In ‘n Begin, written by David Eldridge and translated by Nico Scheepers, the picture of life for both Laura and Daniel is not what either of them were raised to believe it would be. Happily ever after and never again alone are myths they acknowledge, now in their late-30s/early 40s.
With her impish gap-toothed grin and her sprite-like existence onstage and in the interstices of the stories she told, fearless and impetuous dancer and choreographer Dada Masilo leaves a brilliant legacy that radically shifted an understanding of what dance from South Africa can and should be, anywhere in the world.
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.
This film gives you a guttural love of the universe to take home with you. Stripped cleanly of platitudes, it is unabashedly about grabbing life in fists full of pungently ripe blackberries and holding on to one’s self-belief and one’s privacy, come what may.
FRENCH CUISINE HAS a filmographic lure all of its own. It’s about copper-based skillets and the bouquet of finely aged wines, the pairing of unusual flavours and the digging in wet earth for just the right flavoured truffle that will be sensitively grated into a dish to create […]
CHILDREN LEARN WHAT they live is an iconic poem written by Dorothy Law Nolte in the 1950s. With catching rhythms of repetition, it presents the different values that can shape a child. But one not taken into consideration is that of utter emotional abandonment. In the Irish film, […]
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