"To drop your stuff and take hold of a story.  To do something outside of yourself.  To dance a lot and co-create. To hang about in history. To be part of something else.  It is a new possibility and in a way has only just begun. " lyall sprong

"It is indeed very sad to say goodbye to such an upwelling of creativity but as you imply it will pop out somewhere else (like larva). I’m sure.

Best,
Andrea Weiss
MANAGING EDITOR Weg/go!

Farewell Show ‘n Tell

A long time ago now, next to the N1 highway that cuts through the country, two friends enjoyed some tea and scones in a tiny Victorian coffee house with creaky wooden floors.

The framework of time melted into another world and another era. In the flicker of shadow and light the empty town was full of playful characters. Someone was juggling balls on the veranda, a song was being sung in the smoking room, a make-shift theatre production was on at the train station. A poetry performance by the fountain; the antique statues were dancing. The air was alive with laughter, with the sound of play. There was an energy that could not be ignored. It was all there and the dots just had to be connected.

I now understand how, living in his tiny town of Matjiesfontein, the magical David Rawdon spun a theatre of dreams around the town he bought and lovingly restored over 40 years.  His huge imagination, his powerful dream machine, lit up a creative bubble of bright energy that hung over the town like a celestial dome. The mischievous, playful David Rawdon hosted picnics in the Karoo veld wearing a top hat and tails. He told stories with a glint in his eyes and made his guests feel like they were his friends, everyone laughing with delight.

In 2006 a troup of like-minded souls arrived and booked out his town for a weekend and Show ‘n Tell was born. I found myself dancing in the Lairds Arm bar; smiling faces and the mirror ball’s lights circling around and around.  I realised that I was inside the vision we’d had over a cup of tea on that sunny afternoon, that the dream had become reality. Show ‘n Tell brought many people together, from those behind the scenes who orchestrated the event with love, to all the Matjies who came to a one-street town to give life to Show ‘n Tell. Suddenly we had a safe space to play, to share, to let our creative inner children out.  It opened our hearts and changed so many lives. I know that it changed mine.

We relearned the simplest, most important things.

How to play again, without the pressure of having to earn anything in return, without having to involve our egos, without having to impress anyone.

How to share, whether it was sharing a joke or sharing our magic selves with each other.

The intimacy of creatively contributing and not being judged, because we all did it – we all showed and told.

The joy of creating with no expectations, of having no expectations about what might happen, about what we might feel. Every year was magic and every year Show ‘n Tell was different.

Show ‘n Tell had no shape – it was made up by the unique collection of those who came to the village to experience it. It was made up by all those beings of the village; seen and unseen - from the ghosts of Boer war soldiers and Victorian dandies, to the town children with new dreams, the women who turned our beds and those who make the Lord Milner Hotel run daily.

Now Show ‘n Tell is shape-shifting and it’s time to move on, away from routine and formula.  The fire has burned bigger and brighter and the sparks have lit up our hearts, calling for new fires to be started. Let’s create new platforms for play and sharing. We will not experience it in the way we did before, but Matjies Magic* does not end here... Let us keep our hearts open and ready – it’s happening all around us already and it belongs to all of us.

“All my hotels have been important, exciting and different, but Matjiesfontein is special and closest to my heart.  I hope it will go on forever.” David Rawdon 1925 -2010

"Most people believe that you have to have your eyes closed to dream, that you have to distance yourself from reality. But the opposite is true. The best dreams are the ones you have with your eyes open. You call them dreams but they’re really ideas, projects and visions. They have the same consistency as life." (fabrica)

photo's: james seigel