[Design Indaba 2015] Design Indaba presents Refuse The Hour

The chamber opera makes its South African debut as part of the Design Indaba Festival from 26 to 28 February 2015, the Cape Town City Hall auditorium will become the backdrop to the South African premiere of William Kentridge's multimedia performance Refuse The Hour.

Image by John Hodgkiss

Kentridge interweaves an astonishing range of visual and sound languages into an engrossing 80-minute performance with a discourse from the artist himself at its centre. The chamber opera is a multi-layered experience that includes dance, performed and choreographed by Dada Masilo, an original score by Philip Miller, video by Catherine Meyburgh, mechanical sculptures, vocal performance and narration.

The artist delivers a lecture or narrative, which begins with the ancient Greek myth of Perseus and ends with Einstein amidst a Dadaist pandemonium of sounds and images. An international cast of twelve including dancers, musicians, performers and vocalists accompany him on his journey to the limits of science, ontology and cosmology, combining performance, theatre, opera, contemporary dance, visual installations and video projections in an evocative and unforgettable experience.

Image by John Hodgkiss

Refuse the Hour is a theatrical accompaniment to a 5-channel video installation, The Refusal of Time (made in collaboration with Philip Miller, Catherine Meyburgh and Peter Galison), presented by the Goodman Gallery in association with Design Indaba at the Iziko National Gallery in Cape Town from 19 to 28 February 2015.

Refuse the Hour will be presented on 26, 27 and 28 February 2015 at the Cape Town City Hall, ticket price is R400 sold through Computicket. Seats for each performance are limited to 500.

For more information visit designindaba.com/festival or follow on Twitter @DI_Festival and @designindaba.