Standing Room

Standing Room

What is on in Cape Town this week

I started this because I kept missing things. A friend would mention a show on the Sunday and it had closed on the Saturday, and the only place it had ever been written down was a poster stapled to a pole in Observatory.

So every Monday night I sit down with the emails, the posters I photographed on the way home during the week, and whatever the venues have bothered to put up. I write out what is actually happening. One line each. Where it is, when it starts, what it costs at the door.

Nothing here is paid for and none of it is a review. If I have sat through it I will say so. If I have not, I keep quiet.

— Nadia Booysen, every Monday since March 2016

This week

Monday 24 to Sunday 30 August

  1. Mon 24 · Poetry at the Bar, open floor after the first three readers — Alexander Bar, Strand Street · 20:00 · R80 at the door
  2. Tue 25 · Sirkel, new play, Afrikaans with English surtitles — Baxter Golden Arrow Studio, Rondebosch · 19:30 · R160
  3. Wed 26 · Quintet night, first of a four-week run — The Crypt, St George's Cathedral · 20:30 · R150
  4. Thu 27 · Salt and Wire opens, three painters out of Elsies River — blank projects, Woodstock · 18:00 · free, and there is wine
  5. Fri 28 · Goema and brass, six players, no interval — The Waiting Room, Long Street · 21:00 · R100
  6. Sat 29 · Die Laaste Bus, last show of the run — Kalk Bay Theatre · 20:00 · R180, or R320 with supper

Still running

Open all week, so there is no excuse

  • Water Rites, sculpture and video — Zeitz MOCAA, V&A Waterfront. Until 14 September.
  • The Long Room, four painters from the Cape Flats — A4 Arts Foundation, Buitenkant Street. Until 6 September, free.
  • Vrouens van die Baai, photographs 1974 to 1989 — Casa Labia, Muizenberg. Until 30 September, free.
  • The Understudy, extended a third time — Baxter Flipside, Rondebosch. Wednesday to Saturday, R190.
  • Tannie Doris sings the standards — Cafe Roux, Noordhoek. Sundays at 14:00, R190, book a table.
  • House trio, every Thursday since 2011 — Straight No Chaser, Buitenkant Street. R120, cash only.
A press release will tell you a production is bold, timely and unmissable. It will not tell you what time it starts, what it costs, or where to leave the car. I write down the second lot.
Nadia, on the emails

Worth the drive

All of it more than an hour out of town

  • Evita se Perron, Saturdays at 20:00 — Darling. Ninety minutes out, and it fills, so book.
  • Open-air season opens 3 October — Oude Libertas, Stellenbosch. Take a blanket, it turns cold at nine.
  • Two-hander season through September — The Drama Factory, Somerset West. R180, parking free and lit.
  • Sunday afternoon recitals through spring — Napier Kunstehuijs, Overberg. R90 with tea afterwards.

How this gets made

One person, one evening a week. I read what the venues send, I check the posters I photographed on the way home, and I phone the box office whenever a price looks wrong. It usually is.

No listing is paid for and none of them ever will be. If a venue advertises anywhere else in my life I will put that next to the entry. It has not come up yet.

How to get listed

Send it through by the Sunday before. I need the venue, the date and the time, the price at the door, and one line about what it is — not three paragraphs about the director's vision.

I list anything an ordinary person can buy a ticket to, from Atlantis to Grabouw. School productions and church halls included, and no, they do not go at the bottom.

Every week since March 2016 is still up, filed by month, back to the very first one.

Show the archive

Send a listing

Sunday night is the cut-off. If it is happening this week anyway, tell me and I will try.