Festival fever hits but there’s still life locally
THE arts scene takes its annual dip as attention shifts to the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, which gets under way on Thursday.
The festival runs until July 12, 10 days of non-stop, back-to-back activity – drama, dance, classical and contemporary music, the Standard Bank jazz festival, cabaret, comedy and satire, art exhibitions, film festival, workshops, debates and more.
The focus this year is on women, with new voices and old. Audiences will be treated to three world premieres, three South African premieres, five new South African plays, and international productions and works from around the globe.
And if you can’t get to Grahamstown, you may manage Nelspruit. The annual Innibos arts festival, on a somewhat smaller scale, is taking place there next weekend.
If you are stuck in Joburg, well, there is still something on the go.
This weekend, Miss Dietrich Regrets finishes at the Auto & General Theatre on the Square, to be replaced from Tuesday by comedian Mark Banks with his latest one-man show Still Banksrupt, the follow-up to 2013’s acclaimed Banksrupt.
“The title is about where we are as a nation – we’re broke, financially, morally and mentally. I want to sketch the villains behind this sorry state we’re in,” Banks says. He’s dissecting society until July 11.
The Afrikaans play As Die Broek Pas with Antoinette Kellermann ends its runs this week at the Market Theatre. The Jittery Citizens will be at the theatre, entertaining with impromptu comedy, tomorrow afternoon.
There is more Afrikaans at the Studio at Montecasino, where the comedy Twee Vir die Prys van Een, with Lizz Meiring and Hannes Muller, is playing. Comedian Trevor Noah is still Lost in Translation at the Teatro, and Little Shop of Horrors is rocking along at Pieter Toerien’s Montecasino Theatre.
At the Joburg Theatre, diva Yvonne Chaka Chaka is holding the stage, backed by the 60-piece Johannesburg Youth Orchestra in A Night of the Stars tonight and tomorrow. Also appearing are the Mzansi Youth Choir, X-Factor winners FOUR and singers Monde Msutwana and Annemarie Steenkamp.
At the Soweto Theatre, the focus is on pantsula and sbhujwa at the Dlala Mapantsula Annual Festival this weekend. Tomorrow, the monthly jazz concert features Nduduzo Makhathini and Thebe Lepere.
On Wednesday, July 1, artists such as Rowan Bakker, Cito, Graeme Watkins and Daniel Baron link up with Joburg’s young talent in Born to Perform at the Lyric Theatre.
The children, of course, are rushing off to Disney on Ice, Let’s Celebrate! at the TicketPro Dome this week. There is also Shrek the Musical Jr at the People’s Theatre and The Adventures of Oliver Twist at the National Children’s Theatre.
● Jenny de Klerk is editor of Artslink.co.za