BIG DADA
the lamentable taile of the rise and fall if Idi Amin
by Brett Bailey
a play of the third world bunfight:
an all-african performance company / www.thirdworldbunfight.co.za

SEE vivid African spectacle … fully authentic township sagas … post-colonial rituals …all from the safety of your theatre seat

 

Uganda’s Field Marshall Al Hajji President Doctor Idi Amin Dada burst on to the African stage with his military regime in 1971, sent the Asians, British and Israelis packing, bancrupted his banana republic, adviced Queen Elizabeth on her wardrobe, and slaughtered about 4ooooo people during his 8 year reign.

“a grotesque variety show, a post-colonial cabaret … Bailey’s artillery of seditious aestetics panders to the exotic ethnic can-can, jolly gollywog stereotypes and then blows them all to hell with savage satire.” (THE STAR, 2001)

‘Bailey and his fantastic, brilliant cast get under the skin: like surgeons on acid, they operate in a dual theatre of the absurd and cruelty, wielding interrogative scalpels of satire on the philosophival body of dictatorial dis(ease)..” (CAPE TIMES, 2001

BIG DADA is an exploration of dictatorship in contemporary Africa. It charts Amin’s descent into psychotic paranoia, and his country’s collapse, amid the nationalism, poverty, religious factionalism and Super Power machinations, which seethe across the post-colonial African landscape. BIG DADA examines these tensions in a volatile piec of music theatre drawing on the rich traditions of African pop and traditional design, performance and music.

THIRD WORLD BUNFIGHT (TWB) is a non-profit South African performance company which has maintained its position at the cutting edge of performance throughout its 10 year history. The company is resident on the Spier Estate near Cape Town, and is directed by multi-award winning playwright, Brett Bailey. 

TWB is committed to making provocative, uniquely African theatre works of high quality that challenge stereotypes of Africa. Working with a diverse range of African performers TWB tells the stories of Africa, uses and fuses the performance forms, music and design modes of Africa, and presents these works both locally and abroad.

TWB's award winning theatrical, musical and ritualistic productions have toured throughout South Africa (in English as well as isiXhosa versions), in other African countries, as well as extensively in Europe and in Australia. These productions include BIG DADA, iMUMBO JUMBO, IPI ZOMBI? and THE HOUSE OF THE HOLY AFRO.

During the past 10 years TWB has trained and worked with several hundred black performers – including children – in the Western and Eastern Cape Provinces, in Gauteng, as well as in Zimbabwe and Uganda. Specialists have been brought from Holland, Cote d'Ivoire, the USA and Zimbabwe to work with these performers. Development, training and employment of performing artists and gifted learners from South Africa's previously disadvantaged communities are central to the ethos of the company.

 

JakArt secretariat: Jln. Lebak Bulus II / 20 A, Cilandak – Jakarta 12430, INDONESIA
Tel/ fax: + 62-21-75907687, Tel: + 62-21-70830742, email: proseni@indosat.net.id