The Emperors New Clothes

I often try and imagine a world in which separate cultures stayed separate.

A world of which the past leaders and civilizations they lead, had the vision not to educate and convert other smaller cultures into their own. So that every cultures heritage could remain pure in its traditional ways for the world and the rest of humanity to experience in its truest, most beautiful form. The indigenous people carry the secrets of the land… and in the end everything is about the land. When culture and heritage dies, the knowledge of the land dies.

There is no sense in lingering on the past, even if it holds the map to the future, especially if no one else seems to be bothered! It’s all there, written down, re-written and analyzed in the archives of history.

Reality and the truth is that - even if everybody pretends they can see the Emperors clothes and you join them because you are scared of the emperor or because you think you might be the only one who can see he is naked, the truth and reality is: He is naked.

I agree with Frederik van Zyl Slabbert when he writes: “If you make yourself and others hostage to a racist past, you can budget generously for a racist future.” The Other Side of History (Published 2006)

This Saturday, 30 January we will be taking our very first publicity photographs. The idea brooding in my mind is: stark black and white close-ups of the two actors, both with incredibly expressive faces, behind bars.