Presented by Agnese Perri and Reggie Yip from Juno Theater, the piece “Isn’t it Just Divine, Ethel?” is part of the festival’s Vrynge programme and challenges traditional ideas of performance spaces and audience roles. 

The work unfolds in public areas, using oversized masks and playful physical theatre to invite spontaneous interaction. It’s rooted in a myth they created together – a fictional origin story about two creatures: the Momos, who live in darkness and fear the light, and the Ethels, who build protective shells to step into the light, eventually forgetting their origins.

Although the full myth is not directly presented in the performance, it shapes the world the characters inhabit. Through movement, colour and gesture, the performers explore themes like identity, duality, and transformation – making it accessible to diverse audiences, whether or not they have a theatre background.

The piece debuted in Hong Kong at the 24 Hour Movement Festival and has since evolved into multiple forms, including a roving version where the Ethel characters move through public spaces without a narrative, encouraging organic encounters.

Visually, the masks draw inspiration from traditional Chinese techniques, but the end result is deliberately open to interpretation. Audiences have described them as space strawberries, dragons, or lions – highlighting the piece’s playful ambiguity and cross-cultural resonance.

For the artists, the goal is both personal and practical: to create theatre that is flexible, mobile, and accessible. It’s a response to a changing performance landscape that demands adaptability and relevance beyond the stage.

The piece continues to show in Bloemfontein for the next few days, with each performance inviting a different crowd and new moments of shared discovery.

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