Marion Holm’s Die Kaap is Weer Holms, a title derived from the Afrikaans idiom “die Kaap is weer Hollands”, offers comic relief at the KKNK festival.
Likewise, Nataniël Vertel is a show that will highlight eight of the singer’s best/ favourite stories in song (the thing he really loves doing best). So that, too, is an option for those who want to catch their breath with something that will blow them away – with lightness.
Comedy as a genre embraces all the regulars at the fest. And then there are a few surprises, like Shaleen Surtee Richards with a solo show titled Die Woema van ’n Windgat Wyfie, which she describes as “madam in full flow while letting rip and speaking her mind”. That’s how we know her. Another veteran, Eric Nobbs, returns with ’n Kat in die Duiwehok directed by Sandra Prinsloo. The play stars and was written by Nobbs who explores ageing, something the baby boomers are obsessed with. Suddenly you turn 60 and understand that ageing isn’t for sissies. But do you grab it by the gut, or sit back and take everything thrown at you?
Joannie Combrink is another actress who has been back on stage for the past few years. This time she teams up with two young colleagues, Hannah Borthwick and Roeline Daneel, in Wessel Pretorius’s Sandton City Grootdoop where the title almost predicts what’s to follow.
Directed by Wolfie Britz, it’s about an actress mother and two daughters who meet in the mecca of commerce to talk shop rather than do some serious shopping.
Three familiar comedic names that don’t necessarily pop up on the Afrikaans circuit are Marc Lottering, Rob Van Vuuren (although the two have been in Oudtshoorn before) and the screamingly funny Nik Rabinowitz.
All three will be doing their latest shows, with Lottering sweeping in as Captain Lottering Speaking bringing all his familiar characters along; Van Vuuren will rely on Twakkie to save the day with WhatWhat, which won the Standard Bank Ovation Prize at Grahamstown in 2013; and Rabinowitz will What The Eff? as he zones in on what is happening around us right now.
Similarly, on the dance stage, things are hotting up after dance dwindled to nothing these past few years.
There are two offerings by the Underground Dance Theatre: Askoop, described as a decadent dance/cabaret performance; and Bok, which takes a new look at Nijinsky’s Afternoon of a Faun from a contemporary South African context. Both of these are challenging works which is what contemporary dance is all about today.