Packed Cape Town Fringe Festival Programme Awaits Mother City Audiences

Audiences are in for a three-week theatre spree when the Cape Town Fringe Festival opens on 21 September. The festival, which has spread into thirteen venues across Cape Town, is preparing to launch with a diverse programme of theatre, dance, comedy, illusion, music and family fare. Exploring slices of life from the perspectives of prisoners, gangsters, grandmothers, teenagers and rabbits, artists are evolving new realities, venting frustration, reflecting on loss and performing our collective catharsis with a programme that is also significantly Capetonian in its subject matter.

Cape Town Fringe manager Zikhona Monaheng comments on this year's line-up:

It's a programme rich with stories, many of them very personal stories, but collectively they echo the hearts and minds of most South Africans right now.

Tackling some pretty hectic issues, the theatre component of the Fringe, the biggest section of the programme, sees the Imbawula Theatre Company taking on the effects of the absent father in THE CHAMPION and Rhodes University's Drama Department exploring issues of loss, recollection and closure in the award-winning BAYEPHI. Written and directed by Wynne Bredenkamp, THE EDGE OF THE LIGHT is a dark and intense drama, flirting with magical realism that looks into a family with an abusive past through the only two women left in it.

Dryfsand's THE ALCHEMY OF WORDS captures the enigmatic Arnold Rimbaud's poetic world through puppetry, film and music. Drawing on his Khoi heritage, and storytelling, music and theatre, Hakkiesdraad Hartman opts out of fence-sitting in DIE DRAADSITTER, while Mpapa Simo Majola uses physical and lyrical vignettes and disconnected monologues to convey his confusion over life and death in THE FUNERAL. Sjaka S Septembir's poetry fuses with physical theatre and music in SKOP, an unusual look at love, sex and death directed by Sandra Temmingh.

Numerous family shows make for an ideal end-of-term or school holiday treat. These include the award-winning THE SINGING CHAMELEON about a hero who overcomes adversity; the magical KWATHI KE KANTI KALOKU, a celebration of Xhosa children's literature and indigenous music; and 2017 Best of Zabalaza Festival winner BOY NTULIKAZI, a work suited to teens of 13 and older, about the impact our life choices can make.

Dance productions, such as Indoni Dance Art Academy's IKHAYA, Musa Hlatswayo's DODA and the Cape Dance Company's extract from ELLIPSES, give exquisite food for thought, while the pure joy of dance is celebrated by 34/18 Youth Dance Company's MOMENTUM.

POLICE COPS IN SPACE, the sequel to the 2016 Cape Town Fringe smash hit, POLICA COPS, is sure to pack in the crowds with its frenetic physicality and absurd comedy. Venda-born Delft comedian, Mashudu, plans to bring down the house with his commentary on South African politics, taxi drivers and Omashonisa in RED CARD and Tats Nkonzo brings his self-deprecating Silver Standard Bank Ovation Award-winning production, PRIVILEGED, to the Fringe.

All the Cape Town Fringe venues this year are small independent theatre spaces or pop-up theatres, a format that assists Cape Town theatre-makers in promoting and celebrating the small theatres where they are. Shows move between venues but do not necessarily visit all venues. With the Fringe Club located at the German Club in Gardens, venues include the Alma Café in Rosebank, AFDA in Observatory, the Alexander Bar, Café and Theatre in the Foreshore, the Black Box Theatre in Delft, the Jolly Carp in Retreat, the Makukhanye Art Room in Khayelitsha, the Theatre Arts Admin Collective in Observatory, iThemba Labantu in Philippi, the Zolani Sport and Recreation Centre in Nyanga and the University of Cape Town's Little Theatre, Arena Theatre, P4 Studio and Bindery Lab on Hiddingh Campus in Gardens.

From NAKED GIRLS READING to hip hop emcee challenges, from BIG, BIG COMEDY to SOUL CONNECTION gospel concerts, from Khoisan poetry to gangster stories and children's literature - there is a smorgasbord on offer. Pick up a programme at Exclusive Books or visit the Cape Town Fringe website for the full line-up. Bookings can als be made through the website.

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