Amanda Strydom performs 30th-anniversary edition of her beloved play
Westdene is home, but the stage is where she finds her light. Join Strydom for a cabaret like no other at Monte Casino.
Amanda Strydom is a familiar name for theatregoers who enjoy bespoke and thought-provoking performances.
In Westdene, where she has lived for 32 years in the same house with her husband Tony, she is an institution.
Currently preparing to take the stage at Monte Casino for her most loved performance of State of the Heart, Strydom is looking forward to a longer stretch than she is used to.
The cabaret was written in 1993 and covers the history of South Africa from the 30s to the 70s and is a story about love and prejudice and how love overcomes it all. It has attracted cult-like status as a one-woman show beautifully accompanied by Coenraad Rall on piano.
The play is described as covering a time when ‘women had to know their place, peroxided their skins (because freckles were considered common) and men wore braces and smoked Springboktwak and Boeremeisies had to marry Boereseuns’.
It is a love story between two unlikely people in an incredible piece of musical theatre.
Strydom describes her appreciation of seeing new faces at each show, and unbridled joy at familiar faces who return to view it time and again. “I cannot believe that 30 years later I am still doing this performance, it’s incredible. Some have come so often they know the songs and sing along, it’s wonderful.”
Comprised of English, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Dutch, French and German, Strydom says, “You don’t need to know individual words, so don’t be put off. Body language and the music mean the ending is universal, everyone understands it.”
Where: Pieter Toerien’s Montecasino Studio Theatre
When: July 19 – August 6
Cost: Up to R200
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