ArtSpoken & Reviews
What's On in Gauteng - July 21 to 29Jennifer de Klerk07/21/2012 10:23:39 
Jennifer de Klerk: Drama and storytelling has always been a powerful way to communicate, explore issues and raise awareness. This week is the 3rd Drama for Life SA season at Wits, entitled Crossing Borders, with 10 drama productions, exhibitions, films, reflections and debates about South Africa and its issues today. Among the productions is The Line, written and directed by Gina Shmukler, which was constructed from interviews with those involved or affected by the xenophobic attacks in 2008. The play was a sell-out at last year’s WALE festival and is now at the Market Theatre. Another DFL production is On the Fence, by Pusetso Thibedi, about refugees and a last chance of freedom. Also theatre for a cause is Horn of Sorrow, a highly topical and powerful play by Nicholas Ellenbogen about the plight of the black rhino. I remember seeing it at the Grahamstown festival many years ago, and it certainly deserves to be rediscovered for both for its message and its dramatic impact. Horn of Sorrow is at the Momentum at the State Theatre in Pretoria this week. Little Foot, the new South African play by Craig Higginson, is on the main stage at the Market Theatre. Set in the Cradle of Humankind, it delves into both the past and present, across 3 million years or so. On the musical front, Ons VIr Jou, a powerful dramatization of the Boer War, finishes at the State Theatre this weekend. The risqué Cabaret is still enthralling – and, at times, shocking – audiences at Pieter Toerien’s Montecasino Theatre with its belt-out nightclub numbers in the decadent days of Berlin in the 1930s In the small Studio at the complex, Jonathan Roxmouth is taking an affectionate and satirical look at the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. At the Joburg Theatre, the classic ballet Le Corsaire is being staged by South African Ballet Theatre and Mzansi Productions with a cast of 100 and what, I hear, are sumptuous sets and costumes. At the Old Mutual Theatre on the Square Michael and Jeremy Richard are starring in the Tony Award winning play Red, exploring the creative processes of an artist on the brink. Today in Soweto and tomorrow at the Linder Auditorium in Parktown, talented young musicians aged between 11 and 25 will get the opportunity to play with the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra in the JPO’s Annual Youth Concerto Festival. On Thursday and Friday Joseph Clark and his band will be at the Atterbury Theatre in Pretoria with The Queen Experience. Next Saturday, July 28, songstress SIbongile Khumalo will be at the Wits Great Hall for her Reflect. Celebrate. Live. The University Tour, which was one of the highlights of the recent National Arts Festival. Also next Saturday is the 7th National Marimba Festival at St Dominic’s School in Boksburg with over 500 players from 30 institutions. The place will be pulsing. If you are looking for stand-up comedy, the Blacks Only team, with host David Kau, will be at Emperors Palace for one night only next Saturday. The Afrikaans farce, My Vrou se Man se Vrou, is in the Theatre of Marcellus at the venue until August 12. On the dance front, The Triumph, with Moving into Dance Mophatong (MIDM), will be presented at the Hillbrow Theatre from Thursday to Saturday. For children the musical Aladdin Jr is due to finish at the National Children’s Theatre this weekend, but you can still catch The Gingerbread Man 2 at the People’s Theatre in the Joburg Theatre complex. Jennifer de Klerk is editor of Artslink.co.za. For more information on these shows and other events nationwide see www.artslink.co.za |
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