GuyWilloughby
Cape Comedy Collective, Armchair Theatre, Observatory. Every Sunday giggle
at a line-up of comics at their home venue.On Sunday January 13 guffaw at Cokey Falcow and Sarah Lansmann, both of whom say farewell before heading overseas. On Fridays titter at the Smirnoff Sessions, a line-up of up-and-coming comics from the comedy-development sessions, at The Curve, Bijou Theatre, Lower Main Road, Observatory (Tel: 447 1023). Every Wednesday the collective is at Doodles Deli Caf, Parklands (Tel: 556 4089). On Wednesday evenings attend free comedy-development classes at Cape Town Theatre Laboratory, Woodstock. Tel: 447 1023.
Comedy Warehouse, Somerset Road, Green Point.Chortle at comedy every night of the week in Green Point’s playland. Every Sunday croon along to Soul Survivors, Mike McCullough’s new musical show that celebrates the stars of soul music since the Sixties. Bookings: Tel: 425 2175.
Concert Hall, Baxter Theatre Complex. From January 21 to 25 enjoy the University of Cape Town’s Summer School presentation, Mozart on Stage, a course of lectures and live performances by Angelo Gabbato, an associate professor of the university’s College of Music. This course explores Mozart’s operas with extracts performed by some of Cape Town’s best-known Mozart singers and members of the Cape Town Opera Studio, the Cape Town Opera Chorus and the University of CapeTown Opera School. Book at Tel: 685 7880 or Computicket.
Evita se Perron, Darling station, Darling. Savour Pieter-Dirk Uys in a range of satiric reviews this weekend. Saturday January 19 and Sunday January 20 at 2pm: Tannie Evita’s Cooksisters, a brand-new show in which Mrs Bezuidenhout affects reconciliation through cooking. On Saturday January 19 at 9pm see Dekaffirnated and also on Sunday at 4pm hear Brent Meersman’s new play The Exhibition, read by Claire Berlein. E-mail: [email protected]. Website: www.evita.co.za. Bookings: Tel: (022) 492 2831.
Main Theatre, Baxter Theatre Complex. Until January 27 laugh along with Scribble, the miraculous musical, a funny, heart-warming, South African comedy about seven woebegone yet beguiling characters who all want miracles and end up writing them down. Bookings and more info: Tel: 685 7880 or Computicket.
Main Theatre, Artscape Theatre Centre. Until January 19 catch Cold
Water/Thirsty Souls, the fifth cutting-edge collaboration between the Jazzart Contemporary Dance Company and Mark Fleishman’s Magnet Productions. See Theatre Pick of the Week. Bookings: Computicket or Tel:421 7695.
Maynardville Open-Air Theatre, Maynardville Park, Wynberg. Until February 23 relive the Sixties summer of love with Fred Abrahamse’s production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the well-known romantic comedy, with the park transformed into a garden of love by state-of-the-art technology. More info:Tel:082 658 6436. From January 20 until Feburary 17 be enchanted by Giselle, the ever-popular ballet about a nobleman, Count Albrecht, and his love for a peasant girl, Giselle. Bookings: Tel: 421 7695 or Computicket.
On Broadway, Somerset Road, Green Point. Oh What A Night!, the hit tribute show to boy bands past and present, has been extended until January 19. From January 23 marvel at Natanil in Kimono Jazz, a new cabaret of jazz, blues and torch songs, evergreen classics and original songs, inspired by “a minimalist lifestyle, a love for jazz and an extensive Eastern wardrobe”. Natanil is supported by Charl du Plessis (keyboards), Corne Dannhauser (bass) and Vinnie Henrico (drums). Costumes, always a Natanil feature, are by James Edward Moulder. On Sundays and Tuesdays enjoy the regular Mesdemoiselles Legacy and Slaptsilli in their drag show The Immaculate Collection, featuring “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue”. Every Monday marvel at Pieter-Dirk Uys in his satiric revue Foreign Aids, which wowed overseas audiences last year. Website: www.onbroadway.co.za. Bookings: Tel: 418 8338 or Computicket.
On the Side, Artscape Theatre Centre, Foreshore. Every Tuesday and Thursday catch Theatresports, the interactive show of hilarious comedy and Artscape’s longest-running theatre event. Bookings: Tel: 465 6691/ 083 440 3961.
Opera House, Artscape Theatre Centre, Foreshore. You now have until
February 9 to purr at Cats, a fine production of the smash-hit Lloyd Webber musical featuring an excellent local cast. The show has been extended by two weeks due to standing ovations and an unprecedented demand for tickets. Bookings: Tel: 421 7695 or Computicket.
Sanlam Studio Theatre, Baxter Theatre Complex. Until January 27 place bets on Marc Lottering in Big Stakes and Slap Chips, directed by David Kramer and showcasing the sparkling talent of one of our most assured funnyfolk. Bookings: Tel: 685 7880 or Computicket. From January 31 take in No Room for Squares, directed by Robert Coleman, a one-man show with Coco Merckel and a three-piece jazz band that takes audiences on a bus ride through the notorious Newclare and Westbury townships of Johannesburg. To book: Tel: 685 7880 or Computicket.
Spier Summer Arts Festival, Spier Wine Estate, Stellenbosch. Delight in
opera with an African aesthetic this week. Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, directed by Paul Stern, plays on January 18, 19, 24 and 27. Starring Sibongile Mngoma, Brad Liebl, Amapondo and the Free Flight Dance Company, this “African baroque” production should not be missed. Opening January 25 and repeating on January 26, 28, 30 and February 1 and 2, is Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. Directed by Paul Stern, the production features Jannie Moolman as the dashing Lieutenant Pinkerton and exquisite Japanese soprano Kuniko Endo as the geisha, Butterfly, with the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Alexander Kalajdzic. Check the times for the Spier train that runs to the estate. Bookings: Computicket or Tel: 809 1165/ 77/78.
Theatre on the Bay, 1 Link Street, Camps Bay. Until Saturday January 19 be enthralled by the enduring appeal of Agatha Christie’s whodunnit The Mousetrap, now heading into its 50th year at the West End. It stars Ashley Dowds, Paddy Canavan, Roger Dwyer, Craig Jackson, Tessa Jubber, Adam Pike, Lee-Anne Sheperd and Malcolm Terrey. Every Sunday in January lap up the verve, talent and sheer chutzpah of Offbeat Broadway II, a cabaret starring Paul du Toit, Lindy Abromovitz and the mercurial Anton Luitingh. Bookings: Computicket or Tel: 438 3300.
Theatre pick of the week
Cold Water/Thirsty Souls
Main Theatre, Artscape Theatre Centre
Until January 19
Cold Water/Thirsty Souls is the fifth explosive, boundary-bashing collaboration between the Jazzart contemporary dance company and Mark Fleishman’s Magnet Theatre. It showcases the talents of a group of young dancers and actors whose energy positively bursts off the cavernous main stage at the Artscape Theatre.
Created by choreographer Alfred Hinkel and director Fleishman, the piece brings together contemporary dance and physical theatre to evoke “tell” seems too commonplace a word an allegory about water, life and the complex social arrangements that depend on our access to this most basic human need.
Fleishman and Hinkel meditate on the pressing importance of water, in its physical as well as spiritual dimensions, in a series of fraught, compelling stage images that resonate strongly in our South African context. After watching scenes of dislocation and disarray that are possibly too long, we end with powerful omens of social growth and rebirth.
There are intriguing questions of performance style and genre at work here. How feasible is it to combine the rigorous formalisms of dance with the looser physical mode of expression of the theatre?
Is there a danger that the expressive language of dance gets fudged when blended with the much more casual vocabulary of acting, even the body-centred acting of what has come to be called physical theatre?
In that it vividly raises these challenging questions, Cold Water/Thirsty Souls is an invigorating experience. Guy Willoughby