Uploaded October 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Buy Tickets Now: arshtcenter.org/tickets/2024-2025/arsht-center-presents/the-great-yes-the-great-no
US Premiere
Conceived and directed by WILLIAM KENTRIDGE
With PHALA O. PHALA and NHLANHLA MAHLANGU
Based on actual events, The Great Yes, The Great No takes place aboard an ocean liner bound for Martinique from Vichy France and carrying a who’s who of mid-20th century thinkers. South African artist William Kentridge adds a layer of fiction to his retelling of this wartime voyage. To create a meaningful group portrait, Kentridge has augmented the ship’s manifest of real passengers (French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, Cuban artist Wifredo Lam, et al.) with several other famous figures (among them Martinican philosopher Frantz Fanon and French entertainer Josephine Baker). The ship’s captain is none other than Charon, mythical ferryman of the River Styx.
The Great Yes, The Great No was conceived and directed by Kentridge, whose ambitious, multimedia stage show The Head & the Load appeared in 2022 at the Arsht Center. Working with associate directors Phala Ookeditse Phala and Nhlanhla Mahlangu, Kentridge has created a show that is part play, part oratorio and part chamber opera. It incorporates acting, dance, shadow play, film, music and photography to explore anti-rational ways of communicating.
Told in French, English and South African languages such as Xhosa and Setswana, The Great Yes, The Great No embodies the spirit of surrealism, seeking beauty in the unexpected, the uncanny, the disregarded and the unconventional. In its examination of the past, The Great Yes, The Great No gestures toward a freer future.
Produced by THE OFFICE performing arts + film
A project of the Centre for the Less Good Idea
Toured in partnership with Quaternaire
Buy Tickets Now: arshtcenter.org/tickets/2024-2025/arsht-center-presents/the-great-yes-the-great-no
US Premiere
Conceived and directed by WILLIAM KENTRIDGE
With PHALA O. PHALA and NHLANHLA MAHLANGU
Based on actual events, The Great Yes, The Great No takes place aboard an ocean liner bound for Martinique from Vichy France and carrying a who’s who of mid-20th century thinkers. South African artist William Kentridge adds a layer of fiction to his retelling of this wartime voyage. To create a meaningful group portrait, Kentridge has augmented the ship’s manifest of real passengers (French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, Cuban artist Wifredo Lam, et al.) with several other famous figures (among them Martinican philosopher Frantz Fanon and French entertainer Josephine Baker). The ship’s captain is none other than Charon, mythical ferryman of the River Styx.
The Great Yes, The Great No was conceived and directed by Kentridge, whose ambitious, multimedia stage show The Head & the Load appeared in 2022 at the Arsht Center. Working with associate directors Phala Ookeditse Phala and Nhlanhla Mahlangu, Kentridge has created a show that is part play, part oratorio and part chamber opera. It incorporates acting, dance, shadow play, film, music and photography to explore anti-rational ways of communicating.
Told in French, English and South African languages such as Xhosa and Setswana, The Great Yes, The Great No embodies the spirit of surrealism, seeking beauty in the unexpected, the uncanny, the disregarded and the unconventional. In its examination of the past, The Great Yes, The Great No gestures toward a freer future.
Produced by THE OFFICE performing arts + film
A project of the Centre for the Less Good Idea
Toured in partnership with Quaternaire
