I’m not much of a fanboy or groupie, but I feel pretty honored to have been able to create the poster for the US premiere of South African theatre company Magnet‘s Every Year, Every Day, I Am Walking. Three performers—two actor/dancers and a guitarist, who also composed the music for the show—craft an epic journey across a continent and through years. Using multiple languages, a handful of evocative props, and every muscle of their bodies, they tell the story of a mother and girl who flee the burning wreckage of their happy early life to become refugees in the bewildering new world of a South African metropolis.

Live theatre this good has a visceral power that awakens something in an audience that the texture-less perfection of digital media can never reach. Fortunately, we have artists like Magnet to keep physical, theatrical, performance alive. Unfortunately, this week of performances in Western Massachusetts is their only scheduled visit to the States. Hopefully some others in the US will follow the lead of UMass professor Megan Lewis and work to get Magnet to return to America.