Previous stage productions
Oscar Wilde's classic, The Importance of Being Earnest
Directed by Barbara Basel
7-15 November 2014
With Debi Hawkins as Jane Kitzinger Melanie O'Conner as Sheila Molyneux Norman McFarlane as Colin Molyneux Brian Notcutt as David Kitzinger |
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25 July - 2 August 2014
Directed by Coleen van Staden 
Photography by Lynda Jennings of LyndaJ Photography
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Take an idealistic architect whose mission it is to revitalize a city slum, add his loyal wife who wants to do good at every turn, mix it up with needy neighbours who are the unworthy recipients of kindness, and have award winning playwright, Michael Frayn deliver it in an elegant script and you end up with a play that is clever, funny, thought provoking ,and highly entertaining.
David, Jane, Sheila and Colin invite you to take a peek into their lives. You may even recognize your neighbours in this… or better yet, yourselves! As the architect's plans for the development begin to falter and the local council’s demands become more and more impossible, he has to admit in the end “it’s not art it’s mathematics,” and his design ends up having to include “two socking great skyscrapers”, a design that is in total discord with everything the architect stands for. The trials and tribulations faced by architects are handled with humour and empathy in this well-crafted play, but it is the drama about dreams not realized, loyalty and betrayal, kindness and the futility of good intentions in this richly layered piece, that has invited world-wide rave reviews for Michael Frayn’s Benefactors. Although set in Britain, the theme of Benefactors will resonate strongly with our City and its citizens as we celebrate our World Design Capital 2014 status and consider design and its role in social and economic change. |
14-22 March 2014
Directed by Wendy Goddard David and Jane Kenway have a very happy marriage living in a flat in Wavertree Mansions with their five year old son Billy and their stack of unpaid bills. David is an actor and Jane looks after their home, an idyll of peace and harmony … Until into this oasis of perfection appears one mouse and an upstairs neighbour who in the space of two glasses of wine turns Jane (and the absent David’s) world upside down! Meet the characters who complicate David and Jane’s life beyond belief, from a crazy lighting “expert”, wielding lighting stands with disastrous results, to a film director who speaks only Italian! Oh, and let’s not forget a talkative middle-aged lady who is convinced that she’s witnessed a murder and sends for the police. And then there’s the rather sweet, but slightly camp, advertising agent and David’s uncle, the Brigadier who certainly won’t stand for any nonsense. 
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Photography by Lynda Jennings of LyndaJ Photography
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Alfred Hitchcock's thriller
ROPE Directed by Alistair Duff 20 November to 7 December 2013 THE PERFECT MURDER?
Based upon a play by Patrick Hamilton, it was adapted by Arthur Laurents for Alfred Hitchcock’s famous movie. "Rope" was based upon a true story that rocked polite society in the 1920s. In order to prove their superior intellects, two talented, well-to-do young men commit "the perfect crime" to illustrate the superman theories of Nietzsche, taught to them by their schoolmaster, Rupert Cadell. A supper party is then held at the boys' swank uptown New York apartment - the guests invited are friends and family of the victim, as well as their former teacher Rupert.Events build up to a shocking climax. In true Hitchcock fashion, the tense, edgy script provides a taut, entertaining and nail-biting piece of theatre. |
Photography by Lynda Jennings, LyndaJ Photography
They thought that murder was an art ... and that they would get away with it ...
With Richard Higgs, Gary Green, Barbara Basel, Wayne Ronné
Lizanne Peters, John McConnell, Eve Carr and Gavin Werner. |
Director Barbara Basel’s deeply-felt interpretation of “The Road to Mecca” by Athol Fugard opens at the Masque Theatre, Muizenberg, on Friday 26 July 2013. The combination of Basel’s directing style and three strong actors will give the audience new insights into this popular Fugard play.
Helen Martins, a sculptor of works in glass and cement (which she refers to as her Mecca), is at a crossroads in her life. She feels like an outsider in her own community of Nieu Bethesda. Only her long-distance friend Elsa offers emotional support and acceptance. In the character of the dominee we see some of the rigidness of the local community, at odds with his own feelings for Helen.
Martins embodies the sense of alienation some of us experience in a society that misunderstands what is unfamiliar and sees it as threatening. Today her Owl House and its fascinating sculptures are famous.
The play takes place during the course of one evening in which all three characters bare their souls in an attempt to decide on Helen’s fate. While ”The Road to Mecca” is a drama, there are many light-hearted and touching moments in the play.
Helen Martins, a sculptor of works in glass and cement (which she refers to as her Mecca), is at a crossroads in her life. She feels like an outsider in her own community of Nieu Bethesda. Only her long-distance friend Elsa offers emotional support and acceptance. In the character of the dominee we see some of the rigidness of the local community, at odds with his own feelings for Helen.
Martins embodies the sense of alienation some of us experience in a society that misunderstands what is unfamiliar and sees it as threatening. Today her Owl House and its fascinating sculptures are famous.
The play takes place during the course of one evening in which all three characters bare their souls in an attempt to decide on Helen’s fate. While ”The Road to Mecca” is a drama, there are many light-hearted and touching moments in the play.
Left to right: Sue Cunningham (who plays Miss Helen), Pamela Burger (as Miss Helen's friend, Elsa) and David Muller (as Marius Byleveld).
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Director: Barbara Basel
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Athol Fugard, one of South Africa’s leading dramatists, turned 80 last year and in June 2011 was awarded a lifetime Achievement Tony Award in New York in recognition of his life’s work.
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Some of Helen Martins’ sculptures, which can be seen at the Owl House in Nieu Bethesda.
In the Camel Yard, scores of statues – many of them wise men, camels and owls – face East, towards a Mecca of sorts. This is where a simple decision, to embellish her environment, was to grow into an obsessive urge to express her deepest feelings, her dreams and her desires. She left behind a startling and powerful vision of her world, one that is larger than life. |
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A psychological thriller by Henrik Ibsen
by arrangement with Oxford University Press Directed by Richard Higgs 15 - 23 March 2013 Desperate times call for desperate measures: just how desperate can people become, when the simplest actions lead to an alarming tangle of consequences?
The beautiful and headstrong Hedda Tesman, recently married to a boring academic, believes she has found a way to make her life more interesting when some remarkable coincidences give her the power to manipulate the people around her. But is she really the one pulling the strings? Still regarded as one of the greatest psychological thrillers on stage, and one of the greatest dramatic roles for an actress, Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler is a groundbreaking classic. Stagings of Hedda Gabler have always been controversial, and the MADS production promises to be no exception. So many possible questions and motives remain hidden behind the action, that the director is forced to choose which of the darker passions would have led to the final, tragic outcome of the play. No character remains untainted, every possible motive is somewhat sordid: adultery, ambition and addiction twist and curl together with the tragic beauty of Art Nouveau wallpaper. |
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The Cast (L to R): Luke Brown, Philippe Pringiers, Tamara Richards, Brendon Spiro, Kelly Kowalski. Seated: Pilar Pringiers. Insert: Jana Botha.
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Alan Ayckbourn's
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The Breakfast Club
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Noël Coward's comedy
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Nick Hall's
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"Eat Your Heart Out" director, Tom Byrne
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Above: Actor Paul Herrmann (right) playing an irate patron, trying to get the waiter, Charlie's attention (Rudy Gibbons)
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The cast of "Eat Your Heart Out" (back ltr) Tobie Beele, Roseanna McBain, Lynda Jennings, Paul Herrmann, Wayne Ronné, Rebecca Pistener, Daniel Enticott, (front) Rudy Gibbons & Michaela O'Toole
Copyright © 2013 Muizenberg Dramatic Society, Cape Town. All rights reserved.