ANTAKALIPA

Midnight in Parys: A Meditation on Life, Death, Compassion and the Human Heart There are evenings in the theatre that entertain. There are evenings that impress. And then there are evenings that stay with you long after the curtain call, following you home, lingering in your thoughts, demanding reflection and conversation. Midnight in Parys , the latest play by South African theatrical giant Paul Slabolepszy, belongs firmly in that final category. Presented at the intimate Studio Theatre of Pieter Toerien's Montecasino Theatre complex and directed with precision and sensitivity by Bobby Heaney, this production is a triumph of writing, performance and humanity. Starring Bianca Amato and Paul Slabolepszy himself, Midnight in Parys is at once thoughtful, witty, heartbreaking and profoundly compassionate. It is a play that refuses easy answers while offering something perhaps even more valuable: understanding. For those fortunate enough to have atte...

The Return of Elvis du Pisanie: Memory, Masculinity, and the Theatre of Becoming There are performances that entertain, and then there are performances that inhabit you —that sit in your chest long after the lights dim, long after the applause dissolves into the Johannesburg night. The Return of Elvis du Pisanie , written by Paul Slabolepszy and brought to life in a riveting one-man tour de force by Ashley Dowds at Theatre on the Square, belongs firmly in the latter category. This is not merely theatre—it is excavation. Of memory. Of masculinity. Of identity in post-apartheid South Africa. And above all, of the fragile, often fractured human spirit trying to reconcile boyhood dreams with adult realities. Ashley Dowds does not simply perform this play—he conducts it. Alone on stage, he becomes an entire world: a son, a father, a dreamer, a broken man, a child clinging to illusion, and an adult confronting truth. His performance is nothing short of an acting masterclass. Ther...

Bitter Winter The tedium of going to castings, you risk it all and gain nothing for your efforts, you saw people who are just like you in the waiting room, some even prettier than you, willing to do the same job, what's done is done. The casting director lady has seen it all, the frizzling enthusiasm of youth vanish. First couple of months, you had the spirit, but lately you just coming in to mark the register, until you win or lose hope. You thought you did your best and that you'd get the part, so you wait and wait for a call that never comes. Indifference, it's like you don't exist. Agitated and flooding with anxiety, you offered to shoot the scene again but were met with "No thanks, that's not necessary, we have everything we need". There's nothing you can do, it's not in your hands. They decided against you the moment you left the room, meanwhile you're living in hope, painting dreams in your mind that never come to fruition. B...