Durban theatre picks: November 5 2010

Aaron McIlroy is back with a brand new satirical character.

Durban’s most scalpel-tongued satirist, Aaron McIlroy, is back on the scene to eviscerate society’s most sacred of cow. In his impressive career of award-winning shows, McIlroy has taken a scabrous, Swiftian delight in skewering all manner of spurious syndromes of modern life from motivational speakers and UFO-spotters to rock stars and politicians. In The Happy Clapper, his brand-new work which opens in Durban this week, McIlroy takes on the granddaddy of controversy-igniting subjects – religion. ‘The Bible is full of many of the greatest stories ever told,” says McIlroy. ‘ Yet often enough they have been told badly, so I thought: why don’t I have a shot at telling them badly too?” The Happy Clapper sets out to defuse the myths surrounding charismatic Christians. Firstly, McIlroy dashes through the Old Testament as a sagacious rabbi whereafter he morphs into present-day Bluff resident Gary van Vuuren and his hilariously misguided view of the New Testament. In the second half of the show McIlroy surfaces as his notorious alter-ego Veejay who is now a barnstorming evangelist.
Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre, UKZN. Preview November 9 and 10; season November 11 to 28. Performances at 7.30pm (Tuesdays to Saturdays) and 3pm (Sundays) with tickets R85 through Computicket.