Stage: Damsels in Distress – Durban’s Rhumbelow Theatre, Cunningham Road, Umbilo
Final performance at 2pm today (Sunday, September 13)
REVIEW BY BILLY SUTER
DURBAN, don’t miss this excellent cabaret having its South African premiere this weekend at Durban’s Rhumbelow Theatre in Umbilo, where the final performance is planned for 2pm today (Sunday, September 13). It’s the best production I have seen at this theatre this year.
Not even three unscheduled, unfortunate and abrupt stops to the show last night – due to unforseen electricity problems – could dim the sparkle of this little gem of a production, nor the power of its star’s delivery. Little wonder, then, that the performance earned a hearty and well-deserved standing ovation.
Deftly directed by Vincent and The Tramp star Daniel Anderson, Damsel in Distress marks the first solo cabaret by young Kiruna-Lind Devar, who has already accumulated a wealth of experience in musicals across the country. It also marks another cabaret written by Amanda Bothma of East London’s award-winning Wela Kapela Productions company, who gave us the outstanding Vincent, and follows a similar theme of a mixed bag of popular and lesser-known songs carrying or commenting on a narrative.
Devar is a charismatic, confident actress and strongly impressive and versatile vocalist. She also happens to be the daughter of former Durban darling, actress Brenda Radloff, well remembered for leads in Playhouse productions of Evita and Oliver!, among many others in the 1980s.
Devar, whose dad was the late composer Siva Devar, also of Durban, arrives not only with a great pedigree but great successes of her own, recent starring roles having included daughter Sophie in Mamma Mia and Roxie Hart in Chicago. She wows throughout in this slick new cabaret which has her playing Griselda, a reclusive librarian and avid book lover, who has secretly lived for four years in the library at which she works.
The vast range of books and authors that interest and influence Griselda, lend opportunities for armchair travel – and songs as diverse as I Love Paris, Bang Bang, The Windmills of Your Mind, People, At Seventeen and numbers from the musicals Into the Woods, Cabaret, Cinderella and New York, New York.
During the narrative that unfolds in front of three hung backdrops depicting a library interior, there is a hint of potential romance, some dance, flourishes of comedy – Brush Up Your Shakespeare is a big highlight – and a skip down darker paths that recall moments from a past Griselda would rather forget…
Backed by a fine pianist and the show’s musical director, Samantha Riedel, who is positioned stage left, Devar also moves the plot along with songs that include Billy Joel’s Lullaby, the evergreens La Vie en Rose and Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps, and the rousing You Don’t Own Me, among others.
Highly recommended and so good it is worth a second visit, Damsel in Distress deserves support and success.
Round up some pals, pack a picnic basket and mail roland@stansell.co.za for tickets for the final performance of a show that next heads for Johannesburg and Cape Town. Tickets cost R220 (R200 for pensioners and R180 for under-13s).
.....SoSuterBill..... 