Cape Town theatre picks: November 5 2010

Comedy and serious theatre are on offer this week.

• After a successful week at the Baxter’s Flipside, the all-woman comedy quartet Cracks return triumphant with Cracks and the City. Not only is there a dire shortage of female comedian in South Africa’s otherwise crowded stand-up comedy scene, but according to the journalist and award-winning columnist Marianne Thamm, originator of the show, women make comedy differently from men. The concept offers a more nuanced space for these female performers to make their comic magic. Joining Thamm are Anthea Thompson, well-known actress of rare comic ability; Shimmy Isaacs who combines stand-up comedy and physical theatre; the youthful Anne Hirsch, who has performed and co-written three one woman shows and went on to win SABC’s So You Think You’re Funny? (season 2) crowning her the funniest new stand-up comedian in the country. The Cracks will also perform in Darling at Evita se Perron for one night only, as Cracks and the Village, on November 5.
  From November 10 to 27. At On Broadway, 44 Long Street, Cape Town. Tel: 021 424 1194. Website: www.onbroadway.co.za

  Following the hugely successful revival of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita at London’s Adelphi Theatre in 2006 with new, Latin-infused orchestration and the hit song from the 1996 film, which starred Madonna in the title role and garnered 8 Academy Awards including Best Original Song for You Must Love Me, Pieter Toerien presents this new production for the first time in South Africa. Evita is based on the larger-than-life persona of Eva Perón, beginning with a young and ambitious Eva and following her meteoric rise to virtual sainthood. The story tells of the enormous wealth and power she gained and the means by which she became the beloved ‘Santa Evita”. The lead roles are played by Angela Kilian (Eva), James Borthwick (Peron) and Anton Luitingh (Magaldi).
  In previews from November 8. Opens November 23. At Theatre on the Bay. Book at Computicket or Tel: 021 438 3300

• Womb Tide, written by Lara Foot, and originally developed in collaboration with Leila Henriques, Brian Webber, and Joss Levine in 1995, has been reworked in a new production under the direction of Rob Murray with the FTH:K company. At its heart, Womb Tide is an unconventional love story told through the memory of a child. Set in the mid to late Twentieth Century South Africa, it follows an eccentric and somewhat dysfunctional family through a story of love, loss and hope, and paints an impressionistic portrait of the complexities of family life. It is a funny, dark, heartbreaking, and ultimately redemptive tale. The cast includes Liezl de Kock, Emilie Starke, Daniel Buckland and Kim Kerfoot.
  From November 10 until December 4. At the Golden Arrow Studio, Baxter Theatre, Main Road, Rosebank. Book at Computicket. Tel: 021 685 7880. Website: www.baxter.co.za