Cape Town Fringe in Full Swing until Sunday at Alexander Bar

The Cape Town Fringe is in full swing and has passed the halfway mark, with audiences enjoying the vibe at the Cape Town City Hall and at satellite venues like the Alexander Bar, Café and Theatre over the past week. Many treats are still in store for Capetonian theatre lovers before the curtain falls on this year's Cape Town Fring on Sunday. The following shows will all be brightening up the stage Alexander Upstairs Theatre, which will celebrates its second anniversary very soon with a special show and party.

HAPPY DAYS, by absurdist playwright Samuel Beckett, deals with people's attempts to ward off existential isolation through endless chatter and rituals. In the play, the protagonist Winnie represents the colonial woman in a patriarchal, conservative South African culture. In a multi-lingual and multi-cultural country, where South Africans are trying to communicate through barriers, words fail. Active listening becomes difficult, while loneliness and confusion are experienced within contemporary culture and identity as people try to pass the time amicably until our mortality merges with reality. With a visually smothering dress, director Zena Wood adds visual stimulation to the experience of isolated entrapment which the character, Winnie, experiences. HAPPY DAYS is performed on 2 October at 10pm, 3 October at 8pm and 5 October at 4pm.

LORD OF THE FLINGS mixes some of the greatest movies ever made with SA politics. This must-see comedy is a satirical parody spoof telling the story of South Africa through hit movies like LORD OF THE RINGS, STAR WARS, the HARRY POTTER and TWILIGHT franchises and THE MATRIX. In LORD OF THE FLINGS, a young hobbit from Lower Earth must become a Wizard Jedi, destroy an evil ring of power and defeat the evil Darth Duma. This powerful, inspiring and brilliant show is written and performed by Andrew Simpson, the creator of GHOST STORY and TO KILL A KOEKSISTER, and has performances on 3 October at 2pm, 4 October at 10pm and 5 October at 12pm.

THE FRONTIERSMEN takes place in the competitive world of property development. Two men go to extreme lengths to secure a lucrative real estate deal and to dig themselves out of a financial hole. As darkness begins to fall and paranoia sets in, they find their ideals challenged, their morality shaken and their blood-lust slowly increasing. THE FRONTIERSMEN is a dark tale about land, blood and good old South African greed. The script, by award-winning writer Louis Viljoen, is fast-paced, profane and unsettling and is complemented by the direction of acclaimed theatre maker, Greg Karvellas. Added to that is a powerhouse team of actors: Nicholas Pauling and Mark Elderkin. THE FRONTIERSMEN will unnerve, agitate and entertain audiences on 2 October at 4pm, 3 October at 10pm and 4 October at 2pm.

CREATING THEATRE WITH YOUR STORIES takes a look at the stories its audiences are burning to tell. Through sharing everyday stories, no matter what they are, possibilities are ignited: the potential to learn, grow and be transformed by life experiences to the chance to experience the interconnectedness of all people and the world's shared humanity. The Bonfire actors and musicians take a snapshot of the audience memebers' lives - inspirational, painful, happy, sad or anything in between - and transform it immediately into live theatre. In this way, each person's uniqueness is honoured while at the same time affirming and strengthening connections between people as a community. Audiences can come and tell their stories, or hear others tell theirs, on 2 October at 12pm and 8pm, 3 October at 12pm and 4 October at 4pm.

When the Fringe ends, the shows will go on perennially at the Alexander Upstairs Theatre, starting with Lynita Crofford's new one-woman comedy, VIOLET ONLINE, directed by Megan Furniss, and the first Athol Fugard play, HELLO AND GOODBYE, with Marlisa Cooper-Doubell and Stephen Jubber, directed by Chris Weare. Bookings for the Cape Town Fringe shows can be made on the Cape Town Fringe website, at the City Hall up until 30 minutes prior to the performance time of the show, or at the door at the Alexander Bar, Café and Theatre if the show is not sold out.

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