Cinderellas out to catch the eyes of theatre patrons
The Imperial Ice Stars are in SA for a couple of months (December in Johannesburg at Montecasino’s Teatro, January, in Cape Town at Artscape) and they’ve brought with them a quirky take on the story of Cinderella. The basics are the same: wicked stepmother, ugly sisters, the ball, midnight, the lost slipper – or, in this case, the lost ice skate. But there are a few twists including relocating the action to a ballet school in a Siberian town, where the heroine emerges from the corps de ballet to impress the local beau; he’s not a prince, but the Lord Mayor’s son, and very much an eligible bachelor.
No doubt the creator of this Cinderella, Tony Mercer, had metatheatrical considerations in mind when he conceived and choreographed the show. Snippets of Tchaikovsky suggest that the ballet for which the dancers are rehearsing or auditioning is Swan Lake. Mercer has also adapted that classic for the ice, along with The Nutcracker. Although his performers have all come from medal-winning careers in figure skating, balletic conventions are a key feature of the ice show genre.
Another difference is the absence of a fairy godmother, whose place is taken by a “gypsy” (Ruska Roma) fortune teller. Instead of magicking up a carriage and footmen à la Disney, this figure presents Cinderella with a vision, suggesting not a supernatural but a pragmatic transformation. Her dress is made by – well, a dressmaker. All that’s needed after this is a little imagination, some disguise and an audience. Could there be a better summary of what performing artists do?
Mercer could not, however, have anticipated that his entertaining fantasia would provide an analogy for the endof-year Johannesburg theatre scene of which it is now a part. There are a number of productions offering family holiday entertainment; each, like those Siberian ballet dancers, is hoping to be a Cinderella who will catch the eye ... not of a rich, handsome swain, but of an equally prized being: the paying theatre patron.
School’s out, and that means parents across Jozi are looking for things to do with their kids. Usually, there is a critical fortnight between the end of term and the mass departure for coastlines or campsites during which theatres have to cash in on this demand. In 2017, economic constraints are set to keep more people in town than usual throughout the December break – which is good news, one hopes, for actors in need of audiences.
There is plenty of childoriented fare on stage over the next few weeks. If it’s spectacle you’re after, Janice Honeyman’s annual pantomime at the Joburg Theatre (this year, it’s Pinocchio) is likely to match the extravagant efforts of the ice stars. On a more modest scale, and for half the price, there is Shrek The Musical Jr, which is on just around the corner at the Peoples Theatre.
The National Children’s Theatre has a double bill: A Seussified Christmas Carol – all you need to know is in the title – running alongside Sparky, based on Jenny Offill’s muchloved book about a pet sloth. At Montecasino’s Studio Theatre there’s also an experimental new rendering of A Christmas Carol, which executive producer Jaco van Rensburg describes as “something we think Charles Dickens would have loved”.
If there’s one name that trumps them all when it comes to inspiring young minds, that name is Roald Dahl. Like Dickens, Dahl had a difficult childhood; not quite as grim or impoverished, perhaps, but one marked by family deaths and unhappy school experiences, not to mention the generally oppressive climate of England between the wars. Yet out of all this, Dahl extracted the nuggets that he would later use in his incomparable novels and in his autobiographical writing.
In Taking Flight, which has a short run until this Sunday (December 10) at the University of Johannesburg’s Con Cowan Theatre, Dahl’s vividly narrated stories about his early years are brought to the stage. The way that Dahl’s memories and recreations are so eagerly and immediately taken up by readers and audiences around the world is quite astonishing.