KOEK & KINA for Women’s Month

This August, Owela presents two theatre performances in commemoration of women’s month. The performances will put Namibian and South African theatre making into conversation with each other while appreciating and paying tribute to women’s storytelling cultures in southern Africa. 

The first piece is a work-in-progress and contact improvisation titled KINA performed by Bupe Chiwala and Justina Andreas. KINA is a dance practiced by women in Oukwanyama ceremonies and rites of passage such as Efundula. The dance is relational to drums and drumming practices suggested shapeshifting and trance formations. This performance is a dialogue between students and alumni of the University of Namibia’s Performing Arts Department. The performance is an outcome of the artistic research project Dancing Instruments and it is conceptualized by Dr. Nashilongweshipwe Mushaandja. 

The main performance is My Koek is Moeg, written by Nashilongweshipwe Mushaandja, performed by the South African actor Abby Molz, and directed by Obett Motaung. We are honored to host and stage My Koek is Moeg, a monodrama portraying “a young woman’s quest for acknowledgement and the kind of basic ordinariness that comes of marriage and babies in a world fraught with abuse, sexual interference, utter loneliness and other irrevocable and intimate disruptions…” (Robyn Sassen). This work was performed in Johannesburg, South Africa (2017) and Zimbabwe (2022). Prior to that, it was performed at the Theatre School (2012) and National Theatre of Namibia (2014). 

The performances will be staged 23nd – 24th August 2024 at 19h00 at the Theatre School (63 Robert Mugabe Ave). Tickets are N$ 100 and are available at the entrance.