In the hands of Daniel Butcher-Geddes, The Jungle Book’s all fun and games until the really scary beasts are part of the fray. And it’s here that you will see easily the finest snake puppet given life on stage in this country by Virtuous Kandemiri in the role of Kaa.
With Craig Urbani and Graham Hopkins at the helm as Professor Henry Higgins and Colonel Pickering respectively and 23-year-old Leah Mari between them as Eliza Doolittle, the unrefined flower seller, under the direction of Steven Stead, Lerner and Loewe’s ‘My Fair Lady’ is a recipe made in musical theatre heaven.
Nicholas Wilcox endowed so many of his students with an unforgettable understanding of the value of play and of the complex freedom to fail. He showed youngsters how to embrace the absurd and chaotic in a world that could be cerebral and cruel as it could be beautiful and rich.
This play is about how broken ordinary things can have another life punctuated by different metaphors and idioms, because of their brokenness. It presents a set of values that also apply to broken people. It’s about the sensitive, beating nexus that makes a curious, maybe traumatised child into an artist.
Van Graan’s wit ranges from political one-liners that make you hear the proverbial “Ba Dum Tss” at the punch line in your mind’s ear, to brilliant sketches that reverberate with smart puns and rude twists of linguistic fate, not to mention the tweaking of popular songs into oft political weapons.
‘Nye’ is about parliamentary fights and the helplessness of being on call at a parent’s deathbed. It offers one of the deepest understandings of a death scene you may experience on a live stage, and interpretations of iconic figures such as Bevan, Churchill and Chamberlain to knock your socks off.
Now in her sixties and not afraid to take hold of the world with both hands, Elzabe Zietsman’s revue comprises a mêlée of songs which she has penned and others she has moulded to fit South Africa’s unique levels of hypocrisy, hatred and hope, sometimes all in the same breath.
The narrative of ‘A Streetcar’ is rich with tropes central to the South African taxi industry, and its complex social and economic history. Listen to the discourse. Taxiology in South Africa is a real thing, about spicy micro-narratives and social protocol as well as about God, the universe and everything.
In this show, Thamm riffs on about the Guptas’ exposure and the all-seeing eyes of DA leader, Helen Zille. She talks a million miles a second of the insane outcomes of everything from Covid legislation to stolen billions of Rands and whistle-blowers, who have shaped (and saved) this country’s face.
In the hands of one of South African theatre’s dream teams, this is a gem of a work. Job Kubatsi and Lebohang Motaung, in minor roles, give life to the bitter jokes that lubricated black society during the darkest days of apartheid, reminiscent of the bleak humour in Dostoevsky’s novels.
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