Fest to cover more physical ground
THIS year, the Cape Town Fringe Festival is spread out beyond the CBD with more nighttime performances. The festival takes place from September 22 to October 8.
In addition to multiple venues at the City Hall, Upstairs at the Alexander Bar and the V&A Waterfront, performances will also take place at Gugu S’Thebe Arts Centre, Khayelitsha’s Theatre in the Backyard and the new Afda Theatre in Observatory.
The festival hub is the City Hall where The Fringe Club is not only the place to catch a bite to eat, but also a hang-out for the artists where anything can happen on the Club Stage. A DJ or two might even put in an appearance late at night.
Altogether there are 80 shows to be watched and the mainstay of the programme is theatre. This encompasses everything from Standard Bank Ovationwinning works from the National Arts Festival to ritual dance theatre (Wait... Linda).
Some of the new works that have started Upstairs at the Alexander Bar get another showing, like Louis Viljoen’s The Emissary, or #balletmustfall.
Old favourites that haunt the non-traditional theatres, like Butlers and Broadway, mingle with festival circuit favourites such as The Fishwives (multiinstrumentalists who don’t live up to their name).
On the funny side, Aaron McIlroy delves into the science of comedy, asking “what is funny?” in Comedy Masterclass, while Rob van Vuuren gathers his best stand-up buddies in The Very Big Comedy Show.
Some of the productions are once-offs, while others receive a run of a few days. Check the full programme and schedule at www.capetownfringe.co.za or the booklet will be available at Cape Town Tourism and around town from Thursday.
There is also a small programme of film, staged readings, debates, workshops and multi-media installations.
Look out for Darkroom Contemporary’s collaboration with Swiss-South African sound artist Mischa Mathys, We, The Transposed. The work consists of dancers constructing movement to sampled sounds from the Joburg cityscape.
Pansa (Performing Arts Network of Southern Africa) will host an indaba for directors, dealing with the conundrum of not getting opportunities without experience, but needing experience to access opportunities: October 4 and 6, 11am, City Hall.