It’s Valentine’s Day this month. Just a warning: the moneygrubbers will be out to get you for the sake of lurve. Fuk’em. You’ve got better things to spend your long-awaited January pay cheque on (if you’re lucky enough to get a pay cheque, that is, you 20 percenter, you). Don’t fall for the chocolates and the awful clunky coffee mug. Don’t even think about red roses. Grow your own, damnit. Go underground rather. Think: What would Wednesday do?
Queer/sexy/undeground
Strap yourself on – I mean in – for an evening of seduction and a delectable nipple – I mean nibble – on snacks and cocktails as eight of our premier artistes tantalise you with their talents and tickle your… tastebuds. It’s the Valentease at The Art of Duplicity, 38 Buitenkant Street on 10 February at 6pm. Age restriction is 21 and tickets cost from R450 via Quicket.
The queer POC (People of Colour) collective have been hosting Femmes and Thems for the last two years as a platform for “music, vibe and DJ enthusiasts through events, outreach, and workshops aimed at empowering queer people in music and providing them with access to materials to flourish”. It sounds very earnest but we’re betting that within the community they’ve nurtured are mense who know how to parteee. Two dancefloors and underground attitude. Get yours at Artezian on Bree Street from 4pm on 10 Feb. Tickets just R50 – R100 on Quicket.
You want a mindblowing jol that epitomises the hashtags #Party #Art #Sex (drugs and a certain kind of rock ‘n roll at your own behest), then you want to be at the D.O.G Tale of Two Cities as Cape Town and Berlin get all sixty-nine. It’s a dirty little klub nacht at the dirtiest dive in town, but with international flair. Yes, it’s at Evol, and the artists are going back to back for a double dose of pleasure. We’re talking #twinning #doublepenetration and #241, and that’s the official version. Get blown from 9pm ‘till late on 11 February. Evol is at 69 Hope Street and tickets are from R85. Just so you know, it’s organised by Death of Glitter.
You know how like in New York’s Greenwich Village there’d be places where artists would try things out. New songs, poems, skits, stand-up, whatever. And it’s all in the glow of sixties nostalgia and myth? Well, it’s happening here, in Obs, at the Theatre Arts in an old church on the corner of Wesley and Milton Street. Soapboxing is a monthly event for performers of any kind to test out their work, and some of it might be contagious. If you’re an artist DM @soap.boxing on Instagram to get a slot (only 10 available so don’t dally) and if you’re audience, you may just see the start of something great.
Theatre
Louis Viljoen is back after vloeking all the bastards, trash talkers and conspiracy theorists out during the dark days of closed theatres. His new play, The Grass Widow opens at the Baxter’s Masambe Theatre tonight (31 Jan) and runs until 11 Feb. Expect revenge, curses, filthy language, and general diabolism from one of Cape Town’s most excellent playwrights. It stars Emma Kotze and is on at 7.30pm with Saturday matinees at 3pm. Tickets cost R150, book via baxter.co.za
Hansard, a brilliant play played brilliantly by Graham Hopkins and Fiona Ramsay is on at the Baxter’s Golden Arrow Studio every night at 8pm except Sundays, with Saturday matinees at 2pm. We give it a full review on page 4. Tickets cost R200 with bookings via baxter.co.za
Aiyya, we’re licking our lips for this one. Oedipus at Colonus: #aftersophocles. Yes, the title’s quite a mouthful, but man, you’ve got Andrew Buckland and Jennie Reznek and Faniswa Yisa along with Magnet Theatre graduates who are the chorus of homeless occupiers on land where Oedipus seeks to be buried. Obviously they become entangled in Oedipus’s rather fucked-up story. Now imagine Qondiswa James as the writer and Mark Fleishman as director. Look, when you have names piled up like this it can be a train wreck, but it’s unlikely. More likely is this play is going to soar and you’re going to be on the wing with your head in the clouds and your feet skimming Hades. This play has more promise than clap in a Roman brothel. Not to be missed. At the Baxter Flipside from 3 to 18 Febuary at 7.30pm with Saturday matinees at 2.30pm. Tickets cost R160, book through baxter.co.za
And then, Hamlet, with puppets, the play that received adulation at the the National Arts Festival in Makhanda, which you can read about on thecritter.co.za. “These puppets blew an unending magical breath into the fire in my belly,” wrote Nondumiso Msimanga, while Arno Cornelissen caught the political echoes: “Our ‘royal family’, the ANC, is crumbling, the effects visible on ground level. The powerful are too caught up in their own ambition to pay attention to the people who have entrusted them to rule.” In all, a spectacular success under Janni Younge’s direction. It is on from 22 Feb to 11 March in the Baxter’s Pam Golding Theatre. Tickets cost R150, bookings through baxter.co.za
Music
There was a time when every second music gig you went to, Dave Ledbetter would be there, on stage, mostly on guitar but also sometimes on keys (okay okay, we went to a lot of jazz in the ‘90s). There was a reason for that: Dave was a great jazz muso and so he was seriously in demand by band leaders. He also did his own band leading. Dave is now dead, unfortunately, but his legend, forged in Cape Town, lives on. And candles will be lit at The Baxter on 6 Feb with a tribute show to get the stars dancing. There’s an incredible line up of muso’s, basically the cream of a deep well of talent. Among them are Kevin Gibson, Buddy Wells, Marcus Wyatt, Hein van de Geyn, Ronan Skillen, Romy Brauteseth, Tina Schouw, Stanislav Angelov, Lynne Poulsen… And Mark Sampson will be host and MC for the night. If you were able to walk before 1990, you should not miss this gig. Show starts at 7.30pm, get your ticket from Webtickets for R150.