- African Tree Productions won two audience awards at a Russian theatre festival in 2024.
- Their play Be a Better Dog is now up for a top honour at the Naledi Theatre Awards.
African Tree Productions, a community theatre group from Soweto, is getting international praise after winning two big awards in Russia.
The group performed two plays, The System and Be a Better Dog, at the Baltic House International Festival in 2024. Both shows walked away with the Audience’s Choice Awards.
Director Seiphemo Motswiri said they got to Russia without any help from the Department of Arts and Culture. “The festival assisted us,” he said.
Be a Better Dog has now been nominated for a Naledi Theatre Award. The ceremony will take place on 16 June at the State Theatre in Pretoria.
The play won over international critics.
Katerina Egorova, writing for Art Magazine, said Motswiri’s storytelling and acting were powerful. “Inside the black box of the small stage with one wooden cube… Seiphemo Motswiri transported the audience to another continent,” she wrote.
The play follows the life of a dog growing up in a poor area, passed between different owners. Some are kind, others cruel. In the end, the dog makes a brave journey back to its first owner.
African Tree Productions has made more than five award-winning plays and performed at festivals in South Africa and overseas.
Other shows include Oresteia Ubuntu, a collaboration with the Tribes Project in Seattle, USA, and Magadi, which means The Bride’s Price, performed in Scotland.
Motswiri said the group will keep using theatre as a tool for education and change.
Pictured above: Seiphemo Motswiri in Be a Better Dog.
Image source: Supplied
