Cape Town theatre picks: October 22 2010

Hard-hitting poetry is highlighted in the Urban Voices Poetry Festival.

• This year, the 9th annual Urban Voices Poetry Festival features Tony Award-winning poets Beau Sia, Lemon Andersen and fellow New Yorker Patricia Smith. A four-time individual champion on the National Poetry Slam, the most successful slammer in the competition’s history, Smith has also been a featured poet on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam and has performed three one-woman plays, one produced by Nobel Prize-winner Derek Walcott. Andersen’s County of Kings mixes drama and humour with his own brand of urban poetry to give a tough and moving, autobiographical account of a good kid coming-of-age, growing up in an unforgiving environment. Andersen acted opposite Denzel Washington in Spike Lee’s ‘Inside Man’, and is featured in ‘The Soloist’, starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey, Jr. The poetry line-up features poets from the African diaspora, from hip hop theatre and performance poetry, eclectically influenced by Asia, USA, Puerto Rico and South Africa. Local performers will include women poets and writers Lisa Combrinck, Natalia Molebatsi and MC Likwidskillz.
  On October 27 and 28 at the Baxter Concert Hall, Main Road, Rosebank. Book at computicket. Info: www.urbanvoices.co.za

• Cape Town City Ballet (CTCB) will present a Spring ‘Double Bill’ which will include Le Corsaire and African Landscapes. African Landscapes portrays a leopard’s terror as she witnesses her shrinking habitat. The Khoisan vacate their traditional homelands and trek to the urban jungle, where the Blue Cranes become fewer, water resources are under pressure, and the ever-present threat of fire dominates the landscape. Performed to music by iconic South African bands this unique work should appeal to a diverse audience.

  Le Corsaire is in a new presentation, displaying some of the rarely seen dances from one of Petipa’s great classical ballets. Kim Vieira, can be seen in the Pas de Trois alongside Lauren Rogers and Angela Hansford. Laura Bosenberg performs a pas de deux with Thomas Thorne. In an alternate cast, audiences can see Jon Savage in the role of Conrad. Savage recently joined the CTCB after graduating from the Royal Ballet School in London.
  Until October 29. At the Main Theatre, Artscape, Foreshore, Cape Town. Book at Computicket or Artscape Dial-a-seat on 021 426-7695.

• The first full production of the 6th Artscape Spring Drama Season is The Night Doctor, a new play by South African playwright Juliet Jenkin (The Boy Who Fell From The Roof). In The Night Doctor a night of crisis unfolds when Catherine, a young South African doctor, arrives at her parents’ home in Pietermaritzburg announcing that she has quit the practice of medicine. Through her family’s attempts to understand why she has come to this decision, and the unexpected events that follow, the practice of medicine comes to have much wider implications for everyone involved. Jenkin explores the collision of violence and belonging, and what it really means to help people. The play is directed by Liz Mills. Alex Halligey plays the young doctor; veteran actress, Adrienne Pearce, plays her mother; Adrian Galley her father; Tinarie van Wyk Loots plays Catherine’s sister Margot, and Thato Cele plays the role of Benedict.

  Until October 30 at the Arena, Artscape, Foreshore, Cape Town. Book at Computicket or Artscape Dial-A-Seat, 021-471-7695.