Category: Robyn Sassen

Truth, lies and the ghoulies in the bathwater

CONVENTIONALLY, YOU MAY think of the horror genre, and the images that pop into your head will derive from western culture: Of vampires and werewolves and centuries-old gothic houses that creak and grumble under old untold tales. But we’re in Africa, and the yarns that unfurl here, can […]

The universe in an airport

IT TAKES A tremendous amount of skill and wisdom – as well as, of course, courage – to be able to tear and resew the traditional fabric of a novel and turn it inside out, tossing convention to the ether. Will, the passenger delaying flight …, may well […]

Grab Wanda by the ear

THE FIRST TIME you read this book, instinctively, you know you must be very careful. To cite Julian Schnabel’s film Basquiat: you might be looking at Van Gogh’s ear. This is the kind of metaphor that Lynn Joffe’s debut novel, The Gospel According to Wanda B. Lazarus presents. […]

A woman of valour: Lindiwe Ndlovu

WHEN YOU LOOK at – or remember – footage of Lindiwe Ndlovu, be it in the context of the terrifying ‘Sharon’ in the prison series Lockdown, ‘Sponono’, an ex-convict with her convictions close to her heart in Zabalaza, the inimitable ‘Patjutju’ in Uzalo among other characters, you see […]

Unbearable whiteness of being

NON-BINARY SOUTH AFRICAN performance artist Dean Hutton has stood on the outside looking in, for most of their life. While this may be a horribly lonely position for a child, it is one of supreme potency for an artist at the summit of their personal, political and artistic […]

Of decency and timelessness

THERE ARE FEW things as comforting to the heart and soul as a beloved theatre chestnut, coddled by time and roasted with retelling. Radio Sonder Grense brings to its listeners a Christmas gift today, by way of a radio theatre production of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Tale. Penniegryper: […]

Figaro here, Figaro there

SOMETIMES, IT TAKES a little more than the humdrum ebb and flow of domestic life that allows for spite and malice to manifest on every corner. Sometimes one needs to wake up, listen to the music and show a bit of empathy. This is the primary message in […]