Cape Times on Sharon
Yay! Oh yay! Oh yay. A great review from Peter Tromp and a huge pic and it’s in the Top of The Times!
Jozi for the weekend
We fly to Jozi at 6pm today. We’re off to go to an almost fandamily wedding tomorrow which is cool, only we’ll be there for very quick, we come back on Sunday arvie. I still need to get through a full day of rehearsals though, which is probably why I’m up at the crack!
nose to the groundstone
As Sharon would say. Yo, yo, yo, it’s only Wednesday and I swear I can’t even find my arse or my elbow, let alone tell the difference. I am in rehearsal for my favourite yearly industrial theatre roadshow. It’s a proper 45 minute four hander play. Lovely but hectic. Last night we performed TheatreSports for a huge group of mainly 13 year old boys. It was fabulous but required big energy. I am gearing up to start rehearsals for A Circus Side Show. Can you believe it? Very exciting but scary as hell! We have a TheatreSports corporate performance on Sunday night, and Big Friendly and I are flying off to Jozi for the weekend for an almost fandamily wedding! Yowzer. You have no idea. And there’s gorgeous Shez Sharon running at The Kalk Bay Theatre. I love my life.
Shez review
To see our first (and rather good review) just go here and click. Yay.
In Raptus
I am getting a bit irritated with myself. When I set out to write this blog it was to vent my spleen, to write scathing reviews of shit Cape Town theatre, to complain and bitch blah blah blah. Tonight I have again come home with only good news.
Big Friendly and I went off to the opening night of Beethoven in Raptus, the first production in Artscape’s new spring drama season. All the five plays have never been performed before.
I had misgivings about going tonight. I’m not crazy about theatre based on famous real people. I get bored. And then, I heard that the play was 2 hours long. I couldn’t even tell Big Friendly that part. He never would have agreed to go. We were so surprised.
The Arena theatre was transformed by a stark and stylized set, with a very raked stage and excellent depth of field, so the small stage felt huge.
The script was written by John Burch, who died in 1991 without ever seeing his play produced. I imagine that on paper the script might feel heavy, loaded and even boring and wordy. This production turns the script into a marvelous heart wrenching and absorbing drama. I have full respect for the director Arne Pohlmeier who has created a stylish and moving piece.
The performances are generally superb. Graham Weir, as Beethoven, gives an award winning performance. His physicality and energy is totally different from anything I’ve seen him do in the past. He fills the big Beethoven shoes completely. His emotional range is amazing and his intellectual grasp and portrayal of this deaf genius is totally believable and magical. Theresa Iglich as the Countess and Robyn Scott as Madam are also superb. Their performances are huge, satisfying and controlled. Less successful are the two youngest members of the cast. Roshina Ratnam has moments, but is a little stilted at times and Brendan Murray seems afraid of the role of Karl, Beethoven’s nephew. He is mainly disconnected; possibly because it is so hard to play a bit of a selfish bastard.
The two hours sped by and I wasn’t bored once. It was solid, traditional theatre, brilliantly performed and beautifully directed.
Let’s hope that this sets the standard for the rest of the season. Graham and my A Circus Side Story is the third one and opens on the 14 October.
Builder’s Warehouse junkmail
So, Big Friendly doesn’t smoke in the house. He sits on the stoep and smokes and reads whatever he can lay his hands on, and often it’s the inside adverts from the local ’stop ‘n drop’. And he confessed to me this morning…how romantic…that whenever he looks at the hardware and fantasises about drills and angle grinders that he’d love to have, he is always thinking about presents for ME! And the weird thing is…I love that shit! As he says, no American Swiss for me. Oh, what a match hey?
Sunday morning sequel
Big Friendly is in a bit of a funk. We went to walk the dogs on the mountain and he was bemoaning the lack of a good local bakery near us. He was wanting a Sunday morning bagel and cottage cheese and jam (only really to be got in Sea Point). I said that we should stop off at the Kwik Spar on the way home and he pulled a face. Then he remembered…the donuts! Before we had even parked the car he was out the door, waiting for me to unlock so he could fetch the tupperware! He slumped back into the house empty handed. The lady who makes the donuts’s sister is in hospital with water on the lungs and so she isn’t making any today. Big Friendly is really miserable. I’m going to the Pick ‘n Poo now to see if I can’t find something to cheer him up.
Opening of Shez Sharon
So opening night happened without a hitch. The Kalk Bay Theatre was choc-a-block. Nicole was pretty magnificent. The audience seemed to love it. And there was much good vibes afterwards. It’s lovely being involved in a feel-good show. It really is ‘full of love’ as Sharon would say. I think one of the great things about this show is that it has such general appeal. It’s not just for theatre goers. It’s the kind of show that anyone will enjoy. It’s like a live TV show, where the actress really has access to the audience. I am very proud.
nerves
It’s 6.05am. I have already been up for an hour. There was a mosquito, I was hot, there was a light shining somewhere, my throat was dry, my brain was working overtime. You know, all the things that happen when you have an opening night coming. And I’m just the director. I’m not even on stage. Actually, I don’t know what’s worse.
Nicole is doing an amazing job. I really have nothing to worry about. The play is “just stunning”. But the day before is always filled with the ‘what ifs’ and ’should haves’ of insecurity. We should have got a wash basin. What if the technicals are a mess? Blah blah.
And tomorrow it will have happened. And it becomes part of the public domain. And other people can say what they think. Omigod! What do we do this for?
koek sisters
After lying in and reading this morning, Big Friendly developed an obsessive craving for donuts. He’s reading a book called The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon, in which some kind of Jewish donuts are spoken about. So, Big Friendly’s mouth started watering before we even climbed out of bed.
Now, it just so happens that, at the top of our tiny street is an even teenier corner shop, and the delightful little Muslim woman who runs it makes the best coconut sprinkled donuts on a Sunday morning. So, before we even walked the dogs Big Friendly charged up the hill twice, but the shop was closed.
Wile we walked the dogs his tummy was rumbling and he was salivating. As we drove past the shop on the way home, Big Friendly wailed. It was still closed. Now, Big Friendly is a shy somebody. He is retiring and polite. He is gentle and doesn’t hardly ever raise his voice. But this morning Donut Demon Big appeared. He stormed inside to fetch a tupperware, barged across the road to their house (next to the shop), banged on the door and demanded donuts. He left the tupperware there, so they could be delivered ASAP.
And they were. Piping hot sweet syrupy coconutty most delicious donuts. Yum, I must say. And Big Friendly is back.
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Randomness
