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Using comedy, music, narrative and difficult personalities, The Cheap Show "is an honest look at South African culture".
WE can't all be rich ... but we can all be cheap, touts the latest offering at the Joburg Theatre Complex, The Cheap Show.
It's an honest look at South African culture, according to the playwright, Greg Viljoen, featuring four actors and a financially challenged keyboardist. It makes for an exciting mix of sketch comedy, musical theatre and plot-driven narrative, he says.
The Cheap Show, which has been nominated for a Naledi Award for musical comedy, runs from 14 July to 1 August at The Fringe, at the Joburg Theatre Complex. Using comedy, satire and music, it takes an in-depth look at the struggle of the actors and the keyboardist to put the finishing touches to a make-or-break production.
With their difficult personalities and guilt about the "virtually homeless" car guards outside, the late night rehearsal turns out to be much more troublesome than anticipated.
The team
Emma Peirson is the producer, director, choreographer and writer. The writer and director of Defending the Cavewoman, she was nominated for two Vita Awards for best new performer in a comedy for Playboys, and best new script for Defending the Cavewoman.
Viljoen, writer, producer and actor, is better known for his red Speedo in the Windhoek Lager advertisement. He is also known for his role in Big Okes.
Musical director and actor Saranti Reeders has an extensive musical background - audiences will recognise her from Liriekeraai. Actress Vanessa Frost has been nominated twice for Vita Awards. She has her comedy chops, having appeared in productions like Sex, Lies and Leopard Crawl and Dangerous Liaisons.
Craig Jackson received the Vita Award for best performance by a new actor in Deon Opperman's Playboys; he has also starred in Agatha Christie's Mousetrap.
And then there is comedian Siyabonga Brian Radebe, who has starred in television shows and featured in A Place Called Home and Home Affairs, among others. Apart from theatre and television, he has performed at comedy club nights at the Blues Room in Sandton and Cool Runnings in Melville.
The Cheap Show is on at The Fringe, from 14 July to 1 August. Tickets cost from R83 and shows are scheduled to start at 8pm. No children under the age of 12 will be allowed in. Latecomers will only be allowed in when there is a break in the performance.
The Joburg Theatre Complex is at the top of Loveday Street, in Braamfontein.
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