Theatre pick of the week
Umoja: Sandton Convention Centre. Until August 5
When one gets told that a major South African work is to go to, say, London (as is the case with Umoja), a question that comes to mind is whether it is an honest and authentic representation of its place of origin. In the case of Umoja, the answer is a tame yes and a nagging no.
The musical attempts to trace the evolution of black music from Zulu traditional to kwaito and contemporary urban sounds. The best part of the show is the clinical execution of the dance moves and the competent singing.
The opening sets the tone brilliantly. From the rendition of Xhosa folk song Thixo Somandla, through the depiction of a girl’s initiation ceremony to the fact that the story of leaving the countryside for the big city starts in relatively unfamiliar Durban, the piece holds much promise. Then, all we see of Durban is a music competition before the story hurriedly degenerates to the terribly familiar bright lights of Johannesburg, the romanticised era of Sophiatown and, you guessed it, Soweto.
In the process, the work is trapped in the mould of being colourful but terribly hollow, drawing on the tired fallacy that blacks sing when they are happy and sing when they are in misery.
The narration is sober and engaging but, again, it is only insightful in the already familiar bits about illegal shebeens in Sophiatown. It fails, for instance, to fill in on detail, such as how a group that sings in Xhosa could manage to take part in a music competition in Durban, which Londoners will know as a predominantly Zulu province. One has to speculate that they are from nearby Kokstad.
Finally, in tracing the evolution, the musical does not draw any intrinsic links but merely chronicles history in a linear fashion. — Thebe Mabanga
Art pick of the week
MTN New Contemporaries Award: Camouflage Art.Culture.Politics. Until September 15
The MTN New Contemporaries Award show opens on July 27 at 6.30pm with guest speaker Judge Albie Sachs and featuring the work of nominees Usha Seejarim, Shannin Antonopoulou, Marlaine Tosoni and Thembinkosi Goniwe.
The show coincides neatly with the FNB Vita Art Prize, which takes place in Durban for the first time this year, so this one at least gives Johannesburg audiences something to talk (and no doubt bitch) about. Our newest contemporary art prize is, as its first curator and Camouflage director Clive Kellner points out, “a curator-driven award”. Each year, one curator will select four of our brightest young artists, who show a selection of recent work and vie for the prize of R20 000. The show will be dominated by video, photography and site-specific installations and touches on issues of time, ritual, culture, identity and the constructions of personal and public memory. Judges include artist Zwelethu Mthethwa, Kiren Thathiah from Vaal Triangle Technikon, Rudi Matjokana, Coral Bijoux and Ronel Loukakis (MTN). — Kathryn Smith
Event of the week
Winter holiday programme: Johannesburg zoo. August 1 to 17
The zoo is repeating most of its winter holiday programme to coincide with the private-school holidays.
It kicks off on Wednesday August 1 at 9am with a presentation for three- to six-year-olds on zoo veterinarians and health care for zoo animals. Seven- to 14-year-olds can find out more about skeletons on August 2 from 9am. The younger kids can return on August 3 to meet the zoo’s farm animals from 9am.
Other highlights of the programme include moonlight tours that focus on nocturnal animals on August 2, 7, 14 and 16 from 5.30pm; behind-the-scenes tours of the zoo on August 6 and 13.
Gig of the week
Crous and Carstens: Roxy’s Rhythm Bar. July 27
This weekend, choose between excellent hard house at Truth with Steve Thomas and Steve Hill and up-and-coming DJs at the Electric Workshop or go for the local rockers teaming up for an unusual performance at Melville’s live-music stalwart Roxy’s on Friday July 27.
Theo Crous and Arno Carstens of the Springbok Nude Girls will perform a selection of unplugged Nudies tunes as well as other original works.
They bring along two esteemed guests: Jerome Reynard (drummer for Nine) and Brendan Jury, well known for his skills on the violin and as a member of acclaimed groups such as Urban Creep, Trans.Sky and Ohm.
Sharing the spotlight with these boys will be country-punk outfit Diesel Whores and DJ Fokkolnonsens, who plays a seriously slinky mix of breaks and big beat.
Tickets are R25 if you book on Tel: 073 157 5349 or R35 at the door. — Riaan Wolmarans