Wessel Pretorius Play RENAISSANCE to Play Return Season at Alexander Upstairs

RENAISSANCE, written and directed by Wessel Pretorius (DIE ONTELBARE 48, I LOVE YOU SALLY FIELD, KLARA MAAS SE HART IS GEBREEK), will return to the Alexander Upstairs Theatre this October with its original cast of Jazzara Jaslyn (TWEESPALT, THE WHITE WHORE AND THE BIT PLAYER, EVERY BEAUTIFUL THING), Len-Barry Simons (CALLING ME HOME) and David Viviers (KLARA MAAS SE HART IS GEBREEK, THE FINKELSTEINS ARE COMING TO DINNER, SALT).

A South African expat obtains a working visa and becomes a night watchman in the National Gallery in London. Finding himself despondent and disillusioned at life as a freelance actor in a foreign country, he is bored, broke, single and still not much wiser. He shares his stories of growing up gay in a small South African town, discovering his passion for theatre and moving to the city, as well as those of his relationship with his boyfriend and a year abroad where he fell in love with a refugee. On his night patrol, some artworks come to life and start telling their stories too. Their stories all come to bear on on the life of our protagonist as their semiotics filter through his imagination and allow him to re-evaluate art in the long hours that he spends watching over it.

RENAISSANCE questions the purpose and power of art as well as 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 23 October - 4 November 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.

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