By BRUCE DENNILL
Sue Clarence, the founder and director of the Hilton Arts Festival, held at Hilton College in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands for over 30 years, passed away on 2 May this year, leaving all who had worked with her in the Hilton community and the wider South African arts world devastated.
“It feels a little surreal to be running this year’s festival in her honour while grieving,” says her daughter Julia Clarence, who now runs the event as part of a management team that includes Evan Roberts, Duncan Bonella and Jo Hayes.
“What’s good, though, is knowing that she proud of what we’re doing. Me, Evan and Duncan ran it in 2018 when my mom was ill, so we have experience and the team set up to keep going, including longevity plans.”
What drove Sue to initiate the festival in the first place?
“Theatre was her biggest passion,” says Julia. “She would have been happy to go to two shows a day forever. She was at her happiest in London with her friends, going to as many productions as she could.
“After being a teacher, she joined Theatre For Africa with Nicholas Ellebogen in the late Eighties, in an admin role. One of her proudest moments with that company – my mom was an ardent follower of the Royal Family – was when Theatre For Africa was invited to perform at Balmoral in 1992 with the whole family in attendance, including Princess Diana!”
And from there to Hilton?
“It’s a great story,” smiles Julia. “Mom was at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown in 1993, standing in the queue for food one night with her friend Geoff Thompson, who was a drama teacher at Hilton College. The venue ran out of curry and red wine, which really annoyed my mom, who turned to Geoff and said, ‘We can do better than this – let’s start our own festival!’ Which they did! Six weeks later, the first Hilton Arts Festival was held with, I don’t know, maybe three shows on rotation; a make-do, informal beer tent outside the theatre and a kettle in the office where my mom made free cups of tea.”
Was the college happy to help?
“Oh yes,” says Julia. “The school loved the idea, and they already had, along with the theatre building itself, cleaning and security staff, so it was really well set up to host something like this. There were occasional challenges over the years for my mom when people don’t realise that the college and the festival are two completely different things. That has complicated some funding proposals, when potential sponsors think that ‘…it’s a private school and it must have money for all of this’ and so on, when none of that applies to the festival.”
Has Hilton’s remoteness – relative to South Africa’s major theatre centres, at least – had an impact on numbers in terms of audiences?
“It’s always been a place where people love theatre,” says Julia, “and Hilton is not the sleepy old town it used to be. The local population has grown dramatically, and we also see from our bookings that thousands of people come from Durban and Ballito and around KwaZulu-Natal – and now there are bigger and bigger numbers coming from Johannesburg, too. The Midlands also have a different feel to the rest of the province – can be really cool here when it’s hot at the coast, and you feel like you’re getting away to the country.
“I always remember Sue being so chuffed to get some of the big names of South African theatre – Andrew Buckland, Fiona Ramsay, many more – on stage at what she called ‘her little festival’. She was so proud.”
The festival is also working on growing new audiences among learners and students?
“Yes,” says Julia. “We have the Jongosi Schools Festival every year on the Friday of the Hilton Arts Festival. We have 2,000 kids from grades 4 to 12 come in and, for a set price, they watch three shows during the day, and then have access to the markets and food and everything else going on as well. It shows these youngsters what happens at an arts festival and what theatre is all about – and it helps to fund the Festival overall. Hilton College also really recognises the importance of the Jongosi Youth Programme – the whole school participates! – in addition to giving us the venues and the grounds.”
Unsurprisingly, there’s a little more Sue Clarence folklore involved here.
Julia laughs. “Mom was somehow involved in the admin for the movie Jock Of The Bushveld and we moved to the location where it was being shot for part of the filming. Johnny Clegg was also around, as he was responsible for some of the soundtrack, and when he found out about her idea for the youth festival, he came up with the name for it: ‘jong’, meaning ‘young’ and ‘os’ meaning ‘ox’ – speaking to the strength of the young people who come to see the shows.”
It’s evident from all of these stories – and the scores more that will be shared at the 2025 Hilton Arts Festival as attendees and colleagues come to the Midlands – that Sue Clarence (‘Bessie’ to just about everyone, including her own children) and her passion for and many gifts to South African theatre will never be forgotten.
Julia wraps things up in the most fitting way. “Your legacy will forever be celebrated at the Hilton Arts Festival and we carry the torch with pride! This one’s for you, Bessie!”
The 2025 Hilton Arts Festival runs from 8-10 August. Browse through the programme at hiltonfestival.co.za. Tickets are available from Webtickets.
