theatre/talking/music/dance/art/photography

This is a rich week with loads to see, hear, debate, think about, read, dance to - in diverse styles and media, hard to put in any particular order -  so in the end listed in order of art form - see title above.



THEATRE: WOYZECK

This new version of the play written by German playwright Georg Büchner in 1834 is based on the adaptation by Daniel Kramer, which Lara Foot and the company have adapted further, setting it in a contemporary African landscape.  It features the performers from Karoo Moose plus Rob van Vuuren.

Baxter Studio
Till Saturday 11 September
Tel: 021 685 7880
www.baxter.co.za



DEBATE AT UCT

"UCT is involved in an ongoing discussion over the university’s use of race as a criterion in its admissions policy.  ... Now you are invited to participate in this discussion, by attending the debate on admissions policy involving Professor Neville Alexander; Professor David Benatar of the Department of Philosophy; Chair of Council Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane; SRC President Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh; and Dr Max Price. Honorary Professor Dennis Davis, who teaches constitutional law in UCT’s Faculty of Law, will act as moderator, as he did on Judge for Yourself."

Centre for African Studies Gallery   Upper Campus   UCT
Thursday 2     13h00 
The venue can accommodate only 200 seats, so please RSVP to Zukiswa Dlelembe (Tel 021 650 3759).



GREAT TEXTS BIG QUESTIONS: MICHAEL STEINBERG ON WAGNER

In GIPCA's Great Texts /Big Questions lecture series this Thursday, Michael Steinberg from Brown University will be giving a talk titled "Is Richard Wagner (Still) Dangerous? Reflections on Race, Politics and the Ring of the Nibelung." 

Thursday 2       17h00
Hiddingh Hall   Hiddingh Campus




RONNIE KASRILS AT KALK BAY BOOKS

Ronnie Kasrils will be at Kalk Bay Books to discuss his biography of his wife  Eleanor, An Unlikely Secret Agent, with fellow biographer Anthony Butler.   
From a review of the book by Victoria Brittain:  'Eleanor Kasrils’s amazing role in this story is told by her husband Ronnie for the first time. Readers of his earlier books will recognise the excitement of his storytelling and his memory for telling detail, but the tenderness of this book is new … Ronnie’s response to Eleanor’s sudden death last year at home in South Africa was to write this extraordinary book at breakneck speed. It is a love story, a historical document of great importance, and a terrific tale of a clandestine success.’
Kalk Bay Books    124 Main Road    Kalk Bay
Friday 3    18h00 for 18h30




ALICE WALKER :  STEVE BIKO  MEMORIAL LECTURE

Members of the public are invited to attend the 11th Annual Steve Biko Memorial Lecture with guest speaker Alice Walker whose lecture is titled  “Coming to see you since I was five years old: An American poet’s connection to the South African soul.”   
The talk is next week on the 9th, but tickets are to be collected this week from Wednesday to Friday, issued on a first-come, first-served basis.

Jameson Hall    Upper Campus    UCT
Thursday 9  18:00 (doors open at 17:00)
Tickets can be collected from Wednesday 1 until Friday 3 from the UCT Communication & Marketing Department, “Welgelegen”, Chapel Road Extension, Rosebank.




340ML AT THE ASSEMBLY

The Mozambican group performs its eclectic Latin, jazz and traditional Mozambican-inflected hip-hop music. Supported by acoustic jazz artist Gary Thomas and DJ Low.

The Assembly    61 Harrington St    District Six  
Saturday 4    21h00  Cost: R 60




BLUES AT ALMA CAFE

Mothercity Mojo featuring Jonny Blundell and others will  be playing "unplugged" again at the Alma Cafe in Rosebank on Sunday night.  This charming venue is tiny so make sure you book early.  Price of entry includes a simple meal.  Bring your own drink.
Alma Cafe    Alma Rd    Rosebank
Sunday 5     18h00 for 18h30
To Book: 021 685 7377




SOUTH AFRICA'S GOT TALENT THEATRE AUDITIONS

An opportunity to witness the second round of theatre auditions  in the national televised talent competition.  The  Vuvuzela Orchestra's in it - so that puts it on my list!

CTICC
Saturday 4     8h00 - early evening       Cost: Free
Tel: 011 348 1400   www.sasgottalent.co.za




CHILDREN OF THE MIST

I'm not sure what to make of this set-up but it may be something important to see.   In the context of the Artscape Indigenous Arts Department is a performance of "the Ikhapara dance done by the Khoi Khoi people ....  one of the oldest dance forms of indigenous South Africa. Traditionally performed as a circle trance dance around a fire, the Ikhapara dance is still performed until this day. Its modern version has elements of colonialism as the accompanying instrumentation includes guitar and violin, and the outfits adorning the dances are commonly known as ‘working class clothes’.
This dance form has transformed, and in its modern appearance takes on diverse significance as a modern dance of love between a man and a woman, a call from one potential partner to another, a discernment of manhood or boyhood marked by the donning of a “knobkierie”  with great pride."

Artscape Arena
Wednesday 1 - Saturday 4    20h15 
R50

   


BLANK GALLERY

This is the last week for this interesting-sounding double exhibition at Blank.

"1) Mary Wafer: High Violet

In this body of work Mary Wafer's explores the materiality of architectural, social and urban spaces in a series of paintings...Based on photographs as preliminary sketches, the images are re-thought and re-invested by the paintbrush, a process of inducing visibility and revealing 'the multiple levels of mediation that frame the experience of an urban ‘reality’.'

2) Kerim Seiler: Nomadic Structured Digest

The 'Nomadic Structures' project, a collaboration between swiss artist Kerim Seiler and dancer/choreographer Gregor Metzger, is a sculptural experiment featuring ‘Pneuma Somnambul’ (or ‘Restless Spirit’), a temporary structure comprised of a number of tetrahedron-shaped cells and decorated with colourful fluorescent lights switching on and off. Seiler describes this performative project, in which location, negotiaton, construction and deconstruction are integral, as “a very long, abstract dance piece which finds its rhythm in days and weeks rather than in the ticks of a stopwatch.”

blank projects    113-115 sir lowry rd  woodstock   cape town
Tuesday - Friday 10h00 - 15h00    Saturday 10h00 - 13h00
Till Saturday 4 September




 LAST DAYS FOR PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION: REGENERATION 2

There're only a few more days to catch this exhibition, which closes this Friday. From the Musee de L'Elysee in Lausanne, Regeneration 2 features "works by 80 up-and-coming photographers from 25 countries."
UCT Michaelis Galleries   Orange St   Gardens  
Tues to Fri  10h00 - 15h00    Cost: Free
Tel: 021 480 7170 / 082 316 5272 
www.michaelis.uct.ac.za




PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION: 'BEYOND THE RACIAL LENS'

The recent conference sub-titled "The Politics of South African Documentary Photography, Past and Present' was accompanied by this major exhibition which is on at The Castle till 18 September. 

"Featuring the work of 56 photographers and more than 60 photographic essays, the exhibition covers an array of subjects, from the effects of breast cancer to the display of opulence that is a hallmark of success amongst the country's new elite."

Castle of Good Hope.
till 18 September

Bonjour Tristesse, Man to Man, The Lie of the Land, Lives Like Loaded Guns, The Dead, A Brief History of the Last 13.7 Billion Years

A LETTER TO MY READERS

Dear Readers

Today I resume the blog after a month-long silence.  I was travelling in that time, including a few dream days in Paris and Amsterdam, and I hope that the added inspiration makes up for the break in communication.   I have come back to a new set of  very time-consuming work projects,  and I've been thinking a lot about how to fit in this blog (which has always taken up much more time than I imagined it would.)  I don't want to stop Cape Town Confidential, I've been so encouraged by people, including some not previously on my mailing list.  But time is in short supply.  So for the moment I thought I'd try providing the listing, but with less personal commentary - the same research, the same selection (the things I wouldn't want to miss), but less writing.  Please excuse me for the extent to which I'll be quoting other people's words from reviews, publicity materials etc.  I hope it still serves you well. 

With thanks and my warmest regards,   Lisa




TONIGHT: CINECLUB AT THE ALLIANCE FRANCAISE

Cinéclub : Bonjour Tristesse
by Otto Preminger


"Film based on the eponymous novel (1954) by French author Françoise Sagan.

With Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Jean Seberg, Juliette Greco


French with English subtitles   Running time : 1h29

Seventeen-year-old Cécile spends her summer in a villa on the French Riviera with her father and two other women. Her father, Raymond, is a seductive, worldly, amoral man who has had many affairs."

Alliance Francaise   155 Loop Street
Tuesday 24   19h00     Free entrance

THIS WEEK ONLY:  MAN TO MAN AT THE FUGARD THEATRE

Antoinette Kellermann stars in this one-woman play by renowned German playwright Manfred Karge which investigates the life of a woman who, after the untimely death of her husband, assumes his identity in order to make a living.
The Fugard Theate, cnr Harrington & Caledon Sts
Tuesday 24 to Saturday  28 August     19h30
Tel: 021 461 4554   Cost: R90 - R120

GREAT TEXTS/BIG QUESTIONS:  JAMES JOYCE'S THE DEAD

The Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts invites you to the next lecture in the Great Texts/Big Questions public lecture series. Dr Cóilín Parsons, Irish literature scholar and lecturer in English Literature at the University of Cape Town, will discuss James Joyce’s Shorter Masterpiece: The Dead.  The Dead is the last and most famous short story in Joyce's early collection "Dubliners."


Thursday 26   17h00   Free entry
Hiddingh Hall  UCT Hiddingh Campus




LYNDALL GORDON TO DISCUSS EMILY DICKINSON BIOGRAPHY

Born and raised in South Africa, Lyndall Gordon is the prizewinning author of biographies including Charlotte Bronte, Virginia Woolf, Shared Lives and Mary Wollstonecraft.   She will be in conversation with Finuala Dowling at Kalk Bay Books on Friday evening, about her highly-acclaimed book Lives like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and her Family's Feuds. It sounds like an absolutely fascinating story:

From the invitation: "Though in her lifetime only ten of Emily Dickinson's poems were published, her death revealed 1,789 poems, many of them in hand-sewn booklets, secreted in a locked chest. She is now regarded as one of the greatest poets of all time, but she has come down to us as a woman disappointed in love, an odd and pathetic woman who dressed in white and shut herself away
Lyndall Gordon sees instead her volcanic character - 'a soul at White Heat' - a mystic and lover whose family harboured a hothouse drama of sex, scandal and devastating betrayal."

Kalk Bay Books

Friday 27 18h00

Booking advisable

WALKABOUT WITH THE CURATOR OF "THE LIE OF THE LAND"

Michael Godby is doing a walkabout of his exhibition The Lie of the Land: Representations of the South African Landscape this Saturday morning, a fortnight before this major exhibition comes to an end. 
"Landscape is both the oldest and most popular type of art in this country.  In this long history, the representation of Landscape has taken many forms, not just because the physical geography of South Africa is so varied, but because different groups, and different individual artists, at different times, have wanted to communicate different things about their environment.  The exhibition is arranged in five sections to cover some of this wide range of purpose in Landscape representation:  from statements of awe in the face of an apparently intractable Landscape; to celebrations of various methods of exploiting the Landscape;  to commemmorations of struggles over possession of the Landscape;  to expressions of poetic or patriotic feelings through the medium of Landscape; and to recent questionings of the very means of representing Landscape."

To book to go on the walkabout phone Lizzie O'Hanlon on 021 467 4662 or email sangfriends@iziko.org.za.

The Old Town House   Greenmarket Square
Saturday 28  11h00  
Non-members R50  Students R20

WOYZECK AT THE BAXTER

Directed by Lara Foot with choreography by Ina Wichterich.
"From the creators of the multi-award-winning Karoo Moose with the addition of Rob van Vuuren comes the brilliant tale of Woyzeck. Written by Georg Büchner in 1834, Woyzeck was the first German literary work whose main characters were members of the working class. Far from being a simple tale of village murder, Woyzeck shows us the systematic debasement, even intellectual and spiritual "murder", of the protagonist and all his class.
Director Lara Foot says “I like to play with dense texts and bring out the elements and characters that they deal with by creating a multi-sensory experience for theatre and film.... I've always wanted to tackle this play. The story is packed with dark intrigue and textured themes - there‟s love and romance, jealousy, envy, deceit, betrayal, adultery, suicide and murder or homicide."

Baxter Studio
Previews Thurs 26 and Friday 27
Runs until 11 September at 18h30 or 20h15 nightly
Ticket prices: Baxter Mondays R70  Tues to Thurs  R120, Fri to Sat  R130 




BAXTER DANCE FESTIVAL

See the Baxter Theatre website for information in case any of these performances interest you - some physical theatre and flamenco among the many contemporary dance pieces. Professionals perform a variety of dance styles by established choreographers, and up-and-coming young dancers showcase works by emerging choreographers.
25 August - 29 August    
 Tel: 021 685 7880
www.baxter.co.za

ENCOUNTERS DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL

From now until Sunday night there are still 6 documentaries every evening in three venues.  Look at www.encounters.co.za to see if anything interests you in this programme that seems a bit lacking in spark to me.

JAZZ

I got this information from the M&G which has the best on-line listing I've seen for live music in Cape Town.  At the Speedway Cafe at the Tafelberg Tavern is The Clearing leg by guitarist and vocalist Dave Ledbetter and featuring Lee Thomson (trumpet, flugelhorn), Kesivan Naidoo (drums), Buddy Wells (saxophone), Shane Cooper (double bass) and Andrew Lilley (keyboards)  They play every Wednesday from 21h00 to 23h00 "through cooking jazz originals and standards."  

Speedway Café, Tafelberg Tavern, 105 Hope Street, Cape Town      R30.



   

LAUDED RUSSIAN PIANIST AT THE CONCERT HALL

Vassily Primakov was born in Moscow in 1979.  He later studied at Juilliard and has been covered in prizes, recording contracts and rave reviews.  This Saturday at the Baxter  he plays Handel, Schumann and Rachmaninoff.
    

Baxter Concert Hall
Saturday 28   20h00

ART ON PAPER AND CERAMICS AT KALK BAY MODERN

This is the last week for the show of artists' work on paper and ceramics including work of Deborah Bell, William Boshoff, Joel Mpah Doah, David Koloane, Dumisane Mabaso, Michael Khumalo and Claudette Schreuders.
Until Tue 31 August
Kalk Bay Modern   1st Floor Olympia Buildings 136 Main Rd Kalk Bay  021 7886571   www.kalkbaymodern.com.

TALK: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE LAST 13.7 BILLION YEARS PLUS 1 SECOND

The Cape Natural History Club organizes talks that often sound interesting.  This one is by John Richards of the Astronomical Society on the history of the universe from the first 100 000th of a second after the Big Bang until today.

SACS School (entrance from Main St) Newlands  

Thursday 26 20h00   Cost: R 20
Tel: 021 762 1779 

TO LOOK FORWARD TO

Dada Masilo's Carmen at the Baxter 5 to 10 October. 

"The 25 year-old trailblazer Dada Masilo, recipient of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Dance in 2008, has made a name for herself both as a dancer and as a choreographer in recent years.  Her Carmen dazzled audiences at the 2009 National Arts and Joburg Arts Alive Festivals (as did Romeo and Juliet at the Baxter recently.)  For music, she has chosen Rodion Shchedrin's Carmen Suite - Ballet Suite for strings and percussion based on themes from Carmen by George Bizet, Bizet's Carmen Suites, Maria Callas singing the 'Habanera', and two sections of Arvo Pärt's Lamentate."