World City Guide

Culture

There are many cultural influences at work in Cape Town, which makes the city a particularly interesting one for the arts. Like many other South African cities, Cape Town has endured a turbulent cultural ride over the past decade, as the cultural voice of the city has slowly made itself heard over the clamour of inequality and long-standing prejudices. The large cultural organisations so reminiscent of the past have successfully diversified and everywhere small projects and artistic developments pop up to thrill and entertain all manner of culture vultures – hilarious comedy acts, large-scale operas, art exhibitions, intimate theatre performance and poetry readings can all be found in a number of venues. Cape Town is growing daily as a culturally rich and diverse city.

Cape Town’s two biggest contributions to South African culture have probably been in the fine arts and in the unique Cape jazz style, epitomised by musicians like Abdullah Ibrahim, Basil ‘Manenberg’ Coetzee and Robbie Jansen.

The city’s two major cultural centres are the Baxter Theatre Centre, Main Road, Rondebosch (tel: (021) 685 7880; fax: (021) 689 1880; website: www.baxter.co.za), and the Artscape Theatre Centre, 1–10 DF Malan Street, Foreshore (tel: (021) 410 9800 or 421 7839; fax: (021) 421 5448; e-mail: artscape@artscape.co.za; website: www.artscape.co.za).

All major cultural events can be booked through Computicket (tel: (083) 915 8000; e-mail: info@computicket.com; website: www.computicket.com). Tickets for Artscape events are available through Artscape Dial-A-Seat (tel: (021) 421 7695).

Listings information can be found in the Friday editions of the daily press – The Cape Argus and Cape Times. These are both subsidiaries of The Independent and listings also can be found online (website: www.tonight.co.za). The bi-monthly Cape Etc and monthly SA Citylife publications are excellent sources of information and listings for Cape Town’s nightlife. The Mail & Guardian (website: www.mg.co.za) also has cultural listings for Cape Town. Other websites with listings include www.artthrob.co.za, www.ananzi.co.za and www.capetowntoday.co.za. A good online events guide is www.capetownevents.co.za.

Music: The Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra (tel: (021) 410 9809; fax: (021) 425 1009; e-mail: capephil@artscape.co.za; website: www.capephilharmonic.org.za) performs regularly at the City Hall, Grand Parade (tel: (021) 465 2029), and the Artscape Theatre Centre (see above), as well as various other venues – details are published in the local press. The Artscape Theatre Centre (see above) opera house features regular opera from the groundbreaking Cape Town Opera (tel: (021) 410 9800; fax: (021) 425 3623: website: www.capetownopera.co.za), famous for successfully ‘Africanising’ the classics. Both the Artscape and Baxter venues (see above) host classical music, jazz and popular music. Regular performances also take place at the South African College of Music, off Woolsack Drive, Rosebankl (tel: (021) 650 2626; fax: (021) 650 2627; e-mail: hodmusic@protem.uct.ac.za; website: www.uct.ac.za/depts/sacm).

Further afield, the Spier complex, Lynedoch Road, Stellenbosch (tel: (021) 809 1100; e-mail: info@spier.co.za; website: www.spier.co.za), one of the oldest wine cellars in the country, is now well established as one of the Cape’s major performing arts and music centres, largely thanks to the annual summer festival taking place from November to March.

Theatre: Besides the Baxter and Artscape venues (see above), which both host regular and varied theatrical productions and stand-up comedy acts, the Theatre on the Bay, 1 Link Street, Camps Bay (tel: (021) 438 3301; fax: (021) 438 1998; e-mail: info@theatreonthebay.co.za; website: www.theatreonthebay.co.za), is the city’s other major theatre, staging popular and contemporary theatre, as well as cabaret and music.

Dance: Cape Town’s premier contemporary dance company, Jazzart (tel: (021) 410 9848 or 9828; fax: (021) 419 1907; e-mail: dance@jazzart.co.za; website: www.jazzart.co.za), stages regular performances at Artscape Theatre Centre (see above) and other venues. Visiting national and international dance and ballet troupes frequently appear at the Baxter and Artscape venues (see above). The Cape Town City Ballet (tel: (021) 650 2400 or 4672; fax: (021) 650 3527; e-mail: info@capetowncityballet.org.za; website: www.capetowncityballet.org.za) is based at the UCT School of Dance, Lovers Walk, Rosebank and performs at the Artscape Theatre Centre opera house and the delightful Maynardville Open-Air Theatre, Maynardville Park, corner of Church and Wolfe Streets, Wynberg; tickets for both venues are available through Artscape-Dial-a-Seat (tel: (021) 421 7695).

Film: Although Cape Town has a huge film and television industry, locally made feature films mainly come out of Johannesburg. The South African film industry, although packed with new talent, is yet to receive the necessary funding and attention it deserves to truly take off. Nevertheless, one of the city’s favourite pastimes is cinema. Every major shopping centre has a cinema complex showing mainstream movies, either run by Ster-Kinekor (tel: (082) 16789 (ticketline); website: www.sterkinekor.co.za) or Nu-Metro (tel: (086) 110 0200; website: www.numetro.co.za), with advance booking through Computicket (tel: (083) 915 8000; e-mail: info@computicket.com; website: www.computicket.com).

Ster-Kinekor outlets are located in various shopping centres, including Blue Route, Tokai Road and Cavendish Square Commercial, Cavendish Square, Dreyer Street, Claremont. A 17-screen Nu-Metro Multiplex is located at Canal Walk, Century City. Nu-Metro also provides the big-screen thrills at Victoria Wharf, V&A Waterfront and N1 City, Louwtjie Rothman Street, Goodwood. Arthouse and independent films are equally well catered for, with Ster Kinekor’s Cinema Nouveau outlets located at Cavendish Nouveau, Cavendish Square, Dreyer Street, Claremont and V&A Nouveau, Kings Warehouse, V&A Waterfront.

The Labia Theatre, 68 Orange Street (tel: (021) 424 5927; e-mail: labiatheatre@labia.co.za; website: www.labia.co.za), is the city’s oldest and most Bohemian arthouse movie theatre. The movie house has recently expanded and now has a second two-screen outlet on Kloof Street. Another popular arthouse spot is the Independent Armchair Theatre, 135 Lower Main Road, Observatory (tel: (021) 447 1514).

Although foreign film crews flock to Cape Town, it seldom appears as a definite setting for a movie. The city and scenery are often used, although masquerading as another location. For instance, those familiar with the white-sand beauty of Long Beach will easily recognise the beachscape (particularly the famous wreck) when watching some scenes of David Lean’s classic Ryan’s Daughter (1970), which is set in Ireland, although partly filmed in Cape Town. Most recently, the remake of the Poseidon Adventure (1972) is currently being filmed in the city. Possibly Cape Town’s most famous and internationally known son, the Shakespearean actor Sir Anthony Sher, was born in Sea Point. Other actors associated with the city include Sir Nigel Hawthorne, who was raised in Cape Town and studied at the University of Cape Town, and cult actor Richard E Grant, who also attended university in the city.

Cultural Events: There are many cultural, sporting and trade events taking place throughout the city all year round (website: www.capetownevents.co.za). Among the scores of food and wine festivals, flower shows and dog shows, there is the annual summer Maynardville Shakespeare Season, which takes place at the Maynardville Open-Air Theatre, Maynardville Park, corner of Church and Wolfe Streets, Wynberg (tel: (021) 410 9800), in January and February. One of the most popular annual cultural events of the season is Kirstenbosch Appeltiser Summer Sunset Concerts (tel: (021) 799 8783 or 8620; website: www.kirstenbosch.co.za), held at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens every Sunday 1730-1830, from late November to early April. Crowds of over 5,000 picnickers start gathering from early afternoon, to enjoy an eclectic evening of classical, ethnic, jazz and popular music. The March Cape Town Festival (tel: (021) 465 9042; fax: (021) 465 9043; e-mail: info@capetownfestival.co.za; website: www.capetownfestival.co.za) celebrates the diversity of the city’s people through music, dance, drama, film and other cultural and religious events featuring local artists and personalities. The oldest and arguably the most quintessentially Capetonian cultural event is the Kaapse Klopse (also, somewhat controversially, known as the ‘Coon Carnival’). This carnival originates from the days of slavery in Cape Town, when the Malay slaves paraded through the streets on the Tweede Nuwe Jaar (Second New Year). The event is largely the mainstay of Cape Town’s ‘Cape coloured’ community, who dress up in elaborate costumes and paint their faces to march in a noisy, jazzy, jubilant and colourful parade through the streets of Cape Town, past the Grand Parade to Green Point Stadium, where prizes are awarded for the best costumes. This is a particularly pertinent event, seeing as it stood the test not only of time but also of apartheid oppression.

Literary Notes: Ever since Sir Francis Drake describe the Cape Peninsula as ‘the most stately thing and the fairest cape in all the whole circumference of the earth’, Cape Town has featured strongly in international literature. Most often, the city has been used as a metaphor for the system of apartheid and as a symbol of white oppression in black Africa. However, since the release of Nelson Mandela and the end of apartheid, Cape Town has become a symbol of freedom and democracy, with many of the major political works on South Africa (by figures such as Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu and Govan Mbeki) written in the city.

The writer who has, perhaps more than any other, defined South African literature is J M Coetzee – twice winner of the Booker Prize for literature. His novels, which include Disgrace (1999), Foe (1986), Waiting for the Barbarians (1980), The Life and Times of Michael K (1983) and Dusklands (1974), go to the very heart of the South African psyche and delve deep into the political and social landscape of the country. Coetzee was born in Cape Town and was professor of English at the University of Cape Town, before following the white South African trend of immigrating to Australia. Another literary figure at the university is André P Brink, three-time winner of South Africa’s premier literary prize, the CNA Award, twice shortlisted for the Booker Prize and winner of the 1980 Martin Luther King Memorial Prize. Brink’s novels include Looking on Darkness (1974), Rumours of Rain (1978), A Dry White Season (1979), An Act of Terror (1991) and Rights of Desire (2000). Jakes Mda is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning Capetonian poet, playwright and novelist, whose works include Heart of Redness (2000), She Plays With the Darkness (1995) and Ways of Dying (1995).

South Africa’s premier playwright, Athol Fugard, based his powerful two-man play, The Island (1973), on the political incarcerations on Robben Island. Lesser known internationally but the unofficial king of Cape Town musicals, David Kramer penned a magnificent memoir of Cape Town’s darkest moment when he captured not only the grief, hatred and confusion of the relocations but also the spirit and wonder of this tragic area in his musical collaboration with Taliep Petersen, District Six (1987). Kramer has also achieved acclaim for his musical Karoo Kitaar Blues (2002) and has exported his work to London stages.

Another lesser known Capetonian writer who has caught a remarkable and perceptive glimpse of the city is Menán du Plessis: her novels, Longlive! (1989) and A State of Fear (1983) both focus on various lives, perceptions and personal struggles in a politically turbulent Cape Town during the 1980s. On a more factual level, in A Mouthful of Glass (1998), Dutch writer Henk van Woerden documents with clarity and remarkable sensitivity the events that took place in Cape Town, when Demitrios Tsafendas stabbed the then Prime Minister, Hendrik Verwoerd, in the chamber of the South African Parliament in 1966.