Spirits, tempests, magic, moonlight
Maynardville promises another enchanting season
I always feel my heart skip a beat when I see ‘Maynardville’ in an email’s subject line. It is that time of year again, when we start thinking about the upcoming season of shows at Cape Town’s magical wonderland of an outdoor theatre. Arrive early and enjoy a picnic in the park (you can order a picnic basket with your tickets or order from one of the food trucks).
From the Maynard Cast & Creative Announcement:
Get ready for an extraordinary summer under the stars! The 2025 Maynardville Open-Air Festival is back with an enchanting line-up, headlined by Shakespeare’s The Tempest from January 31 to March 8.
The Tempest’s cast is led by the legendary Antoinette Kellermann as Prospera, with Albert Pretorius as Caliban and Jane de Wet as Miranda. The production – directed by the visionary Sylvaine Strike – promises a spellbinding journey through romance, revenge and illusion.
Prospera conjures a storm to shipwreck her treacherous brother, Antonio (David Viviers) and King Alonso of Naples (Brent Palmer) who had her banished from their kingdom. Stranded on the island, they become pawns in Prospera's plan to restore her daughter Miranda's (Jane de Wet) honour and reclaim her dukedom.
Unbeknownst to her and with the help of the ethereal Ariel (Daniel Lasker), Prospera's loyal spirit servant, who creates much of the island's magic, Prospera manipulates events in Miranda’s favour, even as she falls in love with Alonso’s son Ferdinand (Jefferson Lan).
The cast is completed by Tankiso Mamabolo playing both Sebastian and Trinculo, Siya Mayola as Gonzalo and Len-Barry Simons, Naoline Quinzin and Lungile Lallie as the Spirits.
Costumes and set design is by Niall Griffin and lighting design by Oliver Hauser. The music is composed by Wessel Odendaal and sound design is by David Classen.
Feeling confused? Here is a synopsis of The Tempest from The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust: Prospero uses magic to conjure a storm and torment the survivors of a shipwreck, including the King of Naples and Prospero’s treacherous brother, Antonio. Prospero’s slave, Caliban, plots to rid himself of his master, but is thwarted by Prospero’s spirit-servant, Ariel. The King’s young son Ferdinand, thought to be dead, falls in love with Prospero’s daughter, Miranda. Their celebrations are cut short when Prospero confronts his brother and reveals his identity as the usurped Duke of Milan. The families are reunited and all conflict is resolved. Prospero grants Ariel his freedom and prepares to leave the island.
Still confused? Fret not, just book your tickets and submit to the magic … it all makes a special kind of sense in the moonlight.
Maynardville line-up:
Tour de Tchaikovsky (January 22 & 23): Two nights of Tchaikovsky’s classics, with Gerhard Joubert performing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, and Ethan Lawson presenting Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations for cello, both accompanied by the talented Elna van der Merwe on piano.
Stormy Weather – A Symphonic Weather Report (January 24 & 25): The Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra takes the stage, led by Brandon Phillips for a dramatic journey through musical expressions of nature. Narration by John Woodland.
Cape Town Opera (February 9): A programme of extracts from Shakespeare-themed operas performed by Cape Town Opera House Soloists, Young Artists, and both the Chorus and Children’s Chorus, also featuring international opera star Clint van der Linde, accompanied by Jan Hugo.
Sunday in the Park with Sondheim (February 16 & 23): Jonathan Roxmouth will star in this musical tribute to the legendary Broadway composer, accompanied by the Vivox Choir and The Winelands Philharmonic Orchestra.
Snippets of a long love affair with Maynardville:
Magic in the moonlight at Maynardville
Maynardville’s wonderful outdoor stage is under the trees, with the wind always playing a starring role. Tonight, it brought the temperature down a little from the day’s 25-27 deg C and sent us Capetonian snowflakes scurrying for our knee rugs. It made me smile that everyone was all bundled up in their winter coats and beanies to ward off the slight cool breeze on this, the first day of autumn.
Adding to the chill, the show opened with Frederick Ashton’s charming twilight ice skating scene, Les Patineurs. Written in the 1930s about the elegance of ice-skating, it was first danced by none other than Margot Fonteyn.
Depictions of thrills and spills on the ice add a layer of challenge for the dancers and amusement for the audience. Not so much a story as a showcase for some challenging and wonderful dancing, most notably tonight by Francisco Gomez as Blue Boy.
Part II, Mikhail Fokine’s Les Sylphides, is the quintessential “romantic reverie”, with sylphs, or spirits, dancing in the moonlight with a poet to the music of Frederic Chopin.
Les Sylphides is frequently cited as the first “abstract” ballet, one that is simply about mood and dance. There could hardly be a better place or evening for such indulgence of magic.
And another dreamy night:
The dreamiest of midsummer nights
In a time of counting our blessings (we survived Covid, the electricity stayed on while I was cooking dinner), Geoffrey Hyland’s powerful, playful Midsummer Night’s Dream provided a night of easy blessings and magic, mirth and laughter.
It was with delight and relief that we returned to Maynardville, Cape Town’s beloved outdoor theatre in Wynberg, after a terrifyingly long wait through the pandemic and beyond. And what a Midsummer Night’s Dream it was.
Hyland adds plots and twists to the twisted plot, most brilliantly by casting many of the actors in two roles – a cunning, clever, sometimes gender-crossing scheme that is always amusing, never confusing.
Sounds delightful to me!