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Simon sums it up: day four
Written by Simon Cooper: SPREAD THE WORD PEOPLE.Not a day of rest ! Five shows in all.Some Festivals ago two of us were persuaded by the younger version of a now well known theatre person, who draped herself provocatively over our table in the booking tent, that a healthy dose of sex at 10h00 on Sunday morning was a good idea - not, I hasten to add, in any context other than a show she ...
Three Little Pigs blow the house down
Upon entering the theatre, you cannot look James Cairns in the eye, in the same way you would not be able to look Richard Mdluli, Bheki Cele or Radovan Krejcir the eye. There's too much malevolent power there.He paces behind barbed wire welcoming every person to the slaughter with intense, barely contained malice while good cop Pretorius conceals his sadism behind a paternal belly and skew ...
Sie Weiss Alles: A great work
Review: Sie Weiss AllesJames Cairns and Taryn Bennet in a script written by James. It is no secret that I am head over heels with James Cairns as a performer. I won't miss anything he does. (Dirt is one of three shows at the festival that I would be prepared to see again.) I also think that Taryn is gorgeous. So it was a no-brainer that I would enjoy their performances but, I must ...
Sie Weiss Alles hits the spot
Review: Sie Weiss AllesAs the Russians are approaching Berlin, an SS officer, who was a theatre critic (yes, a rather amusing touch that: the Nazi theatre critic, but, he does only do clerical work) before the war, is interrogating an actress about the whereabouts of her father, who, it is suspected, has gone to the Americans. They rehearse the “Get thee to a nunnery … ” scene from ...
‘Alles’ must be seen
Cairns Can Do No WrongReview: Sie Weiss AllesIt’s official: I’ll see anything James Cairns is in. The man is astoundingly talented and I can’t say enough good things about his performances. Now I can add his writing to the mix too.Despite being happy to see Cairns even if he were reciting extracts from the OED, it was a particular pleasure to watch him perform in Sie Weiss Alles – ...
Dirt is a dead cert
Review: DirtThe boys hit the dirt to lower their friend into it – digging up the dirt on each other as they go about it – in this skilfully crafted one-man show about friendship.Cairns is fabulously funny in his highly entertaining observation of multiple characters, and a dog. Or two.From the minute he started Cairns had the audience right with him … they just loved it. -- Jane Stone
Simon says: A 10/10 for Dirt
Grahamstown was quite full this weekend but the start of the 2nd week drop away will likely kick in on Monday before numbers pick up again about mid-week (hopefully). Most performers I have spoken to are reasonably happy but with a thread of technical difficulties running through everyone's comments. The time is here when the festival organisers should look at the quality of techs on the ...
Dishing up the Dirt
I haven't seen the latest incarnation of James Cairn's one-hander Dirt, but I saw it at the Kalk Bay Theatre in Cape Town last year.This is what I wrote on www.westcapenews.com at the time, and if anything, it has probably only got better:Stripping the pretensions of theatre away to deliver rock solid acting is what we have come to expect from James Cairns, who after some years of being ...
The Wayne Rooney of acting
If there was a World Cup of performing artists, James Cairns would be Wayne Rooney. His ability to dribble a narrative through the vagaries of ten characters, and then shoot the story into closure without you second-guessing the play equals, in fact probably surpasses, the fancy footwork and game-making abilities of his northern football counterpart. Also, this comparison lark is not entirely my ...
JC le Rad
I was treated to another James Cairns extravaganza with his solo show, The Sitting Man, and he doesn’t disappoint. Word must have got out about how good he is because the venue was packed. (Except, of course, for the vacant seat in front of me, which is always, always, reserved for Late Tall Guy. The one next to me is for Wine-Gum-Eating Lady). Cairns’ gift is for recognizing a type of ...
