MATTHEW KROUSE met up with the cast of Indiscretions during rehearsals this week `ARE real tears wrong?” asks actress Fiona Ramsay of director Robert Whitehead during a break in rehearsals. Eyes all red and puffy, she’s just been emoting heavily in the maddened climax of Indiscretions, which began previewing last night. Real tears, it transpires, […]

After two-and-a-half years of TV captioning for the deaf, how do we rate? Elsa Semmelink reports This month it will be two-and-a-half years since the former NNTV introduced the SABC’s first half-hour magazine programme for the deaf, but some people within the corporation feel South Africa still lags far behind international broadcasters. Sign Hear! was […]

Hunger striking is an ancient Celtic tradition. In the Middle Ages it was given recognition in the Irish legal system. An individual who had a complaint against another would hunger strike on his doorstep, either until the dispute was settled, or until he died. If he died, the law recognised the justification of his grievance […]

Appropriation or plagiarism? What’s the difference? HAZEL FRIEDMAN grapples with a debate raging in South Africa’s conceptual art circles ESAU did it to Jacob, Brahms might have done it to Beethoven and Shakespeare has been accused of doing it to his assistant. History is filled with the famous, talented and treacherous who have indulged in, […]

The banks may yet repent if money market stability does not hold, writes Madeleine Wackernagel A volatile interest rate climate is not conducive to long-term investment planning, either by individuals or big business. And while the surprise rate cut by Amalgamated Banks of South Africa (Absa) this week — closely followed by the other leading […]

Stan Katz There has been much criticism, debate and misinformation surrounding the sale of six SABC radio stations and the role of the Independent Broadcasting Authority in the process. This is a pity because the environment which will ultimately be created, will in all likelihood, be much healthier for broadcasters. The IBA is faced with […]

Philippa Garson MASSIVE security force deployment, recent peace initiatives and a desire to get local elections over with have contributed to a significant decline in violence in KwaZulu-Natal in recent weeks. Although more than 50 people have died in the province so far this month, and intimidation and tension are still widespread, peace monitors report […]

Belgians are joining the protests against a costly armaments plant in Kenya, reports Greg Barrow from Nairobi THE citizens of Eldoret, a small town at the top of the Rift Valley, cannot believe their luck. Eldoret, once known only for its mushroom farming and world- class middle-distance athletes, has become Kenya’s main beneficiary of government […]

DONIZETTI: La Fille du Regiment (Nightingale Classics) ONE of the leading coloratura sopranos of our time (perhaps even of all time), Edita Gruberova is busy recording all the lesser-known Donizetti heroines for this small Swiss company. The added attraction of this recording for South African listeners is that it features Deon van der Walt in […]

Marion Edmunds THE Labour Market Commission has recommended that the Home Affairs Department relax its immigration selection policy to allow more skilled foreigners to settle and work in South Africa. And in its report, released by the government last week, the commission recommends that immigration policy be overhauled completely to suit the economic and social […]