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 It is a love story, a historical document of great importance, and a terrific tale of a clandestine success.’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
