David Fick - Page 14

The opening of Leonard Bernstein's TROUBLE IN TAHITI in Cape Town this week was cause for great excitement and justifiably so. Bernstein's opera gets less of an airing both here and internationally than it should and the debut collaboration between Cape Town Opera and the Fugard Theatre is also a relationship that promises great potential.

Bovim Ballet is back on stage in Cape Town with a return reason of QUEEN AT THE BALLET. One of the project-based company's flagship productions, this 'rock ballet' was first seen in 2004. A tribute to Freddie Mercury, the show delves into the life of the enigmatic frontman of Queen, using the timeless songs that Mercury introduced during his career at a springboard.

'This ain't your grandma's ballroom,' the posters say. And although BURN THE FLOOR might not be the kind of ballroom dancing my grandmother grew up seeing (or dancing, for that matter), I would hazard a guess that she would enjoy the show just as much as I did.

There is honour among thieves, they say. In JUST BUSINESS, playwright and self-styled cultural activist Mike van Graan says otherwise. A reworking of an earlier play, HOSTILE TAKEOVER, the text offers to the audience an investigation of corruption in business and the game of survival that seems to be the driving force behind it all.

A decade ago, many disdained the idea of adapting classic plays in the South African idiom. The juxtaposition of THE BLUE IRIS at the Fugard Theatre and MIES JULIE at the Baxter Theatre offers a new opportunity to explore that debate, by no means a new one in the context of South African theatre.