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Sailing Somewhere to SandtonTheatre on the Square09/14/2011 13:43:05 
Matthew Hurt’s Sailing Somewhere , a darkly funny new play with songs by Conor Mitchell, comes to the Old Mutual Theatre on the Square in October. A woman’s voyage across the stormy waters of her life, Sailing Somewhere, starring leading South African actress, Fiona Ramsay, will run from 4 to 29 October. The production is directed by Vanessa Cooke, designed by Andrew Botha and produced by Daphne Kuhn by arrangement with Mark Hawkins. With evocative songs by Conor Mitchell, this one-woman play by Matthew Hurt is sometimes funny, sometimes haunting. Fiona Ramsay will be accompanied on the piano by Tony Bentel. Counting down the days until she docks, a lounge singer on a cruise ship faces a painful dilemma: whether or not to be reunited with her estranged daughter. As she gets closer to land, she gets closer to facing herself too. Sailing Somewhere is written by Matthew Hurt, a South African now living in London. Matthew has achieved huge international success with his plays Singing! Dancing! Acting! and Have A Nice Life. He has teamed up again with lyricist Conor Mitchell for this new production. The show debuts in Gauteng at the Old Mutual Theatre on the Square, Sandton, directly after its world premiere at The Witness Hilton Arts Festival. The production combines drama and song together with the extraordinary talents of Fiona Ramsay. Not to be missed! There are special group bookings discounts - and on Tuesday nights tickets are two for the price of one! Fundraisers and dinner show packages as well as school group outings and can also be arranged. Performances will take place from Tuesdays – Friday at 20:15 and Saturdays at 18:00 and 20:30. Bookings can be made by calling the theatre on tel 011 883 8606 or the Call Centre on 0861 22 5598 or book online – www.ticket.co.za or www.theatreonthesquare.co.za Notes from the writer, Matthew Hurt For many, the easiest way to react to a problem is to run away from it. The bigger the problem, the more elaborate the escape can be. You can remove yourself physically, like running away from a house fire. But sometimes the mind takes flight too. To run away from whatever it is that scares us is the reaction of the weak, flawed creatures that we are. It’s also our instinct for self-preservation. Isn’t that weakness just typically human? And isn’t the impulse for self-preservation human too? These contradictory, ambiguous notions of being human and these journeys into self-delusion interest me. Putting a character like this on a cruise ship, so that her feet never have to touch the ground, creates something more metaphorical. In some sense, we are all at sea, refusing or unable to deal with what we find most painful. Characters who wash up on forsaken corners of the earth are intriguing. What have they run from? Why? And will they ever have the strength to turn around and return to look the monster in the eyes? We suffer, we escape, then, maybe, we get a little stronger. And then what? We stay at sea or we put a tentative foot on land. Returning is not as easy as run away. Whoever has the courage to see their terrified face in the reflection? For further media info call Daphne Kuhn or Mika Stefano on tel 011 883 8606. INVITE FOR THE MEDIA / OPENING NIGHT Wednesday 5 October at 19:45 for 20:15 RSVP: 011 883 8606 Old Mutual Theatre on the Square 011 883 8606 011 883 9673 (fax) www.theatreonthesquare.co.za Related Venue:
Auto & General Theatre on the Square., West Street Sandown Johannesburg Gauteng South Africa
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I absolutely loved it. I am not your regular theatre-goer, but was amazed at how the storyline grabbed me from the start. I also loved the dark humour.
Posted by Brett on Thursday, 6th October 2011 at 01:32:10 PM
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