Showing up near you

Every year, thousands flock to the National Arts Festival to gorge on a veritable Roman feast of culture that would turn Caesar puce with envy. But thousands aren’t able to make the trek to Grahamstown. Luckily, soon audiences around the country will be able to enjoy a smattering of these productions in their own back yards.

And in the coming months, patrons at the Amsterdam, Edinburgh and Perth Fringe festivals will also witness SA’s creative alchemists in action as choice theatrical morsels from the NAF turn up on their menus.

But first up is the Wits 969 Festival. Whisking productions, still piping hot, from the stages of the NAF to those of the Wits Theatre in Braamfontein, this well-established event is named for the approximate distance between Johannesburg and Grahamstown: 969 km.

Until Sunday, July 26, Jo’burg audiences can enjoy daytime and evening performances of a number of theatre productions that lit up this year’s Grahamstown Fringe programme, as well as music and poetry. Most of the works are no more than an hour in length, enabling culturestarved locals to soak up two or three shows in a row in true binge-watching festival fashion.

This weekend, adventurous souls may want to take a chance on aLEXA: A Mobile Thriller, a sitespecific work that takes members of the audience on a joyride with actress Alexa (Carina Nel). She’ll drive you through the mean streets of Jozi while preparing for a dangerous, sadomasochistic role in hyper-real method style, along with a stranger she picks up along the way.