Durban playwright Neil Coppen, winner of the 2011 Standard Bank Young Artist award for drama, brings Abnormal Loads to town after staging it at last year’s National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.
Set in a fictional battlefield town in northern KwaZulu-Natal, it is described as an “amalgamation of ghost story, love drama, historical epic and dark comedy” and “a lyrical (at times bloody) praise poem to the province and its myriad characters and cultures”. The play’s protagonist, Vincent Bashford, is a mixed-race descendant of the town’s founding father, who grows up with his conservative colonial grandmother, Moira, on a smallholding outside of the town. After 29 years spent in relative isolation, Vincent begins to dream of an escape.
Market Theatre, Margaret Mcingana Street, Newtown, until May 13. Tel: 011 832 1641.
■ In Pieter-Dirk Uys’s latest work, Adapt or Fly, he portrays a host of familiar characters — Mrs Evita Bezuidenhout, Kidi Amin, Pik Botha, Nowell Fine, Mrs Petersen, the Ou Krokodil, Madiba and the dancing DA. He takes us on a whirlwind trip through apartheid, told through monologues by old regime politicians. The bumf sets the tone, telling us that this year “the ruling party will be too busy fighting each other for personal wealth and political power to bother themselves about running a country”.
The Fringe, Jo’burg Theatre, Braamfontein, until April 29. Performances are on Tuesdays to Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 5pm and 8pm, and Sundays at 3pm. Website: joburgtheatre.com. Tel: 011 877 6853.