Durban’s theatre offerings are uncharacteristically rich this week.
? Race is the 2009 work by David Mamet, one of the United State’s most compelling contemporary playwrights, who is also renowned for his existential films.
Durban’s Playhouse Company has scored a coup by securing the rights to produce the South African premiere of this Pulitzer prize-winning work. Its riveting plot revolves around a law firm where the two partners (one African-American, one white) and their young African-American clerk debate whether or not to take the case of a wealthy white man accused of raping a black woman. Shame, guilt, class, sex, lies and, of course, race, are all provocatively stirred together. A stellar South African cast comprising Sello Maake Ka-Ncube, Michael Richards, Ralph Lawson and Belinda Henwood is directed by Clare Mortimer.
Playhouse Drama Theatre, October 15 to 22. Tickets are between R80 and R100 from Computicket and early booking is recommended.
? Billed as “sexy, provocative and edgy”, The Love of the Nightingale is an acclaimed work about gender identity by illustrious British neo-classical playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker. This new production is directed by Tamar Meskin and presented by the honours class of the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s drama and performance studies department.
The play is a modern adaptation of Sophocles’s lost play about the myth of Tereus, and tells the story of two close-knit Athenian sisters, Procne and Philomela, who are separated by war. After enduring years of hardship and torture, the two are finally reunited during the annual feast of Dionysus. But the reunion is anything but pleasant as the women finally come to recognise the brutality that men are capable of. Wertenbaker has created a hard-edged, action-packed and lusty thriller that, though remaining deeply philosophical, is more Tarantino than Plato in its execution.
Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre, University of KwaZulu-Natal, October 11 to 16 at 7pm. Tickets are R40, but students pay R20. The play is suitable for viewers older than 16 because of the sexual and violent content. Tel: 031 260 3133.
? Back by popular demand is Juliet and the Romeos, an original comedy-musical written and directed by Charon Williams-Ros and starring Daisy Spencer, Grant Jacobs, Lyle Buxton and Rory Booth. It takes a madcap look at ye olde battle of the sexes through the eyes of the central protagonist, Juliet Cupido, who tells the hapless story of her search for the ideal man in her life. The production features the music of Michael Jackson, John Legend, Lionel Ritchie, Michael Bublé, Bruno Mars, Whitney Houston, the Cornelius Brothers, Smokey Robinson, the Ting-Tings and many others.
Catalina Theatre, Wilson’s Wharf, Durban harbour, until October 23. Tickets are R90. Performances are at 8pm on Thursdays and Fridays, 5pm and 8pm on Saturdays, and at 2pm and 6pm on Sundays. Tel: 031 305 6889.