It was ace! We rented a house in a much more central location this time, which, despite some ups and downs was a great choice. The house itself was… strange.  Let’s just say that we spent some time being scared and some time sleuthing around what was going on in the family.

We saw an interesting mix of music, drama, physical theatre, and stuff that can’t quite be categorised. Some highlights:

D-Seven

A cappella group, a snippet from their twitter profile sums them up nicely:

Good looks, great tunes, and great guys

A mix of old stuff and new stuff. Lots of fun!

Love @ First Fight

Despite some dated ideas about gender roles, this musical drama comedy dance thing was very entertaining and very funny. The husband and wife team that perform have got great on-stage chemistry and are very appealing to watch. Ahem.

[Review of show at KBT]

Dirt

One man show about a three friends (and a dog) on a road trip to bury a fourth. Brilliantly acted, brilliantly observed.

James Cairns is fantastic, and is definitely added to my “see everything he does” list.

Boo!

Rocking monkipunk (new discovery to me). These guys know how to rock the party. If they pop up in Cape Town again, I’m there.

I grabbed a CD after the show, and it’s great and I will be playing it a lot, but Boo live are fantastic, and not to be missed. Chris Chameleon has an amazing voice and stage presence. And is super camp .

Seriously?

Ian “Ewok” Robinson does some kind of mish mash mush of rapping and spoken word beat poetry thing and is great with it and at it. Check him out!

SONGS FOR THE NORTH

All-star cast jazzing
Strappy sandals, strap-on Sax
Nordic giants awed

THE STRANGE CASE OF HESTER CILLIERS

Jo’burg whodunit
Victorian hijinx abound
Beware LARP table

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S RAIDERS

Shakespeare turns in grave
“You! Be my body-double!”
Puns as Punishment

A TASTE OF MILLEFEUILLE

Frenchman, dressed in black,
Spinning, twirling, and chewing,
He spat himself out

ISABELLA

Graveyard Theatre
They will steal your dance and more
Unless love prevails

VIVID AFRICA

From Cape to Cairo
Deep rhythm infects the crowd
They go over: twice!

QUACK

The advert said clowns
Didn’t see them, had eyes closed
Not sure what happened…

CAPE ACADEMY OF PERFORMING ARTS

Too young for the stage?
Full house: mums, dads, perverts, and us
Give them a few years

GHOST STORY

The Devil wrote it
Effects outshine the Am-Dram
Abusive cycle

INNER PIECE

Enter secret cult
Chant at flashing trapeze boy
Then it gets meta

RUMP STEAK

Man plays restaurant
Slice, dice, chop, drop, mind the cow!
Oui chef, non chef, merde!

ZOO STORY

New York park benches
Is friendly crazy harmless?
This may not end well

CRACKS

Christie on acid
Sex and drugs and rock and roll
Whodunit? Dunno.

ZEBRA

Black and white Russians
True visual spectacle
Maybe missed the point?

BEWITCHED

Hansel, Gretel, witch
Feminist guilt makes you rant
But wow, they can sing!

STILTED

Breaking the fourth wall
Man, on stilts, on trampoline
It summed up our fest

1. So, we had a nice big breakfast at the Old Cape Road Guest House in Kynsna, paid our bill, and set off for Grahamstown. Woo!
   Half an hour later Jo’s phone rings.
   Turns out A left his credit card there.
   Since we were still pretty close we turned around and jetted back to get it.
   Hilarity and much mockery ensued for the rest of the drive, as you would expect.

   We arrive at GTown and I empty my pockets. And find the keys from the Guest House still there.
   Hilarity and much mockery ensued, and I called the OCRGH to tell them and apologise.
   They were lovely about it, and were happy for us to drop off the keys on our return journey.
   While I was on the phone, they asked did A|&C happen to have the keys to their room?
   Yes, they did.
   Hilarity and much mockery ensued.
   #key #fail #doh #argh.

2. The house we stayed in in GTown was quite nice, but it did have its quirks.
   Like not being able to use the geyser and the cooker at the same time.
   And having two very cute cats that clearly weren’t allowed in the house (normally. They snuck in while we were there. We couldn’t stop them, officer, really!).
   And having to go through one bedroom, then another, to get to the bathroom & toilet.
   And having a cross-stitch Last Supper by the dinner table.
   And having no water on the Sunday morning that we left (although, to be fair that was the whole of GTown. We just managed to scrape together enough water for coffee, Saints be praised! Saints of Coffee, that is.)

3. Turns out the best cure for a bad case of The Grumps (spread across four people) after a long drive is liberal application of a combination Nando’s burgers, pies, and a mothertruckload of gin. And some tonic.
4. Our nearest cafe / restaurant type thingy was called Angels (or something similar).
   The food was consistently very tasty, but very, very, slow.
   The tables didn’t have number of the edge, but bible references – the Bob 4:17 bit. Not actual quotes, thank god (oh ho).

5. Unfortunately we didn’t go to House of Pirates (Ar, it be a pizza place, and we all wanted steak), but we did go to The Long Table (great food, unusual set up (read menu on board and eye-fondle food at front of hall, pay cashier for selected foodles, wait for cooky people to dish up, microwave, then call out your name.), Cow Moon Theory (very Obs-like – house with lots of little rooms, run by a hippy. We got invaded by Hare Krishna peeps who stayed for about ten minutes that felt like about seventeen hours. Tasty Wraps. CMT, not the HKs), Calabash (meaty, Xhosa hot pots, cosy), and we even made Chuck (which is a story of its own – a tale of butchers and bricks.)

Executive Summary: forgotten keys; linear layout; gin and gin; bible tables; tasty meat.

]]> http://comovedy.com/2009/07/24/grahamstown-odd-bits/feed/ 0 http://comovedy.com/2009/07/24/grahamstown-part-the-first/ http://comovedy.com/2009/07/24/grahamstown-part-the-first/#comments Fri, 24 Jul 2009 09:52:04 +0000 stv http://comovedy.com/?p=78 Continue reading →]]> [I'd better start writing this before everyone forgets that we ever went!]

The drive up to Knysna (where we were stopping over for the first night) was lovely. 100km or so each of driving, sunny weather, pretty clear roads.
We stopped at Blue Crane farm-eating-place and mostly had coffee and sandwiches deep-fried, and then toasted, in butter. Tasty!
Also saw a border collie puppy. I like puppies.

We had a brief chill once we’d arrived in Kynsna, then strolled over to the Waterfront for a couple of bottles of very reasonably priced wine (one of the (few) benefits of not being in Cape Town) *hic* to watch the sun set.

We’d seen a fun fair on our stroll to the WF, so we decided to investigate on our way back, since we had some spare time.
Yowzapaloozaville!
It was very fun, and filled with actual local people, not posh nobs visiting their holiday houses.
Highlights:

• the creaking that all the thirty year old equipment made (the rides, not the riders);
• C being a nutjob and going on the seashells seventeen times (approximately);
• chairs-on-chains thing, with twisting and pushing (go Parfait!);
• being felt up at the R10 a pop Ghost Caravan (still not sure it wasn’t just A all along);
• bumper cars!

Dinner after that epic was at the fantastic Firefly (quiet at the back, Whedon fan-peoples).
Opulent. It felt opulent. Or maybe opiate. Anyway, it was great.
Deep red walls, comfy chairs, very tasty food.
Rich and exotic. And that was just the waiter! Ahem.

]]> http://comovedy.com/2009/07/24/grahamstown-part-the-first/feed/ 4 http://comovedy.com/2009/07/14/grahamstown-phone-photos/ http://comovedy.com/2009/07/14/grahamstown-phone-photos/#comments Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:36:17 +0000 stv http://comovedy.com/?p=70 (Mostly not from Grahamstown) Presented without comment, in chronological order.



]]> http://comovedy.com/2009/07/14/grahamstown-phone-photos/feed/ 5