New Wessel Pretorius Play, RENAISSANCE, to Play Alexander Upstairs

RENAISSANCE, written and directed by Wessel Pretorius and performed by Len-Barry Simons, Jazzara Jaslyn and David Viviers, is coming to Alexander Theatre Upstairs this June.

In RENAISSANCE, a bored, broke and single South African expat obtains a working visa and becomes a night watchman in the National Gallery in London. As we follow his night patrol, well into his first year on the job, some artworks come to life and start telling us their stories, too. Their stories all have a bearing on the life of our protagonist as their semiotics are filtered through his imagination. He shares stories about growing up gay in a small South African town, finding himself despondent and disillusioned at life as a freelance actor in a foreign country, his relationship with his boyfriend and finally the year abroad where he fell in love with a refugee and came to re-evaluate art while spending long hours watching over it.

The question of the purpose and power of art, its private and personal relevance to those who find catharsis and meaning in it, the role of the artist and storyteller, and the holiness of beauty all come into play in this ironic but endearing satire of modern man's relationship to art.

RENAISSANCE runs at the Alexander Upstairs from 5 - 10 June at 21:00 nightly. Tickets are available from the Alexander Bar website, with seats costing R90 if booked and prepaid online or R100 if paid on collection at the bar. For telephone enquiries, call 021 300 1652. The Alexander Bar, Café and Theatre is situated at 76 Strand Street in the Cape Town city centre and can be followed on Facebook and Twitter.

To post a comment, you must register and login.