WHAT’S ON IN MAY
LINDA SAXOPHONIST
WHERE: South Campus Auditorium, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, University Way, Summerstrand, Gqeberha WHEN: May 16 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Jazz 2022 winner, saxophonist Linda Sikhakhane, is presenting The Gratitude Suite at NMMU on Thursday. Drawing on the guidance Sikhakhane has received throughout his musical career, the suite is a journey of spiritual awareness through sound and (as is jazz musicians’ wont!) improv. Tracks from his forthcoming album, Iladi (set to be released in July), will also be performed. Iladi is a musical transposition of a Nguni ritual, tonally captured in a songbook. Sikhakhane will be joined on stage by Zibusiso Makhathini (piano), Benjamin Jephta (bass) and Sphelelo Mazibuko (drums).
Tickets are available from R80 via quicket.co.za
EXODUS (Movement of the People)
WHERE: Artscape Theatre Centre, DF Malan St, Foreshore, Cape Town WHEN: May 16-18
Join acclaimed percussionist, chromatic marimba, vibraphonist, multi-instrumentalist and educator Bongani Sotshononda for a musical journey celebrating 30 years of democracy. Led and composed by Sotshononda, the production features a nine-piece orchestral ensemble comprised of internationally renowned local musicians. Running at the Artscape from May 16-18, attendees are in for an exhilarating performance featuring three decades of South African musical styles in commemoration of three decades of our country’s democracy.
Tickets are available from R150 via
webtickets.co.za
THE UNLIKELY SECRET AGENT: THE ELEANOR KASRILS STORY
WHERE: Market Theatre, 56 Margaret Mcingana St, Newtown, Johannesburg WHEN: From May 16 Based on Ronnie Kasrils’ 2011 Alan Paton Award for non-fiction winning title, The Unlikely Secret Agent: The Eleanor Kasrils Story is set in fraught 1963 apartheid-era South Africa. Arrested and taken in for questioning regarding the police’s hunt for her lover, “terrorist” Red Ronnie Kasrils, Eleanor is detained and interrogated, yet the police are unaware that she’s a clandestine spy for the thenbanned ANC. By feigning a nervous breakdown, Eleanor is released and transferred to a psychiatric institution, whencefrom her plot to escape begins ...
Tickets are available from R120 via webtickets.co.za
MOVIE IN THE PARK - Top Gun: Maverick
WHERE: Fig Tree Farm, 57 Inanda Rd, Hillcrest, Durban
WHEN: May 17
Still feeling the “need, the need for speed”, test pilot and flight instructor Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell returns in Top Gun: Maverick, the sequel to Tony Scott’s 1986’s classic Top Gun. Adults and tweens (the movie is rated 12 PGLV) are invited to Durban’s Fig Tree Farm for an outdoor-movie experience under the stars.
Bring a picnic basket, blanket and camping chairs for a cinematic event of elite naval aviators.
Tickets are available for R80 via quicket.co.za
FRANSCHHOEK LITERARY FEST
WHERE: Various venues throughout Franschhoek
WHEN: May 17-19 Vineyards, Cape Dutch architecture, Bastille Day, the Vintage Motor Museum, Reuben Riffel’s heimat: the quintessentially quaint Western Cape dorp of Franschhoek is known for many reasons, including its annual Franschhoek Literary Festival from May 17-19. The 2024 programme includes a smorgasbord of events, including a panel discussion on organised crime featuring Mark Shaw, Karl Kemp, Caryn Dolley and Irvin Kinnes (Demobbing the Mob); a memoirwriting workshop presented by Melinda
Ferguson (Say It Like It Was); an evening of artsong and poetry with Lynelle Kenned, Stefan Lombard and Jazzara Jaslyn (Melodies in Words); novelists Shubnum Kahn, Craig Higginson and Morabe Morojele talking all things spectres and uncanniness with Michele Magwood (Djinns and Tonics); and Nicole Engelbrecht, Sam Human, Naledi Shange and Angela Makholwa’s examination on what maketh a natural-born killer (Hearts of Stone). And that’s but a morsel of what day one alone holds...
Tickets are available from R85 via webtickets.co.za
SHO’T LEFT BROADWAY
WHERE: Soweto WHEN: From May 17
Aspiring Broadway star, the young Naledi, receives a call-back to perform the lead role of Sarafina: a character synonymous with defying apartheid-era South Africa’s forced implementation of Afrikaans as language of instruction in classrooms.
Sho’t Left Broadway is an authentically Mzansi musical which transcends reality as Naledi finds herself in both a real, gritty cityscape and a mystical liminal space (the waiting room for the afterlife, following a fatal accident, yet she returns to consciousness), with many a musical number from South Africa’s varied and rich aural repertoire. Featuring over 30 NSA students, Sho’t Left Broadway explores theatrical aspirations, the reality of rehearsals, complexities of success, and healing fragmented familial relationships. Tickets are available from R100 via webtickets.co.za