Theatre that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg
There are a number of quality shows for under R100
Range of shows for all ages and interests this April.
You don’t have to spend hundreds of rands on live entertainment, in fact you can catch some of the best shows in South Africa for under R100 – if you’re willing to look outside traditional theatre complexes.
Here’s your guide to the best budget entertainment.
THE GRUFFALO
Price: Between R75 and R80
Where: Auto & General Theatre on the Square The SA version of the West End hit, The Gruffalo, is about to open. The production is based on the picture book written for children by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler in 1999. The book is a worldwide phenomenon, having sold over 13 million copies in 75 editions worldwide. The stage production brings the Gruffalo characters to life while remaining true to the story.
It is ideal for children between the ages of three and 10 years old and their grown-ups, and, as a Foundation Phase reader, is a must for pre-and-primary school children and teachers.
Audience participation, ingenious comedic work by the narrator and carefully spaced rhymes and bouncy songs keep young minds focused, while the rest of the family enjoy the energy and fun of children’s theatre. Join Mouse on a daring adventure in the magical, musical adaptation of the classic picture book.
info
There are two shows most days (11am and 3pm)
Bookings can be made at gruffalolive.co.za or by calling 081- 321-3574 /046-603-1163
It runs from April 11 to May 7
THE ALLEY AND KILLWATCH
Price: Between R50 and R80 Where: Wits Theatre The Wits School of Art, a division of Theatre and Performance and Wits Theatre, are staging a student production of acclaimed Zimbabwean author Dambudzo Marechera’s The Alley and Killwatch in the Wits Main Theatre.
The play is directed by Dr Samuel Ravengai, a senior lecturer and head of theatre and performance.
Ravengai revived No Good Friday in the Wits Downstairs Theatre in 2014 to much public acclaim and directed an Africanised Vumani Oedipus at the Market Theatre in 2015.
He has directed over 20 works in Cape Town and Zimbabwe.
Although Marechera’s other plays have been produced elsewhere, not many theatres have tackled his absurdist plays. Wits is making history by being the first to produce the work in a professional space. Marechera’s work is normally regarded as modernist, but his version of modernism is absurdism. Marechera’s two plays, The Alley and Killwatch are, arguably, the only absurdist plays he has written. The theatre of the absurd makes its audience aware of humanity’s precarious and mysterious position in a world characterised by the decline of religious belief.
It does so through a non-plotbased story and a pattern of poetic images.
Marechera derived his inspiration from the aftermath of Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle, a bloody and prolonged war.
Marechera was compelled to investigate the psychological ramifications of the war manifesting as madness, hallucinations, insomnia among other reactions. He drew on what he witnessed in the streets.
The Alley and Killwatch will be presented as a single production. The characters Robin and Rhodes are outcasts of society. They stick together to while away time and so they have no logical life purpose.
Robin’s mental illness, a Marechera fascination, manifests in hallucinations, violence and a fixation on the past, while Rhodes has a milder version of madness compounded by his alcoholism. Both characters have lost all sense of time as they meander through their lives.
info
The play is on from April 24 to 29
Get tickets from webtickets. co.za
MOLIÈRE TARTUFFE
Price: From R60
Where: Soweto Theatre A comedy in five acts, Molière relates the story of an attempt, by an unreformable hypocrite, to destroy the domestic happiness of a citizen who, charmed by his seeming piety, has received him as a prominent guest. In painting
These are Marechera’s only absurdist plays
such a portrait, this lively assailant of Parisian foibles was in a new element.
His genius had a serious side, and it was there that he was unquestionably at his best. Thus the character of Tartuffe was drawn with a strength and precision rarely equalled.
By a process of self-revelation, and almost without the aid of dialogue or soliloquy, the heart of a man who could neither desire nor endure close investigation is discovered in all its intricacies.
In the depiction of the other personages, the instincts and power of a great artist are also clearly revealed.
Nor does the author fail to avoid the pitfalls inseparable from such a subject.
True religion is never confounded with hypocrisy, but is upheld with a warmth that suggests the fervour of his own religious sentiment, which shows his characteristic hatred of imposture in any shape.
The first three acts were produced during the fêtes held at Versailles, nominally in honour of the queen of France and Anne of Austria, but really to please the maid of honour who had now become the king’s mistress.
It would be impossible to exaggerate the effect produced by this gruesome picture on its first beholders – the mass of revellers who, resplendent in masquerade attire, filled the theatre.
Not only did the entertainment differ entirely from what they had expected, but the author, who seemed to have been born to make the world laugh at itself, showed that he also had the power to confront them with one of the deepest mysteries of human existence.
The play is on until Saturday, April 8.