On the Boards – at Alexander Upstairs

THE BONSAI 40-seater theatre in Strand Street – upstairs at Alexander Bar – has an outstanding line-up this month and next. ● COCK & BULL STORY: This superb production directed by Michael Kirch is performed by Rowan Studti and Dylan Skews. It is set in a locker room as a boxer and his trainer/friend spar with issues of identity, sexuality, male friendship, fear, desire. The play was written by Brutish playwrights Richard Crowe and Richard Zajdlic and first performed in London in 1985. It’s been localised – with addition of South Africanisms and slang and it feels as if it is homebrewed. On from Monday to Thursday, at 9pm. ● ASHES TO ASHES: Gabriella Pinto directs Terry Norton and Mark Elderkin in Harold Pinter’s 1996 play which pivots around Devlin and Rebecca as they try and get to grips with their past. How do we live in the present if we repress past atrocities? This is central to this complex and layered play. The production was at the Cape Town Fringe and wowed audiences. On January 26-31 and February 3-7 at 7pm. ● KEEP OFF THE GRASS: Gabriella Pinto is also directing this one-person satire which takes place in a suburb, where a woman sits sipping wine, spiked with Rescue Remedy. It is performed by Kelly-Eve Koopman. The play was created by Pinto and Koopman and was first staged as a character sketch about suburban paranoia for Play Things, an incubator for new work at Alexander Upstairs. On January 26 to February 7, at 9pm.

● Tickets range from R80R100 and are cheaper if booked online. Book at http://shows.alexanderbar.co .za or on 021 300 1652 or at the bar. cohenry@netactive.co.za twitter @theCapeRobyn