Author: Rod Amner

THEATRE: StratengReview by DAVE MANN The sense of place is immediate. There is the sour rot of refuse, the acrid smell of burning plastic. Endless stretches of cold, hard concrete. A street sign signals a dead-end, something of an omen. It’s weekend in the city, and on the streets, some have it harder than others. This is the world you’re met with as you walk into Strateng at the Monument’s Rehearsal Room. It’s an effective opener and in their stillness, the group of destitute addicts that populate the story occupy this evocative scene, languishing in a collective come down. A street vendor…

DANCE: CorponomyReview by DAVE MANN The gallery space is filled with the body in motion. It’s an interesting scene – a series of screens surrounding a silvered plinth. Light flickers off the walls, and figures posture and perform through the glass. For Eisa Jocson, who usually features in dance programmes, it is a unique opportunity to showcase her work in the form of an installation. Corponomy comes to the Monument Gallery as a neatly curated installation, and the videos on exhibition do well to contextualise her engagement with dance as research, training, and meaning-making. The artist herself has yet to arrive…

MAGIC: The Absolutely Mental Magic ShowReview by SONIA SAJJABI “If he is the same guy, he is good.” Not specifying whether he meant Brendon Peel or Li Lau, the audience member enthusiastically anticipated the sorcery to come. Magician and mentalist Brendon Peel and escapologist and sideshow performer Li Lau, who made an appearance in the 2019 National Arts Festival and, more famously, on Britain’s Got Talent, return to the festival in a joint performance of The Absolutely Mental Magic Show. This audience member wasn’t the only one who felt this way, as people flooded into the Masonic Front to grab…

MUSICAL THEATRE: Ghetto – The Musical Review By KEREN BANZA and LISAKHANYA MJELE The stage is alive, roaring with vibrant dancing and passionate acting accompanied by sweet melodies sung by the actors. The struggling saga of the arts and artists in struggling communities is brought to life through a musical drama production. Art initiatives and artists battle to find funding to take their ideas off the ground. They are often buried under a pile of paperwork, long application processes that suck them dry of energy, or responses (and excuses) as to why it is not possible. Ghetto, The Musical, directed by Luyolo…

DANCE: The story of fireBy ELEJHA-ZE GENGAN  On a cold winter evening, many gather under the starlit sky, waiting for a fire to be born. “Fire, fire, fire, warmth in the heart,” says performer Selah Joy as she brings the flames to life. Fire brings people together. The untamed energy draws us closer as it wraps us in safety and warmth. “Fire flirts with darkness,” says Joy.  In The Story of Fire, the fire-dancer takes us on a journey of self-discovery during times when everything felt cold and disconnected. She expresses the significance of fire in her life and how…

THEATRE: Julie Andrews UncutReview by JENNA KRETZMANN  Filling the shoes of a Dame can be a daunting task. Particularly when that person has filled the legendary roles of Mary Poppins, Fraulein Maria, and Queen Clarisse Renaldi. East Londoner, Alison Hillstead, takes the part of Dame Julie Andrews in her stride in Amanda Bothma’s Julie Andrews Uncut. However, the stride could be stronger.   The production casts an eye on the life of English actress, singer, and author Julie Andrews. Hillstead acts as a third-person narrator in charge of chronicling Andrews’s difficult upbringing, rise to fame, and the wobbles along the way.…

THEATRE: ÎleReview by DAVE MANN There is only the actor, the stage, and two wooden crates. It’s all the piece requires. In Île, Sophie Joans takes us from Cape Town to Mauritius through a series of humorous and incisive narrative accounts of her family, her heritage and the legacies of colonialism. It’s a hell of a play. Joans leads with a brief social and geographical history of Mauritius. Tectonic plates shift and grind, palm trees proliferate, dodos plod along happily (albeit briefly), and then a bunch of people show up, and the island becomes contested land. Somewhere in the latter part…

ART: We Regret to Inform You…Review by DAVE MANN Between my finger and my thumbThe squat pen rests.I’ll dig with it.Seamus Heaney There are tears by the time Wezile Harmans finishes his performance. Left in the room with the artist’s collection of envelopes and words, it takes a moment for the audience to gather themselves and go. In Harmans’ solo exhibition at the National Arts Festival, the artist uses a singularly devastating sentence as a conceptual point of departure: We Regret to Inform You… It’s a line known by dejected job applicants across the globe. In South Africa, where unemployment affects…

PERFORMANCE ART: 12 LaboursReview by STEVE KRETZMANN, Cue arts editor and The Critter editor In rainbow stockings and severe glittering stilettos, a thick notebook clutched under his arm, Gavin Krastin, this year’s Standard Bank Young Artist of the year (we better name the bank or next thing, they’ll pull their funding for these awards, too) for performance art towers before us like an eccentric androgynous aunty about to address a Rotary Club meeting. Except he’s also wearing blue construction worker’s pants and jacket with the reflective strips, over which is a corset-like brace around his waist. And a blue gnome’s…

PHYSICAL THEATRE: SwaRinganaReview by NONJABULO NTULI Sikhuthali Oliver Bonga’s SwaRingana kept his audience captivated and engaged, leaving them smiling from ear to ear. It’s one of the best one-person shows I’ve ever experienced. Sikhuthali uses theatre to deal with grief. Sound heavy, yeah? Well, it isn’t as sad as it may sound. From the outset, Sikhuthali reassured us this would not be a painful experience. Sikhuthali’s alter ego (his acting self) uses ‘Poor Theatre’, a term coined by Grotowski, a Polish theatre director and theorist. Poor Theatre uses minimal props and costumes and focuses on the physical skill of the…