WOZA CAPE TOWN
Woza Cape Town
Join us at the Woza Cape Town Experience, an evening where you will savour a new cullinary experience in an evening meal of Cape cuisine drawing on the multiplicity of its cultural tastes and influences.
Then sit back and enjoy Woza Cape Town, an exhilarating celebration of life in Cape Town today. A refreshing story told in drama, poems, song and dance that lifts your heart, inspires your soul and makes your feet want to get up and dance.
“Enhancing the narrative, is a cast of clearly dedicated dancers, made up of youths of various ages, who so naturally and passionately relate this story through a mixture of modern pantsula, swing, jazz and contemporary dance, among other well choreographed pieces. Costumes are a visual treat which enhance the performances.” – Review by Zayaan Davids
It is a lively and entertaining story of three youngsters from diverse backgrounds in Cape Town. Each song or poem reveals various aspects of their lives and personalities and their different experiences of Cape Town.
However, the joy of Woza Cape Town is the energy and life conveyed in the music and styles in the dancing - it is a show filled with songs, poems and dances, all from South Africa.
From wherever you come, Woza Cape Town will speak to you. It will make you think, sometimes it will make you cry, but it will certainly make you aware of the joy and fact that this rainbow could only be made in South Africa.
A truly Capetonian experience…
A review of Woza Cape Town!
by Zayaan Davids
Desolate fields are all that remain of District Six today, barely hinting at the remnants of an area that was once so alive with cultural diversity and vibrancy.
Thanks to Woza Cape Town!, a collaborative production of poetry, dance and song, presented by The Dance Project, the significance of the South African struggle and historical sites like District Six are once again being revived. Brian Notcutt’s glorious adaptation of works by celebrated South African poets make for enchanting story-telling, and is so encompassing of central cultural obstacles that Cape Town still struggles to overcome today.
Woza Cape Town! tells the gripping tale of three young men navigating their way through a culturally and racially torn South Africa. The play is specific to a Cape Town experience, as each youth relates his heartrending tale of deprivation. Mlingane Poswayo plays a black youth from the Khayelitsha township, Kyle Alexander plays a coloured youth from the notorious Cape Flats - which is still today infamous for being gang and drug-ridden, and Sean Aldridge plays the young ‘whitey’ whose wealth and privilege fails to compensate for his busy parents’ absence from his lonely life. These young actors so movingly capture the spirit of their distressed characters who struggle to rise from the bleakness of their personal circumstances. Their similarities become apparent as they are all linked by the universal human struggle for happiness.
Enhancing the narrative, is a cast of clearly dedicated dancers, made up of youths of various ages, who so naturally and passionately relate this story through a mixture of modern pantsula, swing, jazz and contemporary dance, among other well choreographed pieces.
Costumes are a visual treat which enhance the performances.
Amidst an array of plays currently examining pressing South African issues of past and present, it is refreshing to be treated to the authenticity of this portrayal of Cape Town by passionate Capetonian youths. Despite barely living through the actual era of apartheid, the actors, dancers and singers capture the essence of their roles and believably relate their plights.
WOZA! is creatively staged at The Theatre in the District, in Chapel Street’s church hall. This charming venue not only pays tribute to Cape Town’s heritage, but adds to the charm and ambience of the evening. The quaint venue, timeless subject matter and distinctly Cape-Malay cuisine that precedes the show, is testimony to an excellently constructed collaboration of all things Cape Town, and make for a memorable evening of entertainment and reflection. Hopefully more productions will follow in the innovation and passion of this one