For a while, the ungainly creature built of wooden struts, paper and goatskin is still – a discarded, dead beast. But then it begins to rise, wings gracefully unfurling as its humans begin to give it life.

This is the Firebird, the centrepiece of Janni Younge’s (https://www.janniyounge.com/) production of the same name that Cape Town audiences had the good fortune to see as part of the Infecting the City public art festival, which runs until November 24.

The South African’s star has been steadily rising since she left to work abroad where funding is available for her large-scale shows...