Category: Robyn Sassen

When two old ladies get stuck in the lavatory

This tale is rich with the peculiar smell of crocheted hanger covers and the cloy of biscuit tins with crumbs and some rust in the seams. It’s about embracing ageing without the constraints of vanity, and it is about letting go and laughing from the very bottom of your belly.

God in a paper cup

In a country plagued by alcoholism and suicide, David Ireland’s ‘The Fifth Step’ directed by Charmaine Weir-Smith at the Baxter Studio Theatre in Cape Town, brings a richly potent conversation to the forefront without drowning you in stats or sadness. It is beautifully performed by Albert Pretorius and Lyle October.

How to give the finger to tradition

Hentie van der Merwe’s recent WAM exhibition ‘After De Jongh’ was replete with a selection of second-hand prints of Tinus De Jongh’s work, placed on patchworked fabric. This evokes the broekie lace doilies and crocheted antimacassars of a tradition of ‘tzatzkes’ used to enhance the home of many a granny.

This house. In the middle of our paradise

Picture the scenario: A brand new high-end suburban complex with all the checks and balances that define privileged living. Everyone tiptoes around everyone else with a developed sense of conversational hygiene, carefully clicking every ‘c’, ‘x’ and ‘q’, with different parts of tongues not used to doing such things.