Gig Guide: Here’s what’s happening in SA theatres this weekend

If you’re a lover of theatre, here are some shows you can watch this coming weekend. From comedy shows, to drama and even music – there are a slew of options for South Africans who would like to visit their nearest theatre this weekend.

Here is a selection of some of the shows happening this weekend.

The State Theatre [Tshwane]

Sophiatown

Sophiatown is a lively and memorable drama with music that is being revived with a new, young cast under the experienced eye of director Aubrey Sekhabi to delight today’s audiences with its timeless music.

Sophiatown came to be known as the ‘Chicago of South Africa’, and a place where shebeen queens, gangsters, politicians and black and white ‘Bohemians’ rubbed shoulders and traded drinks in a heady atmosphere fizzing with music, style and rebellion.

This vibrant community produced some of South Africa’s most famous musicians, artists, writers, journalists, and politicians as urban African culture formed here during the repressive 1940s and 1950s.

• Genre: Musical Drama
• Age restriction: 16+
• Date: 7 – 28 May 2023
• Price: R150

Don Laka – 50th Anniversary in Music

Don Laka & Friends 50th Anniversary Celebration Concert. Don Laka & Friends live performance.

• Genre: Music
• Age restriction: All
• Date: 27th – 28th May 2023
• Price: R200-R300

READ NOW: Nothing strange about EFF play showing at SA State Theatre, says artistic director

The Baxter Theatre [Cape Town]

Shukumani! (Rise Up)

Drawing from productions such as Izityhilelo Zobuze, Love Psalms and Umzila ka Moya, Lingua Franca will be travelling with its audiences to ancestral dwellings, romantic realms, political landscapes and deeply societal grounds.

Lingua Franca is back with an amalgamation of their previous productions under the title, Shukumani! (Rise Up).

The exclamation is not a form of disrespect but a command to the audience to wake up, stand up and rise from whenever they have been and come to experience the newness of Lingua Franca after a very difficult global pandemic which is the Covid.

Over the years, Lingua Franca has positioned itself as a movement that utilises words and sounds to heal. To most people it has created therapeutic spaces.

• Genre: poetry
• Age restriction: No under 16’s
• Date: 25 May – 27 May 2023
• Time: Evenings at 7:30pm
• Matinee at 2pm
• Duration: 75min. (No interval)
• Full price: R100
• Block bookings 10+: R80
• Students: R80

Prev Reddy – Mummy’s Boy

From living alone, to finding out Madea has been related to the Royal Family. Prev hilariously takes audiences through what it’s like navigating life in a post-covid / post- Queen Elizabeth world as the ‘Mummy’s Boy’ he is -but, this time, there is a plot twist… his alter-ego, Aunty Shamilla will be gracing the stage on this tour, for what will be her farewell performance.

This tour highlights all Prev’s achievements in his career up to this point, where he has always shared the spot light with his alter-ego, Aunty Shamilla (who portrays his mom).

Shedding the Aunty Shamilla character is bittersweet but Prev believes the world is ready to be introduced to the real – Prev Reddy. We cannot wait to see what he has in store for us and even though this will be the last time we get to see Aunty Shamilla, Prev will always be a … Mommy’s boy!

• Genre: Theatre
• Date: 27 May 2023
• Times: 7pm0
• Duration: 90min (No interval)
• Price: R200

Joburg Theatre [Johannesburg]

Ladysmith Black Mambazo Concert

The legendary Ladysmith Black Mambazo will kick off their SA Legacy Tour on the 24th of May at Joburg Theatre. The five time Grammy Award winning isicathamiya group, that has existed for six decades.

• Genre: Music
• Date: 24-28 May 2023
• Time: 7:30pm
• Price: R130-R350

Unite Africa Show

A musical show that connects Africa as one, offering our audience great music that’s filled with powerful messages of awareness. Through this music and dance, we aim to remind ourselves about who we are as Africans and what we are capable of in order to make Africa a better place once again.

• Genre: Music
• Date: 26 May 2023
• Time: 7pm
• Price: R100

Soweto Theatre [Johannesburg]

Interrogation Room-Secrets of apartheid

The play Interrogation Room focuses on the testimony of Themba Maseko at Truth and Reconciliation Commission regarding the interrogation and subsequent disappearance of suspected terrorist Vusi Ndlovu.

He was taken in by special branch operatives after bomb making materials were found in his room. He is subsequently taken to a secret location where he is tortured and interrogated by Lieutenant Piet De Kok and Sargeant Themba Maseko.

The story of Vusi Ndlovu takes the audience on a roller-coaster of emotions as they try decide whether his actions were justified or not.

• Genre: Theatre
• Price: R100 (R80 for students)
• 23 May – 28 May 2023

Seven Colours Sunday

Seven Colours Sunday is a food and lifestyle event aimed to stimulate local economy within the creative industry. It’s all about good food, good music and great people. It’s going to a fun filled day with kids activities, live performances, food and Arts/craft stalls.

• Genre: Market
• Date: 28 May 2023
• Time: 12:00
• Price: R70

The Playhouse [Durban]

Cion: Requiem of Ravel’s Boléro

This intrigue of dance and music that spins on the weight of mourning was conceived and choreographed by Gregory Maqoma who combines movement with his two inspired source materials: Zakes Mda’s novels Cion and Ways of Dying, with French composer Maurice Ravel’s iconic classical show piece, Boléro.

• Genre: Dance
• Date: 25-27 May 2023
• Time: 19:00
• Price: R100

Ubuntu Bill

Written and directed by Michael Broderick (Jakob, The King of Broken Things), this compassionate one -hander – which speaks to those who look at life through the prism of their disability – relates how, when the skies are clear, Bill can hear the moon calling.

Then he climbs onto his bicycle and goes as far as he can up into the atmosphere – because, you see, he has a yearning to live weightless, and not be afraid of falling.

He’ll tell you of his relationship with the moon, and his hopes that those who have been forced into corners, can make use of the light that reflects off him, to find their way through the pain of being different.

A supply of tissues is recommended for the tender hearted in the audience.

• Genre: Theatre
• Date: from 26 May 2023
• Time: 7pm
• Price: R100