Aviva Pelham Returns With Week-Long Season of SANTA'S STORY at Theatre On The Bay

Aviva Pelham will return with SANTA'S STORY to Theatre on the Bay for a week-long season this October, starting today. The moving, one-woman show depicts Santa Pelham's journey of courage, hope and inspiration through discrimination and heartbreaking losses and represents a triumph of the human spirit.

When 90-year-old Santa Pelham was persuaded to write her fascinating life story, it was intended that her memoir would be there for future generations. SANTA'S STORY became something more: a cathartic experience, an inspiration for song and now, a one-woman show performed by her daughter, opera diva, Aviva Pelham.

In a dazzling career spanning 45 years, Pelham has enchanted audiences, brightened stages and spread the love of song in South Africa and abroad. Here, she brings the moving text to life detailing her mother's journey from Germany, to Spain, to France and then to Africa, punctuated with wonderful live Klezmer music. Three superb Klezmer musicians play seven instruments with songs in Spanish, French, Hebrew, Yiddish and English.

Although SANTA'S STORY is a personal one, it aims to honour the millions of people who were murdered mercilessly in the Holocaust. It is a meaningful and unforgettable story of courage, hope, survival, inspiration and one very special woman.

SANTA'S STORY is originally directed by multi-award winning Janice Honeyman with designs by the acclaimed Mannie Manim and the late Dicky Longhurst. Having played seasons in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Helsinki, London and Cologne as well as in Santa's birthplace of Huerth, SANTA'S STORY was invited to be part of the First International Yiddish Folksbiene Festival in New York in 2015 and will soon tour to Australia.

SANTA'S STORY runs until 15 October with performances at 20:00 nightly and a Saturday matinee at 17:00. Tickets are available through Computicket or the Theatre On The Bay box office on 021 438 3301.