CAPE TOWN FRINGE FESTIVAL Wrap up. At Various Venues. TRACEY SAUNDERS reviews
THE fairy lights have been switched off, the bunting packed away and the ticket machines retired for another year. The second Cape Town Fringe Festival ended yesterday after 11 days of theatre, dance, magic and performance art. While official figures for ticket sales and audience numbers are not yet available, anecdotal evidence seems to indicate an increase in audiences.
Although vendors in the Fringe Club located in The City Hall experienced less traffic and sales at their food and beverage stalls. The addition of new venues to the festival circuit this year was not without its teething problems.
The location of Jubilee Hall in the V&A Waterfront confounded several people in the initial days of the festival and many a lost audience member did not arrive at the venue on time.
The City Hall is an ideal festival hub and with the added benefit of free parking on the Grand Parade access was easy and the proximity of venues within the building allowed visitors the opportunities of watching several performances a day. Despite the geographical proximity to the Waterfront venues: The Waterfront Theatre School and Jubilee Hall, access between them and the festival hub was not ideal with limited public transport options.
One patron suggested the use of shuttle buses between the venues. A suggestion the organisers would do well to consider in the event of their inclusion in future programmes. The Fugard Theatre and Alexander Upstairs were within walking distance, albeit one requiring a slightly brisker pace than the other, while PANSA, located in Beach Road in Woodstock, is less of a walk and more of a run away.
The Guga S’Thebe Cultural Centre in Langa was the venue furthest away from the central festival hub. Performances of Uyabona Ke’s Waterline and Art of Hearts production Ngumzimba Wam were well received and school audiences in particular enjoyed the opportunity.
The City Hall venue was abuzz with children who were afforded the chance to attend performances and workshops during the week. Some of the other children’s shows, both those scheduled on weekdays and those over the weekend, were less well attended.
It was with a heavy heart that I watched the very pertinent Ngumzimba Wam, a play using puppets to teach children about child sexual abuse in an audience of four. The small audience did not deter the actors Sindile Msebenzi, Sydwell Klaas and Asiphe Lili though and they performed with gusto.
The Last Cow Standing experienced a similar fate and again the actor did not allow that to affect his very engaging and highly entertaining performance.
Scheduling a festival is no mean feat and placing the right performance in the best venue at the ideal time requires a large measure of luck in addition to experience. The balance between an extensive programme and one that caters to as many time constraints as possible is seldom able to offer consistently large audiences. Some musicians coped better than others with playing to relatively few patrons.
Asanda Mqiki in particular didn’t seem to notice the handful of people strewn around the auditorium. With a personality as big as her voice, the young musician and singer who has shared the stage with Sibongile Khumalo, captivated the small audience with her rendition of familiar jazz standards.
Both her and her band exhibited such immense pleasure in performing that their infectious joy filled the space.
Other musical performances fared less well and Blaqseed and Maya Spector may have benefited from a larger crowd or a more intimate venue to enhance their performances. The transformation of the concert venue to a smaller stage is a remarkable feat but the space is compromised when the audiences are small. Blaqseed took full advantage of the space in the Fringe Club and I thoroughly enjoyed their performance there.
While 65% of the productions were from Cape Town, performances by artists from other parts of the country and abroad were lapped up. The offbeat and edgy We didn't Come to Hell for the Croissants performed by Jemma Kahn and Roberto Pombo, presented by the Joburg based POPART Productions, added shows and increased the size of their venue to cope with ticket demands. The Seven Deadly Sins are performed with each story penned by a different South African writer, including Louis Viljoen, Tertius Kapp and Nicholas Spagnoletti, content ranged from the macabre to the surreal.
Described by one audience member as “ funny, sexy, blood-curdling, jaw dropping theatre” Kahn and Pombo are a slick act. The excellence of the content was matched by the brilliance of the performance and disappointed audience members who couldn’t get their hands on a ticket will thankfully have another opportunity when they return to Cape Town in December.
The performance by another Johannesburg-based performer, Craig Morris exceeded all superlatives when he captivated audiences in Johnny Boskak is Feeling Funny. His performance earned him a Gold Standard Bank Ovation Award at the National Arts Festival this year and watching him recreate the adventures of Johnny Boskak on stage it is easy to see why.
The script is very much a reflection of the state of the country at the time it was written, yet the story of an anti-hero’s bedevilled love life and transient lifestyle is timeless. Recited in iambic pentameter in English, Afrikaans and Zulu the piece was sheer theatre magic. Greig Coetzee’s writing is devastatingly good and the pair’s talents were combined again with the addition of Troy Blacklaws in Blood Orange, which continued with the theme of a man who feels out of kilter with his country and kin. The physicality of Morris as he balances three tyres on his back and one on his forearm is mesmerizing. Both of his production were personal highlights of the festival for me.
Another production from outside of Cape Town was presented by Durban’s Copy Dog company. B!*ch Stole my Doek, a one-woman show written and directed by Clinton Marius was performed by Shona Johnson to sold out houses. Set in Wentworth the character ticked many stereotypical boxes and in many ways the woman she portrayed is presented almost as a caricature.
While the subject matter of the experience of the Coloured community in Durban is similar to that portrayed in Malik Ndlovu’s A Coloured Place, the treatment of the sentiments expressed are vastly different. Johnson had the audience in stitches even while she dealt with more serious issues including teenage pregnancy, unemployment, drug addiction and domestic violence in an entertaining production with an unexpected twist.
One of the more unusual offerings Barred, a site-specific piece by The Yellow Glove Collective, choreographed by Gabriella Bishop, incorporated dance and music making innovative use of the Alexander Bar.
Garnering inspiration from the previous occupants, Cullinan & Associates, an environmental law firm, the performance featured artists Raine Waring, Chane Otto, Asisipho Malunga, Gabriella Bishop and Mischa Ruby donned in legal wigs.
They made clever use of the bar metaphorically and literally both as a drinking establishment and the seat of the legal profession. Their final performance on Sunday afternoon was one of the many that brought the gavel down on the week’s proceedings. Sold out shows were the order of the day yesterday with many tickets available at half price. Thankfully audiences have access to a range of theatrical offerings throughout the year, but there is something special about a festival and I am sure there will be many who will begin the countdown to the 2016 with anticipation today.
l www.capetownfringe.co.za