Rust Co-Operative Premieres NAT at the Rosebank Theatre

Rust Co-Operative's new show, NAT, will make its bow at the Rosebank Theatre this January, the first season on South African stages for the vibrant and provocative theatre company.

NAT is intended as a sharp slap in the face of collective apathy and acceptance that certain children will always live in adversity and be subjected to a particular set of realities: the expendable children that populate local disadvantaged communities - the children who are too poor to have a childhood. The story follows three adolescents who form the smallest gang in the neighbourhood, The Cannibal Kids, and protect each other by vreeting anyone who crosses them. But as their bodies grow older they start to realise the devastating fissions, frissons and fusions in their friendship. NAT is a multi-lingual performance piece - with Afrikaans as the vernacular, English, isiXhosa and isiZulu - that uses text, movement, body percussion and soundscapes to tell its story.

Playwright, director and designer Penelope Youngleson says her experiences teaching at the Battsword Arts Centre in Cape Town's Grassy Park served as an inspiration for creating NAT: "My time here has made me very aware of how many learners are subjected to micro and macro aggressions on a daily (if not, hourly) basis in the Western Cape public school system. How fences, gates, buildings, teachers, principals, school rules and prejudices are failing our children. I wrote this play in response to the fourteen year olds who have been told to leave school because they are pregnant. To the nine year olds who aren't allowed to come to school until their bruises subside... and they never do. To the little boys who are cuffed over the head and called "moffie" if they cry when they're bullied. By their teachers. To the ten year olds who get their first period and don't come to class because there isn't money for sanitary pads or tampons. To the eighteen year olds still in grade 9 - without support or mentoring. We are failing a generation of children. There is no eloquence or "filibustering" around this reality."

Youngleson is the co-founded Rust Co-Operative in 2013 with Philip Rademeyer and has toured all the major festivals in South Africa as well as travelling to Ireland and the Netherlands with their productions. She is a speaker on South African whiteness studies and has delivered papers in London, Prague and Cape Town; and has an Master of Arts in Theatre Making from UCT. Youngleson won the Rosalie van der Gucht award for Best New Director at the 2014 Fleur du Cap ceremony in Cape Town.

NAT stars Iman Isaacs, Indalo Stofile and Richard September.

Isaacs is the co-founder of the theatre collective The Poor Artists, a drama therapy facilitator with Zakheni Arts and an actress. She has performed in several productions at Theatre Arts Admin, including The Poor Artists' BITCHING HOUR and Phala Ookeditse Phala's Cantos REBORN. She performed in Rust Co-Operative's FULL STOPS ON YOUR FACE in 2013 and 2014. In 2012, she played the supporting female role in ZULU alongside Forest Whitaker and Orlando Bloom, a feature film that premiered at Cannes Film Festival in 2013. This year, she will be involved in a production for the Chaeli Campaign as part of an awareness campaign for differently abled children.

Stofile has been working consistently as a model, musician and actress since her graduation in 2011, upon which she received the Moira Lister Theatre Award for her excellence in performace. Highlights of her Cape Town biography include working with Magnet Theatre as part of their trainee programme and on several professional productions, performing in Alan Parker's DETRITUS and touring with Brett Bailey's MEDEIA to Zurich, Basel, Berlin, Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

September has recently been on tour with Wordsmith's Theatre Factory RONDOMSKRIK, which garnered him a Kanna Slurpie Award at last year's KKNK. As well as a run at the Baxter Theatre, this production won awards and praise at Aardklop in 2014, and September was consistently mentioned as a stand-out performer by audiences and critics. He also performed in the GIPCA Live Art Festival, in a self-choreographed piece, CATEGORY SYNDROME, in collaboration with Daniel Gray. In 2013, he performed at the Fugard Studio in Athol Fugard's DIE LAASTE KARRETJIEGRAF and from 2012-2013 he toured with Mark Fleishman and Jennie Reznek's VOICES MADE NIGHT for Magnet Theatre, which travelled to the National Arts Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe, as well as also having a run at the Baxter Theatre.

Rust Co-Operative has produced nine original South African productions in 25 months and toured two continents, three countries and eight cities with their work. Youngleson's EXPECTANT (a 2013 Standard Bank Ovation Award winner at the National Arts Festival) went to the Afrovibes festival in Amsterdam in November 2013 and SIEMBAMBA (a 2014 Standard Bank Ovation Award winner at the National Arts Festival), written by Youngleson and Rademeyer, went to Amsterdam again in September 2014 to the Amsterdam Fringe. EXPECTANT and THE VIEW have both had runs at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, and THE VIEW has also played at the Artscape Theatre in Cape Town.

Rust Co-Operative gratefully acknowledges the Children's Institute for access to the 2014 edition of Child Gauge and Ndifuna Ukwazi's infographics and summary of the O'Regan-Pikoli commission (specifically underlining data involving learners and schools), as well as countless articles and provocations via the selfless team at Equal Education..

NAT opens on 14 January at the Rosebank Theatre and runs until the end of the month on Wednesdays to Saturdays, after which the play will run at KKNK in Oudtshoorn from 9-11 April. To book for the Rosebank Theatre run, visit Webtickets or call Liz on 072 316 6133 or email the Rosebank Theatre.com or Rust Co-Operative. Please note there is a no under 18 age restriction for language.

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