Alex Dodd
In a massive departure from Eighties- style puritanism, the Nineties, or rather millennial, means of art promotion is all about unabashed mutual co-operation between the arts and business: you scratch my back, I’ll decorate your boardroom.
Hardly new really. Caravaggio was having it off with the Catholic bishops in exchange for oil paints centuries ago. How, you may ask, does this relate to the Cape Spier Summer Festival’s recent launch? Well, precisely because the organisers of Spier, like many other increasingly astute cultural bodies in this country, are well in tune with the Department of Art, Culture, Science and Technology’s cultural industries growth strategy. As Sian Neubert, Spier’s creative fund-raiser and sponsorship manager, says: “Gone are the days when sponsorship could be sold on ‘feel good’ philanthropy. We have to appeal to companies on a commercial level, offering them value for money and benefits.”
Spier’s entire programme is thought out in relation to a specific market to ensure the festival’s prosperity and keep arts and culture as plump and juicy as the grapes in the vinelands. To this end, Spier is not shy about seducing and titillating its corporate guests. The recent banquet launching its fourth season was a splendidly over-the-top affair. Orchids and candlelight filled the room as the fresh 1999/2000 summer festival programme was unfurled along with the sumptuous menu. Young toga-clad babes and well-tanned Herculean creatures leapt and bounded between the tables, bearing flames and uttering poetry. Quite obscenely pleasant really.
Unlike Grahamstown where you freeze your knackers off in a some poor student’s digs between gigs, Spier happens in the height of summer in an environment that could hardly be bettered: a 300-year-old wine farm near Stellenbosch (but, wait for it, a huge hotel development is currently afoot).
To complement the surroundings Spier goes for pretty art – art that’s all about enjoyment and escapism. Don’t expect to leave the theatre burning with a conscience and ready to reinvent your life. This is not the place to gut yourself on Brecht or Bacon. Spier is a feel-good festival: all about fine food, fine wine, fine art and fine music. It’s all about luxury and indulgence and living like aristocracy until the train leaves for home.
This year’s overseas artists include heart-throb Chilean tenor Tito Beltran, who will open the season with two concerts alongside soprano Angela Gilbert and rising local star Fikile Mvinjelwa. Everyone at the launch seemed really excited by the prospect of Rolf Harris, the Australian TV entertainer-singer-illustrator-recording
artist best known for his mega hit Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport. Far more thrilling are the operas The Barber of Seville and La Bohme, both featuring local and international talent and both designed by Marthinus Basson. Or perhaps one of the three nights when the truly magnificent Spier Amphitheatre is turned into an old- style silent cinema for a hilarious blend of two Buster Keaton movies accompanied by whacky Australian rock band The Blue Grassy Knoll.
On the local front you can catch the Afro-American fusion of Kwela Bafana and Nathaniel, who will give three performances of his new show, Moments with Venus. Brumilda van Rensburg will be appearing in Om Goodbye te S.
Prince of West End Avenue sounds like a fine bet. It’ll feature British actor Kerry Shale as “14 different characters in a Jewish retirement home, who display more neuroses than you’ll find in a Woody Allen movie”. The show was a total hit at the 1999 Sydney Festival. And that’s just the entre!
Check out the website www.spier. co.za. To book call (021) 809-1165 from October 25