In the last year Children’s Book Network have been connecting with theatre organisations in and around Cape Town. One such organisation is Jungle Theatre. Just as we thought we were finishing our year, they offered us the opportunity to share their production ‘Butterfly Dreams’ with some of our youth, so of course we accepted, delightedly!
So on Saturday 12th December, our trusty steed (provided by Denzil Jehoma of Oceans Tours) collected our trusty community worker Buyiswa Ponti, and a hoard of Red Hill children and brought them, through the madness of the Fishoek stop/go, to Muizenberg Pavillion terraces where the production was to be held. Excited as usual, the children were keen to see what was going to happen and were entranced by what ensued!
Framed by a sad woman sleeping, we were led, through her dreams, round the cycle of a butterfly’s life; starting with the rather startling birthing of a butterfly’s eggs and death of the parent butterflies, all the way through to the transformation into new, beautiful butterflies, a process that also transformed the sad woman. Some moments caused palpable terror in the children, but they moved and sang along with the rest when the transformation was complete and the joy of the beautiful butterflies life was complete. Two of our children were even picked to help encourage the transformation of the chrysalis into its final stage, which they did very enthusiastically!
At the end (after juice and biscuits of course), we spoke about the performance, what the story was about, what we enjoyed and they then happily piled into the combi home again, looking forward to further experiences to expand their minds and broaden their opportunities.
With huge thanks to Jungle Theatre who supplied the opportunity, tickets and transport for this outing.
