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/ 19 September 2006

Opera in hell

Opera in South Africa — and in Cape Town in particular — stands at a critical but exciting crossroads, writes . As Cape Town Opera CEO Angelo Gobbato recently remarked, with casts now overwhelmingly black, the search is on to win an audience fitting the same description.

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/ 22 November 2002

Loud outsider

British writer-actor-director Steven Berk-off, who created such thrilling stage masterpieces as Decadence, Greek and East, brings his galvanic energy to Cape Town this week in three performances of his solo show, One Man.

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/ 25 October 2002

Music, memory, myth

The dockside slum — largely owned by white landowners — was, until the 1960s, the site of creative, exciting inter-racial and interfaith harmony, which was destroyed by apartheid legislation’s Group Areas Act in the 1960s.

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/ 27 September 2002

The only gay Eskimo

One of the hottest sensations at this year’s Smirnoff International Comedy Festival at the Baxter Theatre has to be Canada’s Phil Nicol, whose madcap antics in the Danger Zone (read: "adult humour") have won big if baffled audiences.

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/ 5 September 2002

Not so great dictator

The spectacle of the World Summit seems to dwarf the footling efforts of mere artists. But the power of theatre was vividly demonstrated in Cape Town last week when Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka previewed King Baabu, his new play.

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/ 4 July 2002

Hot water needed

Once upon a time the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown was the chief cultural event of the year. Arts movers-and-shakers from all over gathered, before a sizeable and appreciative audience, to parade wares, exchange sparks and create a rich cultural synergy that fuelled the year following.

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/ 27 June 2002

Ideas in exile

An exploration of exile penned by top writer Zakes Mda — due to premiere at the National Arts Festival this week — promises to be an explosive mix of memories, attitudes, forms and a searching look at ideals and reality in South African society today.