ArtSpoken & Reviews
What's On in Gauteng - August 4 to 12Jennifer de Klerk08/04/2012 09:31:11 
Jennifer de Klerk: It’s 969 kilometres from Grahamstown to Joburg and eight productions from the National Arts Festival are making the trek to Wits this week. Last year the 969 Festival was part of Arts Alive in September; this year it stands alone – all the better to be appreciated. Among the productions are Wretched, Signatures by Moving into Dance Mophatong, Pitterpat the Crazee Caterpillar (for children in case you wonder), Circle, The Epicene Butcher and other Stories for Consenting Adults , Sie Weiss Alles, David Wasn’t Built in a Day and musician Kgafela Le Marabele. Most of these productions won Ovation awards at the festival. The 969 Festival runs at the various Wits venues from Tuesday to Saturday. In the main Wits theatre writer and director Tarryn Lee is telling the sad story of Lonesome George, the last giant saddle-back tortoise in the Galapagos Islands, in Solitario from Tuesday to Saturday August 18. I believe George died recently – another species gone. On the brighter side Defending the Caveman is back with Alan Committie wielding the stone club and explaining the difference between the sexes. It’s at Pieter Toerien’s Montecasino Theatre from Wednesday, August 8. More cave life in Little Foot, the visually awesome spectacle that crosses three million years at the Market Theatre main stage. Also at this complex is The Line, which examines xenophobia, running until Sunday, August 12. This weekend the smash hit musical Cabaret and Topsy Turvy, the hilarious take on the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas both end at Montecasino. SA Shorts, a collection of short South African plays, is at the UJ Arts Centre all week. The acclaimed play Red continues at the Old Mutual Theatre on the Square. At the Joburg Theatre the ballroom dance show Burn the Floor is setting the stage sizzling. There’s music in the air – the International Marimba and Steelpan Festival is pounding all this weekend at Bishop Bavin School at Bedfordview. Tomorrow the Gugulethu Tenors can be heard in concert at the Joburg Theatre , and Zahara and Kabomo are at the Lyric. Tomorrow afternoon five youth orchestra from around Gauteng come together at the Linder Auditorium for the Youth Orchestra Festival hosted by the Johannesburg Youth Orchestra. They will be combining for three massed numbers as well. The concert is at 2.30pm. The Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra continues its symphony season at the Linder on Wednesday and Thursday nights and next Saturday, August 11, pianist Antonio Pompa-Baldi will give a concert for the Johannesburg Musical Society at the venue at 8pm. Jennifer de Klerk is editor of Artslink.co.za. For more information on these shows and other events nationwide see www.artslink.co.za What's On in Gauteng is carried in print in the Saturday Star |
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