It’s been an exceptional week to be in the theatre. Right now, there’s a deluge of quality shows in Cape Town. Don’t’ miss Lara Foot Newton’s Karoo Moose (until October 27) her strongest work since Tshepang and the best Baxter production of the year; Geoffrey Hyland’s solid production of Women Beware Women (until October 20) with a stellar cast, and Graham Weir and Megan Choritz’s A Circus Side Show (until October 28) in Weir’s inimitable musical style.
These three shows are artistically and production wise far superior to the two biggest shows in town (on at the Baxter) Impempe Yomlingo (Mozart’s Magic Flute) and iKrismas Kherol (Dickens’s A Christmas Carol). The latter is unforgivably boring and has one of the most turgid scripts I have ever sat through. Not only does it employ foreign clichés about this country – gumboot dancing and ending with a rousing rendition of the click song – but the story has no realistic context – Scrooge is a seamstress from Khayelitsha who has become sole proprietor of a gold mine. Unlike Karoo Moose playing upstairs, Kherol fails to move us in any way, and is therefore shamefully exploitative of the serious issues facing this country. This is clichéd, export, curio performance art, and it smacks of dishonesty when going as community work.
The same wonderful and enthusiastic cast perform the Magic Flute on the scaffolding of the Kherol’s set – literally. Directorially there is no concept to speak of and nothing to watch. It is a concert version. The re-orchestration using marimbas is delightful and novel for the first hour, but after interval you miss the rich arrangements of Mozart. Philisa Sibeko makes a good Pamina, but with one or two exceptions the rest of the leads and cast are not ready for the parts. I am also not convinced (but stand to be persuaded) that this leapfrogging into a production to go to the London is of benefit to these singers artistically. Most have been trained by the dedicated offices of Cape Town Opera, of which there is no mention or credit. An ugly dark cloud still surrounds the failure of director Dornford-May’s last company DDK.
