Club Galaxy in Rylands is the main set for a Showmax Original neo-noir murder mystery, “Skemerdans”, currently filming in Cape Town.
A organic, hyper-local mix of Afrikaans and English, the 13-part half-hour series will launch on Showmax in 2021, with a Cape jazz soundtrack guaranteed to take you back to your time on the Galaxy dance floor as you try to figure out who killed The Oasis jazz club owner Glenn Fortune, and why.
After the murder of Fortune, his club becomes the centre of a power struggle between two brothers, a scorned widow and an organised crime syndicate.
SAFTA winners Kevin Smith, Ilse Klink and Brendon Daniels lead the cast as Glenn, his wife Shireen and his brother Trevor respectively.
Ceagan Arendse is the black sheep of the family, Warren; Trudy van Rooy is Glenn’s prodigal daughter, Jessie; and SAFTA nominee Vinette Ebrahim is the formidable Fortune family matriarch.
Good Hope FM Happy Hour host Carl Weber also stars as one of the Adams brothers, mob bosses who are busy buying up the strip around The Oasis. Bongo Mbutuma plays his partner in crime and brother from another mother.
The murder mystery’s ensemble cast also includes Fleur du Cap winner Mbulelo Grootboom, Fleur du Cap nominee Ann Juries, Danny Ross, Kim Syster, Carmen Maarman, Sanda Shandu and Cape Town musician Alistair Izobell.
2019 Standard Bank Young Artist Amy Jephta and director of the upcoming feature “Barakat” is executive producer and showrunner on this 13-part series, co-directing alongside Ephraim Gordon. Nagvlug Films is producing.
Filming is taking place along Voortrekker Road and at Club Galaxy , arguably Cape Town’s most famous club since it opened in 1978, which is doubling as The Oasis and the Adams brothers’ strip club The Velvet Room.
SAFTA-winning DOP Chris Lotz is shooting mostly between dusk and dawn, leaning into the shadows, silhouettes and neon lighting that make the locations so perfect for a noir series.
“We wrote the story with Galaxy and Voortrekker Road in mind,” says Jephta.
“We wanted to take these completely local settings and give them the same treatment we associate with LA noir, to make them feel as cinematic and iconic.”