Festival Utrecht (NL) Auawirleben, Bern (CH)
Supported by: Performing Arts Fund (NL) City of Utrecht (NL) Fonds21 Vriendenloterij Fund (NL) Prins Bernhard Culture Fund (NL) Fentener van Vlissingen Fonds Onassis AiR Athens (GR) 16 on Lerotholi Gallery (ZA)