A load of lasting laughter lines that Botox couldn’t cure

COMEDY is grabbing the spotlight this week, offering plenty of opportunity to laugh at ourselves.

Tonight Nik Rabinowitz is at the Lyric Theatre at Gold Reef City with his one-man show, What the EFF, more relevant, he says, than the more usual “What the F?”

On Wednesday, Trevor Noah opens at the Teatro with his new show, Lost in Translation.

Next Sunday, Celeste Ntuli is at the Lyric Theatre with her new show, Home Affairs 2.

At the Auto & General Theatre on the Square, Chris Forrest is presenting Who’s Your Daddy?

At the Studio at Montecasino, Craig Urbani tells the story of comedian Eric Morecambe.

Still in the laughter line, the Jittery Citizens are back at Kippies at the Market Theatre for their monthly stint of improv comedy next Sunday. The Athol Fugard play People are Living There finishes its run at the Barney Simon Theatre tomorrow.

On a more serious note, it’s Africa Day on Monday, and to celebrate there’s a festival of African music at the Joburg Theatre. The first concert was last night, but tonight’s features Lura from Cape Verde, our own Lira, Nigerian-born Femi Koya and Ghanaian guest Abena Koomson, from New York.

Also on the African theme is The Rain Dance, presented by the Vuyani Dance Theatre. The show combines storytelling, music and dance in taking a firm stand against xenophobia, and runs at the Market Theatre from Thursday to Saturday.

The Crucible, by Pulitzer-winning American playwright Arthur Miller, is back at the UJ Arts Centre from Tuesday. As this is a school setwork, most of the performances are matinées, but members of the public are free to attend.

At the Soweto Theatre, Colour Me Human – a New Age Musical is celebrating “every human being’s shared and collective humanity”.

It’s party time at Pieter Toerien’s Montecasino Theatre, where Ian von Memerty and his wife, dancer Vivienne Lawrence, are celebrating Fantastic 50, a song-and-dance account of their 25-year partnership in showbiz and family battle with their children’s genetic disease.

Tonight at 7, the Elizabethtown College Choir and Jazz Band from the US is in concert at the Wits Great Hall. ● Jenny de Klerk is editor of Artslink.co.za