July 08, 2012

• South Africa: Student Sharp-Shooters

  A ragtag group of society misfits, two ill-starred lovers from the great Can Themba's literary canon and a gaggle of nosy neighbourhood gossips were the big winners at the 2012... Read more »

July 07, 2012

• South Africa: The End of the Road?

  London Road has successfully mapped out an entertaining route through Grahamstown over the past three Festivals. With two more shows to go before it closes, it has been performed... Read more »

July 06, 2012

• South Africa: An Hour of Marico Magic

  This delight is exactly as described in the Festival programme: "Bosman for the next generation". As the names of Patrick Mynhardt and Percy Sieff, both formidable interpreters of... Read more »

• South Africa: Cash Injection for Fund Helping Performers

  The Theatre Benevolent Fund (TBF), which attempts to help anyone within the sphere of performing arts who can no longer help themselves, has raised over R27,000 in their first... Read more »

• South Africa: A Film About Fest That Is Sort of Funny

  The Neons, a documentary-style film on the Fringe programme, offers a look at the nitty gritty details of writing, planning rehearsing and putting on the show, Escape from... Read more »

• South Africa: Wake Yourself Up!

  Itsoseng is 21st Century protest theatre. Yawn? Sick of soapboxes and messages? Aren't most of us! Here, although of course the message is important, it's the way Omphile Molusi... Read more »

July 05, 2012

• South Africa: Foot-Tapping New Beats On an Old Traditional Drum

  The rich sounds of traditional African instruments fill the chapel. Read more »

July 04, 2012

• South Africa: Missing Out On World-Class Films

  Oh how Shakespeare would have loved cinema!" the English film director Derek Jarman once said. But given some movie buffs' comments, he might have been the only one in the audience... Read more »

• South Africa: Volkher's Phallusy

  I suppose it is my phallic obsession," said Volkher von Lengeling, co-owner of the Yellow Piano Inn, explaining how the adult-only exhibition Phallos came into existence. Such... Read more »

• South Africa: Beckett Revisited On the Fringe

  This week, Krapp is resurrected. Samuel Beckett's character in Krapp's Last Tape comes back to life on the stage of the Victoria Theatre. This time, it is Lionel Newton, the 2002... Read more »

July 03, 2012

• South Africa: Evocative and Esoterically Shaped Sounds

  Following in the footsteps of the Chanticleer Singers' musical representation of South African works inspired by notions of dominant culture and marginalisation, the world... Read more »

• South Africa: Societal Revelations

  You thought that coming to Festival would provide a welcome respite from the drama of post-democracy ANC politics; you even avoided buying the Sunday newspapers this past weekend.... Read more »

• South Africa: Does Race Still Matter?

  Whether you page through the visual art, drama or comedy sections of the Festival programme, two themes recur - race and apartheid. Read more »

• South Africa: Big Girl Pays Off Big Time

  Juliet Jenkin is back! After a disappointing commissioned work about South African author Mary Renault, Mary and the Conqueror, she is at her quirky best with this one-actor tale... Read more »

• South Africa: Of Gravel Throats and Trumpets

  For some, Louis Armstrong is the lovable gravel-voiced Satchmo singing What a Wonderful World; to others he was an Uncle Tom (yet he was invited to play at the Ghana independence... Read more »

• South Africa: Interrogating Oppression

  Steven Cohen has made a name for himself in the South African art world largely through his shock tactics, which involve all manner of objects being inserted into his rectum, as... Read more »

• South Africa: Visceral

  Mies Julie is a contemporary adaptation of August Strindberg's late 19th-Century naturalistic play. This production, adapted and directed by Yael Farber, is subtitled Restitutions... Read more »

July 02, 2012

• South Africa: Life As We Know It Exposed Through Dance

  Durban's award-winning Flatfoot Dance Company has made the leap from Fringe to Arena this year with Southern Exposure: A Double Bill, comprising powerful explorations of women... Read more »

• South Africa: Back to Butoh

  Their eyes roll back in their heads. They shamble forwards, seemingly both mindless and purposeful, vacant and controlled. One could be forgiven for fleeing what seems to be a... Read more »

• South Africa: Buoyant Bonnefoy in Charge

  It is rare in South Africa that jazz concerts include ensembles other than the typical instrumental formats of either the smaller forces (trio, quartet, and so on) or the... Read more »

• South Africa: Beguiling Boikanyo and an Orchestra of Rare Quality

  Guest concert master of the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra, American violinist Joanna Frankel, continued her fine form in leading this prestigious orchestra with assurance... Read more »

• South Africa: No Cut-Price Laughs in This Gentle Comedy Gem

  Have you ever walked into a deathly-quiet shop and been unnerved by the vaguely desperate expressions on the assistants' faces, hoping against hope for a sale? Meet the staffers at... Read more »

• South Africa: Iconic Horror Film Revisited

  What happens when a director explores similar themes in related films 40 years apart? Darkly comedic, erotic at times and grippingly surprising, The Wicker Man and The Wicker Tree... Read more »

• South Africa: Big Cameras, Little Eyes

  Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art, Mikhael Subotzky features an exhibition that charts a complex journey through the history of his documentary oeuvre. Read more »

• South Africa: Masterpieces Born of Frustration

  Two young French choreographers based in New York in 1984 found themselves alienated by the stylistic conventions of the Manhattan dance world. Read more »