Here at Conspiracy HQ, we don’t often push an academic agenda as we believe that our work is best encountered and talked about live. This, however, is special. And we are trumpeting it up cos Liez unfortunately couldn’t attend her graduation as she was onstage in Joburg for our acclaimed Market Theatre season of “Crazy in Love”.

So…most of you know that our co-artistic directors have been studying again: Rob doing his PhD, and Liez her MA.

Last year saw the culmination of the MA programme. Part One of that was the creation of the dark and delicious “Piet se Optelgoed”, which looks a little like this:

Piet premiered at National Arts Festival in 2014, where it blew people’s minds and went on to scoop this:

(That’s a Standard Bank Silver Ovation Award for Physical Theatre. Yeah – it’s pretty cool.)

“Piet” was immediately invited to the Cape Town Fringe in 2014, where it again cooked people’s minds and had critics and the public scurrying for their thesauruses and possibly a stiff drink after experiencing it (one theatre critic was heard to exclaim to another: “Sjoe. I’m glad *I* don’t have to review that”…and that, friends, is a compliment). “Piet” was also immediately invited to the 2015 Amsterdam Fringe Festival.

In 2015, “Piet” has just returned from playing at the SANAA Festival at Zoo Lake, Joburg. The show returns to the NAF before travelling back to Joburg to perform at the fabulous POP Art Theatre, the Lady Grey Arts Festival, and then travels to Amsterdam and beyond. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here.

“Piet” was Part One. Part Two (for the MA) was writing the sucker up, reflecting on the awesome journey (from Grahamstown to Paris, Cape Town, and beyond). In late 2014, this happened:

Thesis: “Piet se Optelgoed: The Female Grotesque as a Provocation for Embodying the Abject”. Submitted.

Drumroll, please.

In 2015, *this* is the result:

And this:

Which, on zoom, looks like this:

Needless to say, The Conspiracy is impossibly proud of Liez, chuffed to the max, and beaming like a mad thing. So much love, respect, and huge congratulations!

Incidentally, both artistic directors now have at least an MA with distinction from Rhodes…yeah, we’re just sayin’…