Finding your way around a programme of 95 productions staged over 18 days can be complicated – but we’re here to make it easy for you. Here are 10 shows to whet your appetite in our Sneak Peek series of Cape Town Fringe shows.

  1. Co-written by Thobani Nzuza and Kagisho Tshimakwane Boy Ntulikazi (Kwethu Productions, KZN) is a solo physical work directed and performed Nzuza with live guitar accompaniment by Nhlanhla Zondi. Described by Jamal Grootboom as “an exploration of displacement and its far-
    reaching implications within a rural black South African context”, the play won the 2017 Best of Zabalaza Festival.
  2. Bunny and the Magic Hat – SHRiNKray Puppets combines the art of puppetry with the mystery of magic to entertain the whole family. This non-verbal tale of a Bunny desperate for a carrot carries subtle and endearing message of never giving up.
  3. Slick & Sleeve’s Butlers & Bloopers is interactive murder-mystery theatre with multiple endings. The show revolves around a group of actors who try frantically to put on a murder-mystery production, with fate throwing them as many curve balls as she can.
  4. Written and directed by Mandla Mpanjukelwa, Confessions features Luke Buys in a solo performance which tells the story of a young gang member Kz, who is the last man standing of his gang. The work explores what drives humans to committing grave, unforgivable atrocities to each
    other.

    In ‘Die Draadsitter’, Jason Hartman fuses hip hop, poetry, comedy and philosophy

  5. Mitchells Plain funny-man, Justin-ray Stoffels, is a cultural comedian whose material has performed at the Jive Funny Festival and Comedy Central. His Crazy Country Comedy is sure to have audiences in stitches.
  6. In Die Draadsitter, Hakkiesdraad Hartman (Jason Hartman) draws inspiration from his Khoi heritage a performance fusing hip hop, poetry, comedy and philosophy.
  7. In Dirty Laundry En Vuil Wasgoed, written and directed by Jean-Pierre Lesch, an unknown man stumbles into a laundry with a bleeding forehead and a gun in his pocket.
  8. Musa Hlatshwayo’s DODA (Mhayise Productions) is a hard-hitting dance theatre duet that highlights and questions black masculinities and patriarchy in South Africa.
  9. Makukhanye Art Room presents a double bill of drama Broken: Revisited and Uqhawukil’ujingi. Broken is the story of three girls that are damaged in different ways. Uqhawukil’ujingi explores the broken connection between the Nguni people, exploring the effects of the African diaspora and the displacement of an ancestry.

 

Updated 7 September to exclude a cancelled show