Category: Theatre

Vulgarity, insanity, genius: The whirligig of Mozart

YOU NEED TO quietly gather your sensibilities when you find yourself in the presence of sheer perfection. Several decades ago, theatre practitioner Margot Luyt directed Peter Shaffer’s enormous Mozartian play, Amadeus. It had been translated into Afrikaans and reworked for radio by Nerina Ferreira. This completely flawless rendition […]

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 […]

Dick and the power of hope

PREPARE TO BE swept away by the political ambitions of a humble orange-dungareed young man with a man ban, a blanket stick and a cheeky yellow Tom Cat, in the National Theatre’s pantomime Dick Whittington, which you can see, for the next couple of days, for free online. […]

How to herd cats

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN you assemble a room full of opinionated characters (and an elderly, deaf accompanist) with a deadline and a music repertoire to perform in public? Broer Gawerjal Grootwoord (Ivan Abrahams) is the choir master who has his hands full in Hallelujah Amen, a delightful piece of […]

The cross Beatrice carries

WHAT DO YOU tell the mother of a special needs child who has to face a medical challenge way beyond her means, emotionally or otherwise? Die Masjientjie by Joe Kleinhans is a subtle tale of hypocrisy and heartbreak and offers caveats that tease open some really complex moral […]

Lessons in Being There: RIP Shirley Sacks

“BE READY FOR anything. Expect nothing!” was one of the unforgettable pearls offered by thespian Shirley Sacks to generations of performance students over a 33-year teaching career at the Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria. Teaching in the creative arts is unquestionably a vocational blessing of the highest […]