Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Cape Town Fringe takes it to the edge
Festival offers theatre goers chance to see the best, brightest and boldest local productions, writes Bianca Coleman
IF YOU’VE never been to a National Arts Festival in Grahamstown you can get a true taste and feel for what it’s all about right here at our very own Cape Town Fringe festival. Featuring the bold, innovative and exciting work of South Africa’s emerging and established theatre makers, it runs this year from September 22 till October 8.
The programme for 2016 has been arranged to accommodate more night time performances in keeping with the city rhythms but extends into the day on weekends and school holidays, and is packed with performances by international and local acts, including the highly acclaimed Police Cops, a comedy piece from the UK; and the national debut of a South African adaption of the hit children’s theatre show, The Gruffalo. With school holidays around the bend ( or driving us there), several family shows will be on offer.
The hub of the Cape Town Fringe is the Cape Town City Hall where the fresh Fringe Club will have a line-up of free events and performances and this is a cool place to hang out before, after and between shows.
You’ll often meet performers and artists and get to chat to them. Other venues include the Alexander Bar, the Makukhanye Arts Room in Khayelitsha, Langa’s Theatre in the Backyard and Guga S’Thebe as well as Observatory’s new AFDA Theatre.
The inaugural Cape Town Buskers’ Festival, in partnership with the V&A Waterfront, forms part of the Cape Town Fringe and sees free, outdoor sessions at the V&A Waterfront from October 6-9, by an array of international and local public street performers.
They include Canada’s Dynamike, who has travelled to dozens of festivals around the world and is regarded as one of the top performers globally.
Among this year’s Standard Bank Ovation Award Winners is Rob van Vuuren’s darkly brilliant Dangled, “an inspired, perverse and insane adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s Diary of a Madman by Louis Viljoen,” he tells me.
“I picked up a Silver Standard Bank Ovation Award for it at the National Arts Festival this year and it’s probably the darkest and most disturbing work I’ve ever done. It blew people away and freaked them out in equal measure.
“The script is like Berkoff meets Tarantino on tik and was a fantastic and very rewarding experience for me as an actor.
“People are saying it’s my best work yet.”
Tickets range from R40 to R100 to encourage anyone new to theatre to experiment and see more than one production.
Further concessions for students and pensioners as well as a series of box office specials like half-price Mondays, make this festival even more accessible.
ThneThere are almost 80 shows at the festival. For more information go to www.capetownfringe. co.za
Box Office: 0860 002 004 Cape Town Fringe Hotline: 079 605 7871
Follow Cape Town Fringe on Twitter @ CTFringe / Facebook www.Facebook.com/capetownfringe and Instagram @ctfringe - hashtag #CTFringe
Follow the Cape Town Buskers Festival on Twitter on @CTbuskersfest / Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ctbuskersfest and Insta-