Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Catch these great shows if you can
Inthe
The Fleur du Cap Awards nominees have been announced and now include a new category for opera. The ceremony is on Sunday March 19, at Artscape.
Three of the nominated productions are in our city: Sillage, District Six – Kanala and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
The superb Sillage – which received a nomination for best new script for Penny Youngleson – is at Alexander Upstairs until tonight at 7pm.
This gritty two-hander features Michele Belknap and Rebecca Makin-Taylor and is about three generations of South African women framed against “the discomfort of identity and gender politics”.
David Kramer’s fabulous District Six – Kanala – which received two nominations – is at the Fugard until tomorrow ( February 26). Catch them if you can.
There’s lots more time to see, including the outstanding Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, back at the Theatre on the Bay until April 8, which received five nominations.
Jonathon Roxmouth, who has received a nomination for his role as Pharaoh, reprises the role from March 14. It is a Pharaoh re-imagined – as an Elvis-inspired alpha male ruler. In the meantime, Anton Luitingh is filling Pharaoh’s bling shoes.
For a production to be eligible for a Fleur du Cap Award, a run of a minimum of eight performances over a period of three weeks at the same venue is required.
Many artists and productions are not eligible as they have played at festivals and venues for less than eight performances. Award systems are in place at most of our theatre festivals which ensure that artists are at acknowledged.
A show I loved at the Cape Town Fringe 2015 was Jervis Pennington’s An Extraordinarily Ordinary Life. This emotionally charged, wry and darkly humorous musical memoir deserves more attention and I am pleased to see it is coming to The Rosebank Theatre on March 2,3 and 4 and March 9,10 and 11 at 8pm – six performances only.
It tracks Pennington’s fall from his fame as a member of 1980s pop group, The Soft Shoes. Substance abuse took its toll and the pop star ended up homeless. In the show, staged at the Fringe, Pennington was accompanied by singer Janine Cupido.
When Cupido went on maternity leave, Pennington decided to go solo.
Pennington said: “You are worshipped as a singer: girls swoon and faint. Celebrity and fame corrupts you. It’s like the ultimate power. You don’t know it’s there.”
I am also looking forward to The Big 5 Comedy Show on March 4 at GrandWest with Stuart Taylor, Joey Rasdien, Barry Hilton, Kagiso Lediga and Loyiso Gola. DJ Ready D will provide musical interludes. The PG 16 show is produced by Taylor. His concept is to present “five of South Africa’s best loved stand-up comics all on one stage”.
Producers are not acknowledged enough. Let’s give a shout-out to Taylor, Pieter Toerien ( Joseph) – and to the many artists who generate and produce work. Sillage at Alexander Upstairs is an example – produced by Rust Co-Operative.
Tickets for Joseph are R95R350. Tickets for The Big 5 Comedy Show are R170-R300. District Six – Kanala: R130 R220. Book for the above at Computicket.Sillage tickets are R80/R90. Book at alexanderbar. co.za or call 021 300 1088. Tickets for An Extraordinarily Ordinary Life are R150. Book at www.webtickets. co.za.