There are many 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 organizations so reminiscent of the past have successfully diversified and everywhere small projects and artistic developments pop up to thrill and entertain everyone - hilarious comedy acts, large-scale operas, art exhibitions, intimate
theater performance and poetry readings can all be found in a number of venues.
Cape Town's two biggest contributions to South African society 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 centers are the
Baxter Theater Center, Main Road, Rondebosch (tel: (021) 685 7880;
www.baxter.co.za), and the
Artscape Theater Center, 1-10 DF Malan Street, Foreshore (tel: (021) 421 7839;
www.artscape.co.za). Tickets for Artscape events are also 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 (
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 (
www.mg.co.za) also has cultural listings for Cape Town. Tickets for all major cultural events can be booked through the national booking system
Computicket (tel: 08391 58000;
www.computicket.com), which also has kiosks in the large shopping malls including Victoria Wharf at the V&A Waterfront
Music: The
Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra (tel: (021) 410 9809;
www.cpo.org.za) performs regularly at the
City Hall, Grand Parade (tel: (021) 465 2029), and the
Artscape Theater Center (see above), as well as various other venues - details are published in the local press. The Artscape Theater Center (see above) opera house features regular opera from the groundbreaking
Cape Town Opera (tel: (021) 410 9807;
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, Rosebank (tel: (021) 650 2626;
www.uct.ac.za/depts/sacm).
Further afield, the
Spier complex, Lynedoch Road, Stellenbosch (tel: (021) 809 1111;
www.spierarts.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 centers, largely thanks to the annual summer festival taking place in the large outdoor amphitheater from November to March.
Theater: Besides the
Baxter and
Artscape venues (see above), which both host regular and varied theatrical productions and stand-up comedy acts, the
Theater on the Bay, 1 Link Street, Camps Bay (tel: (021) 438 3301;
www.theateronthebay.co.za), is the city's other major theater, staging popular and contemporary theater, as well as cabaret and music.
Dance: Cape Town's premier contemporary dance company,
Jazzart (tel: (021) 410 9848
or 9828;
www.jazzart.co.za), stages regular performances at
Artscape Theater Center (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 2400/4672;
www.capetowncityballet.org.za) is based at the UCT School of Dance, Lovers Walk, Rosebank and performs at the
Artscape Theater Center opera house and the delightful
Maynardville Open-Air Theater, Maynardville Park, corner of Church and Wolfe Streets, Wynberg; tickets for both venues are available through
Computicket (tel: 0839 158 000;
www.computicket.com).
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 favorite pastimes is cinema. Every major shopping center has a cinema complex showing mainstream movies, either run by
Ster-Kinekor (
www.sterkinekor.co.za) or
Nu-Metro (website:
www.numetro.co.za), with advance booking through
Computicket (tel: 0839 158 000;
www.computicket.com). Increasingly, the cinemas are installing swipe machines for credit cards to receive pre-booked tickets. On one day of the week, usually Tuesdays, tickets are half price.
Ster-Kinekor outlets are located in various shopping centers, including Blue Route, Tokai Road and 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. Art house 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 Theater, 68 Orange Street (tel: (021) 424 5927;
www.labia.co.za), is the city's oldest and most bohemian art house cinema, which shows more off-beat gritty movies and has a bar and you can take drinks in to the auditorium. The cinema has a second two-screen outlet on Kloof Street that shows more mainstream films. Another popular art house spot is the
Independent Armchair Theater, 135 Lower Main Road, Observatory (tel: (021) 447 1514; website:
www.armchairtheater.co.za).
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 recognize 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, in 2006, the remake of the
Poseidon Adventure was 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.
Literary Notes: Ever since Sir Francis Drake described 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 and winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize in 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). Both
Before I Forget (2005) and
Praying Mantis (2006) were both shortlisted for the best book on Africa in the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. 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.
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