Five: 20 — Operas Made in South Africa at The Baxter Theatre in November

Five: 20

The Baxter Theatre will host Five: 20 – Opera Made in South Africa from November 21^st to 27^th.  Presented by Cape Town Opera, the University of Cape Town Opera School and the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA) the five, 20 minute long South African operas are all based on a South Africa story and have all been com­posed and writ­ten by South Africans in cel­eb­ra­tion of the South African College of Music’s Centenary year.

The operas are based on Saartjie Baartman, Lucy Lloyd and the San Bushmen, xeno­pho­bia, Breyten Breytenbach and the assas­sin­a­tion of Chris Hani.  A break­down is as fol­lows ... Continued

Johnny Clegg at Emmarentia Dam on 6 November — Book now!

Johnny Clegg

“Impi! wo 'nans' impi iyeza
Obani bengath­inta amab­hubesi?”

These open­ing lyr­ics to Johnny Clegg and Savuka’s song Impi evoke such happy feel­ings for me. Not only to a mul­ti­tude of memor­ies sweep into the fore­front of my mind, but it is such a power­ful song sung by such a favour­ite and won­der­ful South African artist.

Johnny Clegg is a legend in the South African music industry, and on Saturday 6 November he will be cel­eb­rat­ing his 30 years in the music industry with a con­cert at the Emmarentia Dam in Johannesburg. This is a once off event brought to you by 94.7 Highveld Stereo. Continued

Follow the yellow brick road to the National Children's Theatre in Johannesburg

The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz will be play­ing from the 15 November to the 23^rd December 2010 at the National Children’s Theatre (NCT) in Johannesburg. Follow the yel­low brick road as L. Frank Baum’s heart-warming children's clas­sic, The Wizard of Oz,  is brought to life on stage. This spell-binding tale will trans­port audi­ences to the magical land of Oz dur­ing the December hol­i­days, start­ing Monday 15 November 2010.

Join the irre­press­ible Dorothy together with her beloved dog Toto on her remark­able jour­ney over the rain­bow to the Emerald City. Along the way she meets a rusty Tin Man in search of a heart, a Scarecrow in need of a brain, and a Cowardly Lion who lacks cour­age ... Continued

Duran Duran in South Africa from 7–12 December

Duran Duran

You’ve got their cd, you’ve listened to them on the radio and heck you prob­ably have a couple mixed tapes with them on it stuffed in the back of your cup­board, but now you can see them live! Duran Duran rocked us through the 80’s and early 90’s and now the ori­ginal band mem­bers, Nick Rhodes, Simon Le Bon, John Taylor and Roger Taylor will be in South Africa from 7–12 December 2010.

Not only will this be a treat but South African gui­tar­ist and singer-songwriter Arno Carstens will be on stage as a spe­cial guest artist ... Continued

Nik Rabinowitz's show uNik in Johannesburg this October

Nik Rabinowitz

If you live in Johannesburg and are in need of a laugh then you have to get to the Old Mutual Theatre on the Square in Sandton to watch one of my favour­ite South African comedi­ans, Nik Rabinowitz, in his one man show uNik. The show runs for two weeks only and I’m pos­it­ive it will be very pop­u­lar so get to the front of the queue to get your tick­ets. The dates are 26 October to 6 November so you have a week or two to get your act together!

Directed by Brent Palmer and co-written by Tom Eaton you can expect to laugh like crazy at this pro­duc­tion. Nik is here to remind you that we are all uNik (unique) – aside from the 6.5 bil­lion of us who are exactly the same, and he’ll take you on a jour­ney of jokes and clever think­ing to get you think­ing. Continued

'Carmen' by the Cape Town City Ballet

Carmen

I can remem­ber sit­ting in a vari­ety of orches­tras play­ing the music from Georges Bizet’s Carmen how­ever it never really com­pared to hear­ing it played by a sym­phony orches­tra. My poor violin play­ing aside, the music does warm my soul and when I hear the dis­tinct open­ing notes of the score I must admit a big smile crosses my face.

When I went to the Cape Town International Ballet Competitions gala per­form­ance we were treated to an excerpt from the Cape Town City Ballet’s new per­form­ance of Carmen. This is Veronica Paeper’s (an acclaimed Cape Town cho­reo­grapher) three-act bal­let and will be on stage at the Artscape Theatre from 14 October to 7 November 2010 and if the pre­view was any­thing to go by the full pro­duc­tion is going to be stun­ning! Continued

Familia Flamenco at Catalina Theatre in Durban

Familia Flamenco

If you’ve been read­ing this blog for a while you’ve prob­ably real­ised that I am a bit of a nut when it comes to pro­duc­tions, shows, con­certs and so on. And what is so great about liv­ing in South Africa is that there is such a vari­ety of tal­ent and oppor­tun­it­ies for us to expand our cul­tural experience.

This time it is Dubans turn for a bit of heat when Familia Flamenco with Linda Vargas who is return­ing after more than five years of not being on stage. Dance lov­ers should look for­ward to this pro­gramme that will be presen­ted with flair by the acclaimed Flamenco Dance Company Vargas ... Continued

Marc Lottering’s new show Not in 3D at On Broadway

I’m sure you have heard about Aunty Merle Abrahams “lemon meringue”, if not then you have obvi­ously not seen Marc Lottering live. This September, come and see Marc Lottering Not in 3D at On Broadway. Join him and some of his favour­ite alter egos for a few laughs.

Marc Lottering is a famil­iar face in Cape Town and hands down one of my all time favour­ite comedi­ans. I’ve seen him in a num­ber of shows and even own a few of his dvd’s, for when I need a burst of laughter to brighten up my day ... Continued

'Dick and I' at Theatre on The Bay

'Dick and I'

If you are on the Theatre on the Bay’s mail­ing list (like I am) then you are in for a treat.  They are cur­rently offer­ing dis­coun­ted rates (online book­ings only) for their pro­duc­tion of ‘Dick and I’.

Based very very loosely on Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Richard the Third, Dick and I was first per­formed by Alan Committie back in 1998 and he now returns to the revised, updated text with addi­tional humor­ous bits!  Although in the past Dick and I has been a one man show, the hugely tal­en­ted Jo Galloway (from hits such as Boeing Boeing, CATS and Hairspray) joins Alan in this pro­duc­tion as his estranged East European girl­friend Petrie (I'm sure Shakespeare didn’t have that in mind when he penned the Tragedy of Richard the Third Continued

Mamma Mia at Artscape Theatre in Cape Town — a review

My gran has been down from Johannesburg vis­it­ing and since my mom and I love the theatre we thought it would be a great treat to take gran to watch Mamma Mia. It was a Thursday even­ing and the air had a crisp bite to it, off I went to my parent’s house to fetch my mom, gran and my parent’s eld­erly next door neigh­bour for a slightly dif­fer­ent girl’s night to what I am used to ... Continued

The Summer of Love at Barnyard Theatre in Menlyn

September 1^st is Secretaries’ Day and the Barnyard Theatre in Menlyn has a treat in store; tick­ets for their pro­duc­tion of The Summer of Love for a bar­gain price of R135 per per­son.  The per­form­ance is at 1pm so an ideal time to take a half day (it is Secretaries’ Day after all) and enjoy lunch and an after­noon off!

The release of the Beatles Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band marked the begin­ning of the 1967 Summer of Love and it ended with the now fam­ous Woodstock Music Festival in the sum­mer of 1969.  The Barnyard Theatre proudly presents a trib­ute to the heady days of the ‘60’s with music from the West Coast of the USA; Continued

Absolute 80’s Spring Day at Broadacres Barnyard Theatre

Absolute 80's

September 1^st tra­di­tion­ally marks the begin­ning of spring (whether the weather plays along is another story entirely) but the Broadacres Barnyard Theatre is def­in­itely play­ing along with their Absolute 80’s Spring Day R80 Special, includ­ing a free wel­come drink!  That’s prac­tic­ally giv­ing it away!

What could be bet­ter than an even­ing of 80’s music?  Absolute ‘80’s takes the theme of a school reunion with the school head mis­tress guid­ing the audi­ence of their trip down an ‘80’s music memory lane!  Continued

Rock on Beethoven at Barnyard in Tygervalley

One of my gym instruct­ors men­tioned he was per­form­ing in Rock on Beethoven at the Willowbridge Barnyard Theatre in Tygervalley so I thought I would find out a bit more about it.  Rock on Beethoven is the sequel to the won­der­fully pop­u­lar Roll over Beethoven.  Roll over Beethoven is the longest run­ning and most suc­cess­ful Barnyard Shows, which, when it ended had been watched by over 500 000 people!

Rock on Beethoven is a com­edy; Ludwig von Beethoven comes back to life and ana­lyses mod­ern day music!  The show fea­tures rocked up cloas­sic music as well as rock and roll hits that have the audi­ence up on their feet and cheer­ing!  The music is a set of hits from Pink Floyd, Tina Turner, Cold Play, Gloria Gaynor, Whitney Houston, Billy Joel, Toto and many more. Continued

Defending the Caveman at Theatre on the Bay

Defending the Caveman

I’m feel­ing very smug; I’ve got tick­ets to a per­form­ance of Defending the Caveman at Camps Bay’s intim­ate Theatre on the Bay.  I first heard about Defending the Caveman when I was liv­ing in London (if I remem­ber cor­rectly it was on at the Apollo Theatre in Hammersmith) but I never got around to going, so when a friend told me that it was on at Theatre on the Bay I asked my cave­man to get us tickets!

Known as the ‘date show’ Defending the Caveman has enjoyed a phe­nom­enal, record-breaking run in theatres around the world and is back in Cape Town with Alan Committie in the lead­ing role.  The per­form­ance is both funny and inform­at­ive; a com­edy about the lifelong, baff­ling dif­fer­ences and sim­il­ar­it­ies between men and women! Continued

The Mechanicals do the Lunatic Fringe

The Mechanicals

I don't know about you, but any­one who is pre­pared to allude to 'lun­atic' as part and par­cel of what they do deserves a closer look in my book. And this troupe of act­ors in particular.

In a time when South African theatre is feel­ing the squeeze, quite lit­er­ally, and the time of rep­er­tory theatre (mul­tiple plays rehearsed over sev­eral months and then presen­ted night after night) is vir­tu­ally dead in the coun­try, The Mechanicals are reviv­ing the very art that is lost.

This group of act­ors, dir­ect­ors, makers and prac­ti­tion­ers came together in 2008 and this is their third sea­son. They're self-funded (as opposed to state-funded) and are man­aging thus far to pull off rep­er­tory sea­son upon rep­er­tory sea­son by sheer guts and determ­in­a­tion, if their short his­tory is any­thing to go by. Continued