{"id":7592,"date":"2026-11-14T03:28:17","date_gmt":"2026-11-14T02:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nfaly.com\/"},"modified":"2026-11-14T03:31:47","modified_gmt":"2026-11-14T02:31:47","slug":"william-kentridges-the-head-the-load-is-theater-that-redefines-big","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nfaly.com\/en\/william-kentridges-the-head-the-load-is-theater-that-redefines-big\/","title":{"rendered":"William Kentridge\u2019s \u2018The Head & the Load\u2019 is theater that redefines \u2018big\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sipho Seroto, Ann Masina, Siphiwe Nkabinde and Julia Burnham (onscreen) in Cal Performances\u2019 \u201cThe Head and the Load.\u201d
Kristen Loken\/Cal Performances<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

William Kentridge\u2019s \u201cThe Head & the Load\u201d is very, very big.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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That might sound like a simplistic observation to make about an exquisite, allusion-rich, worlds-containing theatrical collage whose subject is the undercredited 2 million Africans who served in World War I. But the South African artist\u2019s work, whose Cal Performances presentation opened Thursday, Nov. 12, with a limited run through Sunday, Nov. 15, has a scope broad enough to activate your fight-or-flight response.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cThe Head & the Load\u201d:<\/span> Created and directed by William\u00a0Kentridge. Through Sunday, Nov. 15. One hour, 45 minutes. $50-$175, subject to change. Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts, 10 10th St., Oakland. 510-642-9988. https:\/\/calperformances.org<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Kentridge\u2019s fusion of opera, shadow play, video, dance, performance art and more is staged not in Cal Performances\u2019 customary Zellerbach Hall but in Oakland\u2019s Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts, which can accommodate the production\u2019s 180-feet-wide stage and 39 performers. That\u2019s wide enough that no matter where you sit, your eyes can\u2019t take it all in at once. Ping-pong your gaze from one side to the other, or from a human performer onstage to her giant silhouette interacting with the projection screen behind her, and some other stimulus flickers in your peripheral vision.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The effect is like sleight of hand. When did that oversized trunk open to reveal a box set and a small orchestra inside, and when did that whole line of chanters file onstage? Where and what is that otherworldly sound coming from, and when did the giant shadow puppets start looking maimed and mutilated?<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Joanna Dudley in Cal Performances\u2019 \u201cThe Head and the Load.\u201d
Kristen Loken\/Cal Performances<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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That long, slow parade of shadow puppets from one side of the stage to the other is one of the most affecting sequences in the show, which isn\u2019t motivated by plot or character but by the juxtaposition of expressionist tableaux. In this scene, shadow puppets \u2014 artillery, planes, gas masks, human faces \u2014 are hoisted above each marcher\u2019s head, then magnified by the lights and projection screen. Many African conscripts in the war carried supplies, and here the trudgers\u2019 loads look huge, the way an ant might carry a burden many times its size. Underscored by an eerie soprano and a whole chorus of singers, it\u2019s a march of ceaseless, overwhelming death.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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It\u2019s also the kind of art that does the impossible: It makes you feel a distant war\u2019s toll.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In another especially vivid but more scaled-down sequence, two performers try to make their way across the stage, but one keeps falling, only for the other to prop him up and force him to salute. It\u2019s like life is evaporating out of the body in each collapse, only for a mini-shock to jolt him back from the peace of the afterlife.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Finally, the two devise a new mode of transport. The weaker man lies almost flat on the floor but bends his knees, while the other man bends down to carry the back of his companion\u2019s head. As they walk, to syncopated pizzicato from kora, cello and other string instruments, they resemble a farmer and a plow, a man made into a tool.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Khelsey Zarraga, Kendra Grittani, N\u2019Faly Kouyate and Sipho Seroto in Cal Performances\u2019 \u201cThe Head and the Load.\u201d
Kristen Loken\/Cal Performances<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The overarching feeling of \u201cThe Head & the Load\u201d is of being plucked from the everyday world and submerged into a vast ocean of theater where time, pulse and breath slow down. It\u2019s a state of refreshing, anything-goes contemplation periodically jarred by hair-raising choices. One guttural voice sounds like a cow pre-moo, then scales up into a siren\u2019s blare. Everyone onstage eventually joins in to create an aural state of emergency.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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At another point, a gorgeous soprano embarks on \u201cGod Save the Queen,\u201d with a throaty alto, a creamy mezzo and more singers joining her in fugue.<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n
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But then they record-scratch the lyrics. One singer flutters back and forth on the words \u201cGod\u201d and \u201csave\u201d like a songbird. Another enunciates the \u201ck\u201d in \u201cking\u201d as if he could hurt somebody with it. The British national anthem has been shattered, and the singers are using the pieces as weapons.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Such is the power of art, \u201cThe Head & the Load\u201d attests. \u201cThey are not soldiers,\u201d goes one line, speaking from the Europeans\u2019 point of view; the African men\u2019s names weren\u2019t recorded, and they were given no registration numbers. But in Kentridge\u2019s mammoth team, they have an army fighting for them now.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Source : San Francisco Chronicle<\/a><\/p>\n

By Lily Janiak<\/a>,Theater Critic<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

William Kentridge\u2019s \u201cThe Head & the Load\u201d is very, very big. That might sound like a simplistic observation to make about an exquisite, allusion-rich, worlds-containing theatrical collage whose subject is the undercredited 2 million Africans who served in World War I. But the South African artist\u2019s work, whose Cal Performances presentation opened Thursday, Nov. 12,…<\/p>\n

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