OUT AFRICA MAGAZINE ISSUE 40

AFRICA

MAGAZ I N E Issue 39, WINTER 2019

DIVA’S - ONE NIGHT ONLY PICTURES

IT’S

FREE

PRIDE SEASON!

INSIDE THIS ISSUE FEATURES

2 EDITORS COMMENT: 2 Words to think about 3 Pastors Condemn Radio Show 4 TRAVEL: The Art of Italy 8 Celebrating Movie Milestones 10 Interview: Oliver Hermanus talks about his new movie - Moffie 13 THE BUZZ: Snippets of News 18 Its Pride Season!!

21 KZN - Summer Pride 22 State of The Queer Nation - Evan Tsouroulis 30 The Farce that is Straight Pride 31 Music Moves - Madonna 34 HEALTH: Get in to Shape - Fast

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10 14

18

24 FASHION 14 - 15 Check Out what’s Trending on the Cat-Walk

SCENE OUT

24 DIVA’S ONE NIGHT ONLY 26 Babylon - The Joburg Bar 27 58 on Albany - Durban

REVIEWS

36 OUT ON FILM: With Daniel Dercksen 38 OUT ON DVD: With Daniel Dercksen 40 ON STAGE: With Daniel Dercksen

32 Mag 1

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FROM THE EDITOR

WORDS OF WISDOM

i all - Summer is almost upon us, and that means that Pride season is here. The season begins with Joburg Pride and over the next few months we will see a number of Pride events happening across the country. Look out for Pretoria Pride and Nelson Mandela Bay Pride which takes place in November. The year closes with KZN’s Pride event in December and finally the biggest Pride of them all is Cape Town Pride 2020 in February next year which promises to be bigger and better.

We also look at the reasons why we need to have Pride celebrations at all. We in South Africa are very fortunate to have our rights written in to the country’s constitution, but remember we are the only country on the continent that has done this. Most countries in Africa still criminalise homosexuality with some even having the death penalty for LGBT people, this above all is the reason we in South Africa need to have Pride - there are thousands of people on our continent who can’t.

Homophobia is alive and prospering in South Africa, as demonstrated in the article on page 3 ... despite our inclusive constitution, it seems that certain pastors believe they are above the law!

In this issue we meet with Oliver Hermanus and chat about his new film Moffie. So turn to page 10 to find out more...

We take an honest look at the State of The Queer Nation with Evan Tsouroulis on page 22 - you’ll be surprised at how far we’ve come On page 6 we look at some iconic movies, all of which helped shaped the LGBT movie industry. These movies were singled out because they are celebrating anniversaries this year - from 50 years ago to 10.

Diva’s One Night Only was a roaring success as always and there are pictures of the spectacular event for you to feast your eyes on. Turn to page 24...

Enjoy the read and remember … as you celebrate with Pride, always be safe and don’t drink and drive!

MANAGING EDITOR: Tommy Patterson 082 562 3358 ISSN 2304-859X Published by: PATTERSON PUBLICATIONS P.O. Box 397, Sea Point 8060 Tel/Fax: 021 555 1279 E-mail: outmagazine@mweb.co.za outmagafrica@telkomsa.net outlet@telkomsa.net ADVERTISING SALES: Tommy Patterson 082 562 3358

CONTRIBUTORS: Daniel Dercksen, Evan Tsouroulis PHOTOGRAPHY: SDR Photo Daniel Rutland Manners Printed by ABC Press, Cape Town

Copyright: All articles, stories, interviews and other materials in OUT Africa Magazine are the copyright of the publication or are reproduced with permission from other copyright owners. All rights are reserved. No materials may be copied, modified, published or otherwise distributed without the prior written permission of OUT Africa Magazine.

The views, opinions, positions or strategies expressed by those providing comments in this publication are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of OUT Africa Magazine or any employee thereof. OUT Africa Magazine and Patterson Publications cc., will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in any information contained in the publication.

Cover Photo: Chocolatina at Pride 2019 Mag 2

“It takes no compromise to give people their rights...

It takes no money to respect the individual...

It takes no political deal to give people freedom...

It takes no survey to remove repression.”--Harvey Milk “So let me be clear: I’m proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me.”

--Tim Cook I’ve been embraced by a new community. That’s what happens when you’re finally honest about who you are: you find others like you.”

--Chaz Bono “Being gay is like glitter, it never goes away.”

--Lady Gaga

PASTORS CONDEMN RADIO SHOW

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new radio show in the Cape, addressing LGBTQI issues has been slammed as “being from the devil” by pastors.

The show, which airs every Friday on Radio Atlantis, is presented by local school teacher Dencil Hattingh, who said he has been shocked to the core by comments from the holy men who have trashed his show and condemned him for teaching children about homosexuality.

The Pink Friday Show, which started three months ago on the community radio station has become a popular feature.

Hattingh says he tackles every “taboo” topic and questions people have about the LGBTQI lifestyle, while at the same time helping those who are still struggling with their sexual identity.

The show has games, prizes, special guests, and while there’s lots of laughter, it tackles serious issues, he says.

Hattingh, who is gay and teaches English and History, says one evening a man who identified himself as a pastor (but refused to give his name) called in to say the show is “trash” and he wants it cancelled.

He says more “pastors” called in and threatened they would “shut down the station”.

“Pastors from all over started calling in and saying we are wrong to teach children to be gay. I cannot teach someone how to be gay.

“The fact that anyone thinks it’s something that can be taught, is beyond me.

“I will just continue to pray for these men who call themselves men of God,” Hattingh says.

Speaking to the Daily Voice anonymously, an Atlantis pastor says it makes him “sick to listen how the moffies go on”.

“God does not want two men to come together,” he says. “Man and wife come together.

Dencil Hattingh

“Die goed is vannie duiwel af en gaan uitbrand vir hulle vleeslike begeertes, and I want them off the air,” the angry pastor said.

In a statement to the Daily Voice, Radio Atlantis management said they fully support their new show saying it provides valuable information.

Hattingh says he hopes the holy men will see the light, adding: “The show must go on.”

Republished from The Daily Voice

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TRAVEL

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taly is home to some of the world’s most incredible art thanks to it’s rich history and of course the Renaissance.

Sculptors like Michelangelo Buonarotti who inspired by the Bible and commissioned by the church, carved magnificent works of art for tourists and art enthusiasts to visit and marvel at. Italy has thousands of sculptures and artworks which can be daunting and a bit repetitive for some less enthusiastic tourists. We decided to take a look at the ten most incredible, not-to-be-missed sculptures for those looking for an enriching artistic experience while taking in the sights, sounds, tastes and feel of this amazing country.

First and foremost without argument is Michelangelo’s most famous sculpture, the Statue of David. Housed in the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence. My first sight of this masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture literally made me gasp in amazement, along with hundreds of other tourists who had also queued forever to see it. But the wait was worth it ... it is the most beautiful piece of art I have ever seen. So much more beautiful than its replica which stands in the Piazza della Signoria. The statue stands 5.17-metre high and was created in marble between 1501 and 1504.

Another Florentine statue is Bartolommeo Bandinelli’s Hercules and Cacus which can be found near in the Piazza della Signoria. This 4.87m sculpture captivates tourists. The story goes that Michelangelo was supposed to have been commissioned to do the work but it was passed to Bandinelli .

The Crucifix by Michelangelo can be seen in Santa Maria del Santo Spirito di Firenze. The wooden crucifix stands 142 cm high and whilst attributed to the master sculptor some historians argue that this is not the case. The nudity of the figure is true to all the Gospels, with John saying “Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, ‘They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots.’

These things therefore the soldiers did.

The Deposition by Michelangelo is another of his biblical masterpieces, capturing the moment that Christ was taken down from the cross. Carrying him is the priest Nicodemus, who brought luxurious embalming spices, the Virgin Mary and also Mary Magdalene. The piece can be found on display at the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo in Florence, Italy.

Michelangelo’s St. Petronius can be seen in the Basilica of San Domenico in Bologna, Italy. It’s one of his smaller pieces and it’s location shows that Michelangelo’s art wasn’t restricted to Florence or Rome. At 64 cm, the sculpture is still a masterpiece that is worth a visit.

Michelangelo’s breathtaking statue of David in Florence Mag 4

Moving on to Rome - Michaelangelo’s Moses is a work of art that again takes one’s breath away in its attention to detail from the folds in his cloak, veins in his hands to the curls in his hair. This statue depicts the biblical figure Moses with horns on his head, based on a description in chapter 34 of Exodus in the Vulgate. It is said that Michelangelo himself viewed his statue of the bearded Moses as his most lifelike creation. It is housed in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome.

The Pietà by Michelangelo, is located in St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City. This masterpiece of marble depicting Jesus in the arms of Mary is one of the most spiritually moving pieces that Michelangelo ever completed. In 1972 an unemployed geologist from Hungary leapt over the railings at St. Peter’s Basilica and attacked the Pietà with a hammer. With 12 blows, Laszlo Toth knocked off Mary’s left arm, snapped off the tip of her nose, and damaged her cheek and left eye. Master craftsmen picked through the 100 bits of marble broken off and puzzled them back together - the restoration took 10 months. The artwork is now safely behind bullet-proof glass.

Michelangelo ‘s Pietà is magnificent

THE ART OF ITALY

Another piece by Michelangelo is Cristo della Minerva or Christ the Redeemer, which resides in the Santa Maria sopra Minerva church in Rome. The front of the church is quite unassuming; however, once inside, you are drawn to Michelangelo’s Christ holding the Cross. Beautiful! It was carved between 1519 and 1521. Although naked, the image is not sexually promiscuous but rather the opposite, as we see Christ in all of his vulnerability, devoid of lust and sin. The nude figure of Christ, is perfectly in proportion and anatomically correct. The chest is incredibly detailed, and the muscles well sculpted and defined.

It is this fine attention to detail, and perfect reconstruction of the male form through sculpture, that sets Michelangelo apart from other artists within the era.

Also, be sure to stand on the spot marked on the floor and look directly above you to the ceiling that is painted in perfect perspective. You get the sense that the ceiling is a tall dome when it is actually flat.

As one enters the Piazza della Minerva. The first thing you’ll notice is a small obelisk supported by an elephant. For centuries, there has been a popular anecdote about Bernini’s elephant.

To find out why the elephant is smiling, you have to look at its rear. His tail has shifted to the left and his muscles are tensed up as if he is pooping. The animal’s behind is aimed at one of the headquarters of the Dominican Order. This was the office of the inquisitors, where father Giuseppe Paglia, a Dominican monk, was working. He was the foremost rival of Bernini.

The Risen Christ

Bernini’s Elephant

Bandinelli’s Hercules and Cacus

Moses by Michelangelo

Finally, a must see is the Dying Gaul on display in The Capitoline Museums in Rome. The sculpture is said to be a marble copy of a lost bronze Greek original made about a century before by the great Hellenistic sculptor Epigonos, but there is no documentation as to who actually completed the sculpture. Almost all art historians and scholars see in this sculpture the last heroic act of a noble solider gallantly rising to try to fight again, defying fate, staving off death, elevated by this last heroic effort.

It is one of the most magnificent pieces of art in Italy - Dying Gaul is a world masterpiece about death.

This is just a sampling of what you can see. The magnificence of St Peters Basilica with its Sistine Chapel and literally thousands of statues or the Uffizi Gallery in Florence will astound your every sense - the country has an array of buildings, sculptures and paintings that will blow your mind!

The Dying Gaul

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Stephen Boyd and Charlton Heston in Ben-Hur

CELEBRATING LGBT MOVIE MILESTONES Despite the US governments attempts over the years to control the amount of LGBT content in mainstream movies, and how gay characters were portrayed, there have been a number of iconic films which celebrate anniversaries in 2019...

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he first notable form of homosexuality depicted in film was in 1895 between two men dancing together in the William Kennedy Dickson motion picture The Dickson Experimental Sound Film, commonly labelled online and in three published books as The Gay Brothers. Though, at the time, men were not seen this way as queer or even flamboyant, but merely acting fanciful. Film critic Parker Tyler stated that the scene “shocked audiences with its subversion of conventional male behaviour”. During the late nineteenth century and into the 1920’s–30’s, homosexuality was largely depicted in genderbased conventions and stereotypes.

Gay men were depicted as being flamboyant, effeminate and overly camp characters, or as devious villains who were a scourge on public morals.

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In March 1930, the Motion Picture Production Code was introduced, being the first attempt at introducing film censorship. Behind the formation of the code was the Catholic Legion of Decency, a powerful organisation that drew up a set of religion-based guidelines for films. The Production Code spelled out what was acceptable and what was unacceptable content for motion pictures produced for a public audiences in the United States.

The film industry followed these guidelines well into the late 1950’s, when the influence of foreign films and a few controversial directors pushing boundaries, the code was overturned and replaced by a rating system. The code was only completely disbanded in the late 1960’s.

However, in 1959 the epic film Ben-Hur was released. The film has obvious gay

undertones and whilst there are no gay scenes the inference is clear. The lead characters played by Charlton Heston and Stephen Boyd are both masculine alphamales. Gore Vidal, who assisted in writing the screen play, included a homosexual sub-text which Vidal said in a letter, “The only way one could justify several hours of hatred between two lads — and all those horses — was to establish, without saying so in words, an affair between them as boys; then, when reunited at [the] picture’s start, the Roman, played by Stephen Boyd, wants to pick up where they left off and the Jew, Heston, spurns him,” he wrote.

The film, celebrating its 6oth anniversary, won 11 Academy Awards, and remains one of the most inspirational, reverent spectacles ever made by a major Hollywood studio—an uplifting adventure full of subtle life lessons.

Priscilla Queen of the Desert Also celebrating 60 years is Some Like It Hot, a light-hearted romantic romp, directed and produced by Billy Wilder, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon. Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon both dress in drag to escape the mob in what is a joyful classic which delivers on comedic value no matter how many times you see it.

1959’s Suddenly Last Summer starring Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, and Montgomery Clift was based on the one-act play by Tennessee Williams, with the screenplay by Gore Vidal. It was the third of Williams’ plays to be adapted for the screen that dealt with the subject of homosexuality. They got a special dispensation from the National Legion of Decency and the Production Code Administration which declared that “Since the film illustrates the horrors of such a lifestyle, it can be considered moral in theme even though it deals with sexual perversion.” The character Sebastian Venable, was a handsome, if drawn, man in a white suit – but his face is never is seen in the released film. Tennessee Williams asserted that no actor could portray Sebastian convincingly and that his absence from the screen only made his presence more strongly felt.

The release 50 years ago of the iconic “Gay” film Midnight Cowboy rocked the American movie industry with its portrayal of the seedier side of life in the big city. Showcasing superb performances from Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman, as hustlers, together with a compelling script the film is a strange mix of Oscar-winner and Cult Classic and is the first and only X-rated film to win the Academy Award for best picture.

costumes, sound track and cinematography was fantastic. The scene involving the Filipino wife is dated and comes off as little more than a racist caricature and was the only blight on an otherwise great movie which has since been made into a lavish stage production. The iconic film has its sensitive moments but all-in-all is a great night out at the movies.

Another Aussie movie released in 1994 was The Sum Of Us, starring a very young Russell Crowe. The film is a comedy and deals with the relationship between a gay son and his straight father. It’s well-performed and enjoyably crafted, with a great performance by Crowe as the gay son.

1994 also saw the release of the British drama Priest. The film centres on Father Greg Pilkington, played by Linus Roache, who is torn between his call as a conservative Catholic priest and his secret life as a homosexual with a gay lover, frowned upon by the Church. Upon hearing the confession of a young girl of her incestuous father, Greg enters an intensely emotional spiritual struggle deciding between choosing morals over religion and one life over another. An intense, immensely enjoyable film dealing with religious conflicts within LGBT society.

Celebrating 20 years since its release was a movie about a young female-to-male transgender, Brandon Teena, superbly played

by Hilary Swank in Boys Don’t Cry. At the time, Swank, who walked away with the Oscar for her role, took a huge gamble on an incredibly challenging part and what was then an incendiary topic. With sensitivity and heart, the film tells the story of transgender man Brandon Teena’s first exploration of his gender, early pivotal romance, and tragic murder. The effects of the film rippled into audiences who had never seen a sensitive portrayal of a transgender person, much less given any thought to the violence they face every day simply for being themselves.

Directed by Kimberly Peirce, Boys Don’t Cry is a seminal work in the queer film catalogue.

Midnight Cowboy was a great film with stellar performances by Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman.

Also released in 1969 was Staircase, a film about two men, both hairdressers who have been in a relationship for years. Starring the legendary Rex Harrison and Richard Burton, the movie was described by film critic Roger Ebert as “an unpleasant exercise in bad taste .... We’re not asked to watch a movie about homosexuals, but a movie about Harrison and Burton playing homosexuals.

They play them with embarrassing clumsiness”.

25 years ago one of the most well-known LGBT movies took the world by storm. Priscilla Queen of the Desert burst on to the big screen and what we saw was a hugely entertaining, light-hearted romp through the Australian outback. The acting,

Cloe Sevigny and Hillary Swank in Boys Don’t Cry Mag 7

Flawless is a 1999 crime comedy-drama film directed and written by Joel Schumacher and starring Robert De Niro and Philip Seymour Hoffman. The film centred on a cop (Robert De Niro)who suffers a stroke. Partly paralysed and unable to speak he employs Rusty, a drag queen in the same building, to use his musical talents for voice lessons. The unlikely pair have a difficult relationship but the movie somehow makes it through all the stereotypes to be quite enjoyable. Film history is rife with straight actors trying their hand at gay or transgender characters, playing up all of the worst stereotypes the roles might offer in hopes of seeming “brave” enough to win an Oscar, but Philip Seymour Hoffman’s portrayal of the transgender stereotype is warm and convincing.

One of the years block-busters was The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary, this psychological thriller starred Matt Damon as the charming, opportunistic, psychopathic bisexual murderer, Tom Ripley. Jude Law as the wealthy, spoiled, elegant, Dickie Greenleaf and rich girl Marge is played

by Gwyneth Paltrow. What follows is a masterpiece of film with superb performances by all three leading actors.

15 years ago saw the release of an all-time favourite, De-Lovely.

The film tells the life-story of Cole Porter, one of the World’s most talented songwriters. Kevin Klein is superb in the role of Cole Porter and Ashley Judd shines as his long-suffering wife. The film follows Porters reflections of his life in which he also recalls his many extramarital, homosexual dalliances, and the deep depression and seclusion of his final years. The sound-track is wonderful with renditions of his music by the likes of Robbie Williams, Alanis Morrisette, Cheryl Crow, Diana Krall and others. It’s delightful, it’s delicious, it’s delectable, it’s delirious, it’s De-Lovely.

In 2009, ten years ago, another seminal work of “gay” cinema was the release of director Tom Ford’s directorial debut A Single Man. Anchored by a career-best Colin Firth performance, the film is the most thoughtful, deeply felt, moving movie experience of that year. Based on Christopher Isherwood’s 1964 novel, Ford and his co-writer David Scearce delicately map out the (potentially) last day in the life of college academic George Falconer, who can’t face his future having lost the love of his life, Jim (Matthew Goode), in a car crash. Firth beautifully etches a man slowly detaching from his life as he starts, after hearing of Jim’s death, his heart broken and ends a man capable of seeing the beauty in the world precisely because he has given up on it. The film follows George’s almost ritualistic preparations for suicide and how real-life complicates them: a discussion about literature with student Kenny (Nicholas Hoult), whose glint in his eye suggests he has more on his mind than books; a run-in with an impossibly good-looking James Dean look-alike hustler (Jon Kortajarena), and, best of all, a boozy night in with old friend, London socialite Charley played by Julianne Moore who makes for a fantastic lush, lunging at George, conveying with Firth the entire feel and history of their relationship in a single scene. The film is a masterpiece of queer cinema, and Colin Firth deservedly won the Best Actor BAFTA for his role.

Beyond Gay: The Politics of Pride was a documentary released in 2009 which saw Gay Pride organisers examine the role and relevance of Pride celebrations around the world. Before the 30th anniversary of Vancouver’s (Canada) Gay Pride, paradedirector Ken Coolen examines relevance of Pride celebrations internationally. He travels to places where Pride is steeped in protest from Sao Paulo to Moscow to experience the powerful oppression that still exists. Pride is more than a parade, it’s a giant step on the road to equality. Increasingly the Pride movement is globalising. Coolen and other Pride organisers in North America and Europe, where celebration has overtaken political action, strive to remind their communities that Pride is at its heart a global fight for human rights.

Despite the hundreds of thousands of people cheering in the streets, Pride is much, much more than a parade and a party. It is a giant step on the road to true equality. The LGBT community during Pride is an entertaining and engaging multi- ethnic group than can bring attention to the issue of human rights with diversity, insight, and of course plenty of fabulousness.

Kevin Klein and Ashley Judd star in De-Lovely Mag 8

Check out these movies, most of which are iconic queer cinema and get a taste of what amazing films have come before and how ground-breaking some of these films were. Enjoy!

#pride A proud supporter the LGBTQ Community

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OLIVER HERMANUS’ MOFFIE

DANIEL DERCKSEN CHATS TO OLIVER HERMANUS ABOUT HIS NEW FILM MOFFIE. Mag 10

Photo: Daniel Rutland Manners

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outh African born film director, writer and photographer Oliver Hermanus’ film Skoonheid caused quite a sensation with its exploration of a conservative, white, Afrikaans man’s obsession for his brawny nephew and won the Queer Palm at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. His latest film is Moffie, an adaptation of André-Carl van der Merwe’s celebrated memoir.

Christian Olwagen’s rousing Kanarie recently took us on a journey into the life of a young gay man who was called for military duty in 1985 and found his voice and prince charming when he discovered how through hardship, camaraderie, first love, and the liberating freedom of music, the true self can be discovered. Moffie takes place 5-years earlier and shows how the fear of being queer was fostered.

With Skoonheid, Hermanus delved in the psyche of a young man who becomes the object of desire of an older man, with Moffie he explores the sexuality of a gay conscript imprisoned by society and the laws of an apartheid government when he embarks on his military service.

“Skoonheid was about repression and self-loathing where I would say that Moffie is about what comes before - shame and indoctrination,” says Hermanus.

“The two films will of course go hand in hand, one might even say that Moffie plays as a prequel to Skoonheid but I think their messages are very different and as much as Moffie is about a gay man’s journey through the SADF, it also the journey of an entire generation of white men, gay and straight. The film rests its attention on all them all.”

When Hermanus first read the book, he was quite taken by the “texture and detail it told of this part of our history.”

“I did not know about the treatment of gay conscripts, about Ward 22 or the damage that the system did to so many men and I felt very strongly that there was a power to Moffie that needed to be told on a cinema screen,” says Hermanus.

Hermanus feels that the main reason many young conscripted men struggled with their gayness during this period in South African history, was “because it was deemed criminal and it was dangerous. The society at that time was determined to keep gay men and women in the closet.”

Being gay has always been an issue when it comes to the military internationally.

“I think it is the nature of the army,” says Hermanus.

“It is an inherently masculine, heterosexual space and is, to a large degree, inhabited by men. I think that with the context comes a expectation and assumption that all men in the military should want to be heteronormative.

Of course, we have now seen how that is changing.”

Hermanus collaborated with Jack Sidey on the screenplay. For him it was a fairly easy process.

“Jack lives in London and I live in the Karoo, we would share drafts with one another and the one would build on what the other had sent. Once we got going, I think we knew what was at the heart of the story we want to tell. “

“At the centre of this film there is a word - moffie. Any gay man living in South Africa knows this word and has a relationship with it. It’s a weapon that has been used against us for so long. I felt a strong pull to exploring my own history with this word which ended up being a scene in the film and I think it was the want to de-nuclearise, reform this word that was at the heart of my decision to make this film.”

Hermanus agrees that issues of identity and sexuality are more pertinent today than they were in 1981.

“We are living in a global culture where we still see the persecution of the LGBT community all over the world. At the same time never before has the voice of this global community been more heard. A film like Moffie is there to remind us of what has come before, what we have endured and suffered through and why it is important to never stop being vocal and proud.”

For some, the word ‘Moffie’ has a derogatory meaning. Hermanus regards the word Moffie as “a weapon” and avoids using the word.

“It still has stigma for me and making this film allowed me to talk to other gay men about their relationship with this word. For most, I think, it still carries a pain. I am all for the act of appropriating it for good but like the book, I hope that having it as the title of the film will go some way to eroding the word’s toxicity.”

Bringing the film to the big screen has been a four-year journey for Hermanus. For him the greatest obstacle was the casting.

“We spent more than a year finding our core cast and were quite blown away by the unseen talent in South Africa.

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The film stars Kai Luke Brummer in his first film lead performance as well as a cast of sixteen young actors, many of whom make their feature film debut.

The film stars Kai Luke Brummer in his first film lead performance

“They spent a good amount of time with a military advisor who put them through an SADF bootcamp. They learnt how to shoot R1 rifles and of course they we were taught how to drill. I then spent a few weeks rehearsing with them in Cape Town and beyond that tried to fill their heads with as much history about the time as I could.”

For Hermanus, the film’s primary focus is masculinity.

“It explores the way that white South African men have been made for over a century. How the Apartheid system, the army and the conservative nature of this country fed young boys an ideology of superiority and hate. Being a ‘moffie’ in this context meant being a crime, being a problem, a mistake.”

He approached the issues dealt with in the film with “a lot of research, haha!”

“For me, personally, it was sticking to the core idea - that this was a system of hate and separation, and the intention of the conscription was to re-enforce and protect that system. I want to show that process through the film, letting an audience witness and experience the indoctrination.”

Hermanus ensures that the audience will “get a visceral experience” when the film is released locally at the end of the year.

“The film is heartfelt and emotive. No doubt, for some, it will conjure up memories of their own time in the military but most of all I think the film is a bit of tearjerker, so perhaps some tears? Haha!”

Moffie is produced by Fugard Theatre founder South African born Eric Abraham who produced the Academy award-winning films - Pawel Pawlikowski’s IDA (2014) and Jan Sverak’s KOLYA (1996) and Jack Sidey of Portobello Productions.

Photo: Daniel Rutland Manners Mag 12

THE BUZZ NIVEA ANTI GAY?

TRANS MODEL HAS A POWERFUL MESSAGE FOR THE FASHION INDUSTRY

HOMOPHOBIA FROM WITHIN OUR COMMUNITY

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t has come to our attention that an elitist, white woman has taken it upon herself to scuttle Cape Town Pride 2020.

The woman who reportedly lives on the prestigious Ocean View Drive in Green Point is single-mindedly and singlehandledly making numerous complaints about the event.

A MEMBER OF NIVEA’S LONGTIME ADVERTISING AGENCY SAYS THE SKINCARE BRAND BALKED AT AN IMAGE OF TWO MEN TOUCHING HANDS. ALLEGING THAT AN EMPLOYEE SAID “WE DON’T DO GAY”

Nivea replied to the allegations in a statement saying ...

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he reported allegation is absolutely against the values of Beiersdorf, our brands, and our employees worldwide. We are strongly committed to diversity, mutual respect, and equal opportunity – this stance and belief is shared and lived throughout Beiersdorf. There is and will be zero tolerance for discrimination of any kind at Beiersdorf. We are an international company with more than 20.000 employees in over 100 countries worldwide. Our products serve a very diverse consumer base around the globe.

Appreciating and respecting individuality and inclusion has a long tradition at our organization. We are investigating the matter but ask for understanding that we don’t comment further on these unsubstantiated speculations.

However, in light of the recent coverage, we would like to provide some background on our decision to perform an agency pitch: The profound transformation of the industry and agency landscape during recent years led to a review of the current agency model for the NIVEA brand. As a result, Beiersdorf has decided to initiate a pitch process for our biggest global brand at the beginning of 2019. Following the launch of our new corporate strategy C.A.R.E.+, this is now the right time also for a new beginning in NIVEA’s brand management and creative work.

Bearing in mind that Gay Pride is possibly the smallest event that takes place in the Stadium precinct, it seems strange that this woman, should be fixated on trying to cancel or at least have the event moved.

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alentina Sampaio has become the first trans woman to model for Victoria’s Secret.

The Brazil-born model sent shock waves through the industry when she revealed that she had been cast for the lingerie brand’s youth line VS Pink.

“This represents a victory for society, not just the trans community but for all people who are currently underrepresented in fashion,” Sampaio told Elle Magazine. “We are experiencing a moment, an evolution, and it is a positive one. Brands are finally learning and catching up to the importance of inclusivity and diversity.

“The world and the society are changing super fast, so I think that even fashion industry must follow these changes in order to satisfy the new customers demands,” she added But, days after Sampaio’s casting was announced, the chief marketing officer who once said he would never hire a trans woman, announced that he was stepping down.

Furthermore, what makes matters worse is that she is believed to be a lesbian, so should be supportive of the LGBT+ community rather than doing her utmost to prevent the event from happening.

It is extremely unfortunate when one of our own goes out of their way to create difficulties! - where are the Dykes-on-bikes when you need them?

It seems strange that a person who doesn’t like noisy events would choose to live anywhere near the Cape Town Stadium as it is purpose-built to host events. In fact it seems that events like the Rugby 7’s, which attracts 150 000 people over a 3 day period seems fine - yet a once -a-year LGBT Pride celebration attracting no more than 10000 people should be the target of this person’s venomous verbal attacks.

The City of Cape Town have remained steadfast in their support of the pride event and organisers have assured the magazine that plans, and permits for Pride 2020 are well underway - Roll on Pride 2020!!

Ed Razek made the infamous comments in a 2018 Vogue interview, saying that he wouldn’t hire a trans model for the brand’s once-illustrious fashion show because “it is a fantasy.”

“Shouldn’t you have transsexuals in the show? No. No, I don’t think we should,” he said. Well good riddance we say.

Pride 2019 Mag 13

FASHION

THROWAWAY TWENTY featured bright florals for the hotter months

Photographer / SDR Photo.

FLORALS FEATURED SA MENSWEAR Mag 14

AT SPRING/SUMMER FASHIONWEEK Mag 15

FASHION

LUTULEIGH featured flowing wearable designs in bold colours

Mag 16

Mag 17

Photographer / SDR Photo.

It’s Pride Season

Pride season begins at the start of summer ... Jo’burg, Pretoria, Soweto, Nelson Mandela Bay, and KZN Pride all celebrate Pride before the end of the year with Cape Town Pride closing the season with their Mardi Gras and parade happening on the 29th February 2020

And This Is Why We Need it...

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by Amber Leventry with contributions by Stephen McCabe and Robin Carver

I

t drives me absolutely batshit bonkers when someone says: Why do we need to celebrate gay Pride? Or Why isn’t there straight pride day?

Okay, deep breath. Here’s why: It’s because every fucking day is, by default, straight pride.

Straight people are already proud. They don’t need allies. They don’t need to fight for their right to get married or to have children. Straight people don’t look around to see if it’s okay to hold the hand of someone they love. Straight people don’t have to defend their relationships, plead for rights, or worry about their rights and protections being taken away. No one hates people because they are straight. These privileges are taken for granted.

Every Summer, LGBTQ+ people take to the streets. We put aside our fears and this year especially, we remember the brave people who stood up to hate after the policed raided The Stonewall Inn in New York City in 1969, which launched the Gay Liberation Movement as we know it today. We wave our flags, show our hearts, and demand equality with a fevered need to be accepted. We are united by the colours of the rainbow and feel the strength of our community.

We come out of our closets, propose to the ones we love, and push our babies in strollers. We flood social media with rainbows and hashtags. We blast the world with visual reminders of our beautiful love and our gorgeous families.

We thank the ones who have come before us and remind the younger generations behind us that there is still so much more work to be done.

We use Pride as a way to be seen. We harness the momentum of the sometimes-stalled equal rights movement and show off our pride. Pride is not just about equality; it is about acceptance. Sometimes it takes a long time for LGBTQ+ people to accept themselves and to know where they fit in. It may take family members longer to accept our truth, some never do.

And it feels like it is taking forever for society as a whole to accept people like me. I am not just gay. I am queer. I am gender nonconforming. I play in the fluidity of my gender. I do not fit into any box, but with the queer community, I fit right in. I am at home.

And we need to remember that internationally, 11 countries still impose the death penalty for being gay and as we celebrate 25 years since decriminalisation in 1994, we remember the 72 countries which still criminalise us and most of those are in Africa!

Let me be very clear: Every month — heck, every day, every minute — should celebrate sexual diversity, with a focus on equal rights and self-affirmation. However, most days and months out of the year are reserved for heteronormative messages and images for and full of cisgender straight people.

LGBTI+ people are severely under-represented — a fact that frustrates, maddens, and disappoints me. Shopping for gifts and cards for my partner means sifting through stereotypical and gendered products and images of men and women smiling at each other like lovesick fools as if love only exists for malefemale presenting couples.

Designing a family Christmas card on a popular photo site means looking at stock images of straight people and their kids.

Movies feature straight characters. The genres are different, the sexuality is the same. Usually, gay characters appear as tokens and clichés. It’s the same with books and advertisements. I am continuously replacing a figure and inserting myself into a picture that does not exist.

My kids see these images too. And as they get older, they are starting to notice their differences when they compare themselves to their friends’ families and to the families in their books and cartoons. But when we are at a Pride event, they see families like ours all day long. For one day, they are the majority. And it takes my breath away. I am moved to tears each time we march in the parade and are cheered for being who we are. I cannot rightfully express the overwhelming feelings of acceptance and love and pride.

So much of what I and other queer people do and who we are represents the best of humanity in this world. Many people can’t or don’t want to see that. They see and disapprove of our differences. Religions, businesses, media, and sports teams throw stones or avoid us all together. If it’s not God talking, it’s money. When the majority speaks, we are ignored. And when LGBTQ+ people are ignored, it is hard for people to see us as equal. It is really hard to be normalised—to even feel normal— when everywhere I look is covered with pictures and stories of straight men and women, their kids, and their privileged lives.

These realities haunt me when I leave the house every day.

The shadows grow longer every time I see that another trans woman has been murdered, and every time I see the kind of conservative “Christians” I grew up around claiming it’s their religious liberty to deny me my life and my participation in society at large.

Every day is terrifying for some of us. Every day except Pride.

Here’s the thing: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, Mag 19

intersex, asexual, gender fluid and non-binary folks are not celebrated every day, or even often. We are cast aside as misfits, deviants, and perverts. We are avoided, harassed, and killed for loving who we love and for being true to ourselves. We are stripped of our rights, dignity, and lives because we don’t follow the “rules” of society. We live in closets, in hiding, and in fear because our courts still allow guesthouses to deny us venues for our weddings or the right to turn us away because of our sexuality.

Pride makes us cling tighter to our colours and be more proud of who we are.

LGBTQ+ people navigate our days and lives around people who constantly tell us we are different, not normal, and not okay. Pride season is when we roll our eyes at the people who wonder why there isn’t a straight pride. It’s when we remind folks just how good they have it to not need a straight pride.

Straight rights and protection of families, homes, and jobs are assumed. Images of straight, cisgender people are everywhere.

Heteronormative language and ideas are not at risk when LGTBI+ ask for respect, representation and equal rights.

For one day out of the year, festivals, parades, and events all over the country become our venue to celebrate and congregate.

Buildings are lit up in rainbow colours. Businesses and lawmakers show us support through their products and promises.

Our allies proudly tell our haters to “fuck off”. Pride is our way to refuel. It is a colourful time to celebrate love and identity. It is a time to feel safe and free. Pride is when we fly our flags high and tell the world love will always win.

Go to any Pride parade and you’re likely to see more glitter than all the arts and crafts projects the world can muster. You’ll see queer bodies of all colours in various states of dress (and undress) in all the colours of the rainbow we’ve gleefully claimed.

Source: ILGA State Sponsored Homophobia Report 2019

Pride is a carnival, a festival. At its best, it’s a feast of love and the best attention money can’t buy. It’s a kaleidoscopic display so bright, intense, and varied that you can almost, for a moment, forget that LGBTQ+ people can still be legally put to death in some parts of the world.

At Pride, I can strut up and down the street in glitter and a bikini top and no one laughs. For one day, LGBTQ+ people can walk around with their heads held high in public, in a kind of safety that most of us take for granted every other day of the year.

It’s a parade, a fun parade and before getting into the politics you could quite easily defend it purely on the basis that it’s a great day out and leave it at that. Who doesn’t like a whole day where you can march down a street, meet all your friends, dress up and dance the night away?

We celebrate Pride to remember all those who couldn’t, we celebrate it to rejoice in how far we have come as a community, we celebrate it to remind ourselves that the battle is not completely over and we celebrate it in solidarity with our international gay community many of whom don’t have the luxury to do it.

We need Pride events all across this country, because all across this country we’re still not safe. So, until every LGBTI+ person has a safe home, until all of us have a well-paying job that respects us, and until we’re all afforded the basic legal dignities that everyone else enjoys: We’ll continue to march, and dance, and parade like there’s no tomorrow.

The only risk is inclusion and an invite to the best parties in town. Because when it comes to Pride, the queers know how to celebrate.

Mag 20

T

he KZNPride is hosting KZN Summers Pride Week of Pride events in KwaZulu-Natal from the 13-22 December 2019 in Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Estcourt, Port Edward and Richards Bay. The Pride week will consist of LGBT+ themed events that target the LGBTI people and the general community at large.

The theme of “Pride Week” will be based on acceptance and inclusiveness of all race, gender and age groups. During Pride Week, we also encourage all organisations and establishments to display the pink colours to show their support and inclusiveness of the LGBT community.

We call on the community to get involved and to host events in Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Estcourt, Port Edward and Richards Bay and list their events in support with KZNPride before the end of November 2019 at www.summerspride.co.za The following are ideas of what events that can be organised during the week: • Dining & clubbing • Entertainment, shows and karaoke • Picnic and social events • Surfing & camping • Religious groups and events • Fundraising and awareness campaigns • Product or services launches • Movie nights • Book clubs There is no cost involved with the listing of events. KZNPride will not endorse any event and it will stay the responsibility of the event manager to ensure inclusiveness of the LGBT community.

The Pride week also includes harbour boat cruises on the 14 and 21 December in Durban and the cost is R250 per person.

For more information, please contact KZNPride at admin@kznpride.org or call on WhatsApp: Cell. +27 640584058 KZNPride is registered as a Non-Profit Company (NPC) - registration number: 20184397750. It forms a supporting umbrella in KwaZuluNatal to promote a totally inclusive Pride that stands against discrimination and violence towards lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex (LGBTI+) people. We seek to affirm those of diverse sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression by increasing visibility of LGBTI people within our communities, by building partnerships and collaborations that celebrate sexual diversity and gender variance.

The founding members of KZNPride are: • • •

Anthony Waldhausen, director of the Gay and Lesbian Network, Pietermaritzburg Kim Lithgow, director of Same Love Toti Ezra Steenkamp, businessperson from Durban

For more information on KZNPride visit our website at www.kznpride.org

Mag 21

The State of the Queer Nation

Words: Evan Tsouroulis

(Something tells me I’m not in 1985 no more)

S

o recently I went to the Queen of Mean Bianca del Rio perform live. Waiting for the show to start, I was fascinated watching the people take their seats, wondering whether they knew what they were in for. The Clown in a Gown is not for the feint hearted or the politically correct.

As a number of same-sex couples strolled down the aisle hand in hand, it struck me that this would have been a rare sight in my youth. Even for those not in the closet, it could have been a dangerous thing to do. These days I see couples holding hands on the Promenade, in shopping malls, on the beach. Some Pageant Queens I know relish hitting the malls on a weekend in full drag wearing their tiaras and sashes and nobody bats an eyelid.

Of course, such public displays of affection between gay people are not wholly acceptable and can still be dangerous depending on where one lives. But I do absolutely love that so many people feel free and safe enough to behave this way and I see it as it is a sign of how things have changed. We have achieved visibility when we were invisible.

Still pondering about the progress we have made, not so long ago it would have been unthinkable that a potty-mouthed drag queen stand-up comic could have filled up a huge auditorium two years in a row. Live drag shows with a few exceptions used to be pretty much undercover, something to be seen in a dingy bar or Thailand. Thanks to RuPaul’s Drag Race, the art of drag has become mainstream, for better or for worse, and few performers have done as well as Bianca del Rio. My question as to what kind of person would pay quite a lot of money to be insulted by the Joan Rivers of Drag was answered when Bianca herself asked the same question of the audience. It seemed that most of the audience was gay, but there was a significantly large straight contingent, like the row of giggling school girls sitting next to me. Some straight people were there because their gay children had brought them out. Some were genuine fans, like the man who at the end of the Question and Answer session, proposed to his girlfriend on stage at a FUCKING DRAG SHOW!!!!

How times have changed!

At this year’s Cape Town Pride LGBT student groups from three high schools participated in the Pride March. I was astounded but delighted that gay teenagers could be out at school and Mag 22

march with pride with their classmates, some of whom were straight supporters. This momentous first happened without outrage and outcries from the usual suspects, and the Atlantic Sun community newspaper which is widely distributed throughout the Atlantic Seaboard even published a photo of the group from Camps Bay High. In my day we remained safely in the closet for fear of being bullied, beaten or ridiculed.

When I was in my 20s in the 80s AIDS loomed large in the lives of gay men. Today young gay men who did not live through those frightening early days of the epidemic have little concept of what it was like. It’s gratifying to see that although HIV- related stigma still exists, acquiring the virus is no longer the death sentence it was. It was a hopeless situation. Today, although there is no cure for HIV, early detection and treatment with modern ARVs, ensures that people living with HIV are able to live long and healthy lives. Adherence to treatment can lead to the virus becoming undetectable and therefore untransmitable.

This is huge progress. New initiatives such as the free availability at certain clinics catering for men who have sex with men in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Pretoria of PrEP (Pre-exposure prophylaxis – a daily dose of drugs taken by negative people effectively prevent HIV - transmission) has revolutionized the lives of thousands of gay men.

In my view, things have become better. I’m not suggesting for moment that we are free of homo-prejudice, bigotry, religious zealotry, xenophobia, internalized homophobia, not to mention body fascism, slut shaming, ageism, racism and misogyny within our own communities. But the average garden-variety South African queen or dyke has never had it so good. Some older gays may get nostalgic about what fabulous parties we had when it was illegal to be gay, but we were often bashed, blackmailed, threatened. Today we at least have the law on our side. If someone insults you for being gay, you can lay criminal charges. Hate speech and blackmail are against the law. We have an Equality Commission and Constitutional Court. We have a relatively free media which can successfully campaign for having homophobes like Pastor Steve Anderson banned from entering the country.

We have a President and government who publicly support equal rights. We have by and large been spared from state sponsored

of homophobia common in most of Africa and which is now also gaining ground in many European countries where right wing governments have been elected.

And whilst it is gratifying to record the progress made, there has been a price to pay.

These changes didn’t just happen, the freedoms we enjoy were not handed to us on a plate. They are a result of protest, outrage, resistance, lobbying and community action. It is disappointing that so many younger queers take their freedoms for granted, without a thought of how these freedoms were gained. They often don’t know who Simon Nkoli, Zackie Achmat or Edwin Cameron are or what they have contributed. The more assimilated we become, the more we forget the history of queer struggle.

Complacency is the enemy of democracy, and however flawed our democracy may be, we should be vigilant and treasure it because there are always anti-democratic elements who would send us back into the closet or the gas chambers if they could.

Instead our youth, schooled in political correctness, misdirect their outrage to those who might address somebody by the wrong pronoun, or they take offence at the very over the top camp behaviour that helped gay people survive. Somewhere along the line, we have become hyper-sensitive and lost our sense of humour. We walk on eggshells, censoring ourselves in the fear of inadvertently offending. Some of us older queens developed a thick skin because we had to. Being catty and campy is a safety valve. Thank goodness for the likes of Bianca del Rio In the 2019 reboot of Tales of the City currently streaming on Netflix, there is a scene which resonates with me. Michael takes his 28 year old lover Ben to a dinner party. All the other guests are in their fifties or sixties. The wine is flowing, the conversation is getting raucous. Ben takes offence and goes off, very politely, on a PC rant. It’s nothing they haven’t heard before. They may even agree with what he says. But he raises the ire of his dinner companions when he accuses them of being privileged, which they probably are. Armistead Maupin says it best through the words of his character: “I just really appreciate that we have to be policed at a fucking gay dinner party.

Why is your generation obsessed with labels? Let me tell you something about dignity and visibility. My so called privilege that we happen to enjoy at this moment was won, ok? And by that I mean clawed tooth and nail from a society that didn’t give two shits whether we lived or died and indeed did not care when our friends started to die. When I was 28, I wasn’t going to fucking dinner parties, I was going to funerals, three or four a week, all of us were…. So you think you understand… really? Because you saw Angels in America? Fuck that! FUCK THAT! You have no idea. This world that you get to live in, with your safe spaces and inter-sectionalities, gay marriage, fucking without condoms …all of it. This entitlement you now have to dignity and visibility as a gay person, do you even know where that came from?

Do you know who built that world? Do you know the cost of that progress? No, of course not. Because it would be more that your generation could bear to comprehend. So if a bunch of old queens want to sit around a table and use the word tranny… I will not be told off by someone who wasn’t fucking there.”

I’m a big fan of reclaimed language. I love the words Fag! Dyke!

Queer! Moffie! Queen! when we use them amongst ourselves.

I love them the same reason I love drag…they are subversive.

I love that we are twinks and bears and butches and lipstick lesbians and gender fluid and Muscle Marys and essentially anything we want to be. But there is a bit of a contradiction. We praise diversity but we get upset when anybody strays from the

new normal. I actually hate that our culture has been appropriated, that our gay spaces have been invaded, in the name of acceptance. I want us to be accepted with all our differences and idiosyncrasies not because we downplay our queerness so we can fit in. As John Michael Cameron once said, mediocrity is the price we pay for assimilation.

In many ways we have lost our sense of community. The technological world we live in can be brutal and isolating. Grindr is no match for the thrill of possibility to be found in a gay bar. We need to be less judgmental and more supportive of each other.

We need to regain our sense of humour and get a more realistic perspective if what is means to be gay in this day in age. We need to reclaim our spaces. We need to vote, volunteer our time, be vigilant. We need to see the bigger picture. Yes, we have our hard won freedoms, on paper at least, but most of the rest of Africa persistently attacks our kind. We need to look forward while acknowledging our history and celebrating our successes. We’ve come a long way yet we still have some way to go.

Mag 23

SCENE OUT

S ’ A V I D

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G I N ONE

Y L N HT O

! ! ! t h g t A Ni

a h W And

Mag 25

BABYLON - THE JOBURG BAR

Mag 26

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Mag 27

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THE FARCE THAT IS STRAIGHT PRIDE

T

he recent announcement, during LGBTI Pride month, that the city of Boston would be hosting a “straight pride parade” shows wilful ignorance of an oppressive reality: every day is straight pride day. Every day, straight people march down the street, holding hands, kissing, and loving one another without fear of violence or arrest. Imagine for a heartbeat any of the above headlines pertaining to straight people ... it just wouldn’t happen.

And everyday, straight people around the world, in every single country, dictate as to who has rights and who doesn’t. Who is equal and who can legally be discriminated against. Who can be a part of society and who cannot. In a handful of countries this discrimination is against women, in some it’s against people of colour. However, discrimination against the LGBT community is rife across the world. Those who identify with these sexual orientations are subjected to social stigmatisation, legal restrictions, and violence. And although adult consensual sexual activity is considered a basic human right across the world, homosexuality is outlawed in, at the will of straight people, in about 80 countries.

This unwelcome Straight Pride event took place this year in Boston USA, on 31 August and by all accounts was promising to attract far-right extremist groups, neo-Nazis and the like.

Since its announcement, the “Straight Pride” parade has sparked outrage on social media, with groups and individuals commenting that LGBTI Pride, and others pride events such as “Black Pride”, mark the triumphs and struggles of their various communities. Straight men have generally been the very ones who over the centuries have inflicted the discrimination and laws that have side-lined our community, worldwide, and still continue to do so.

It is astounding that in the 21st Century we are still fighting to be treated as equals to our straight counterparts. We pay the same taxes, live in the same streets, shop in the same stores, attend the same schools and universities, drive the same cars, set the trends in fashion, music and food yet are still fighting to be treated the same, not only under the law but in everyday life as well.

Astoundingly, there are still countries, particularly in Africa, that still carry the death penalty for gay men. The major religions, Christianity and Islam criminalise same-sex relationships and some actively encourage their followers to isolate, alienate and in more extreme cases to cause physical harm to LGBTI’s. On our continent laws outlawing same sex relations exist in 31 out of 54 African countries, according to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA). Gay sex can be

Mag 30

punishable by death in northern Nigeria, Sudan, Somalia and Mauritania. Tanzanian laws mean homosexuality can result in a life sentence and Kenya’s High Court ruled against overturning their anti-gay laws. It is, however, a huge step in the right direction to see that in recent years Angola, Mozambique and the Seychelles all scrapped anti-homosexuality laws. In a victory for queer people in Botswana, the Gaborone high court earlier this year, ruled sections of Botswana’s Penal Code which criminalises same-sex sexual conduct as unconstitutional. A ruling which was celebrated in gay communities all over the world … but in a shocking about turn the ruling has been contested by, yes you guessed right, straight people, and there is currently a challenge to overturn the courts decision.

Trans people, especially those of colour are victims of constant physical attacks and murder in some so called “enlightened” countries like USA and UK. In Europe some EU countries still don’t allow same-sex marriage and Poland has places that are allowed, under the law, to have signs excluding LGBTI people.

Some countries as well as some States in the USA encourage sending LGBTI people to therapy to correct their sexual orientation. In the United States there are moves by rightwingers to overturn the high-courts ruling legalising same-sex marriage.

Just imagine if straight men had to fight for the same things that LGBTI+ people and other less privileged people must!

Because of this I find “Straight Pride” extremely offensive, detestable and insulting …

To compound its distastefulness, the Straight Pride parade, on August 31 featured the well-known alt-right person, Milo Yiannopoulos, as its grand marshal. Yiannopoulos, is an open supporter of the alt-right, saying “We’re fellow travellers on some issues”. To compound the absurdity of this event, Yiannopoulos is gay! He also self-identifies as an Islamophobe, yet has married an African-American Muslim man. While Yiannopoulos is openly gay, this obnoxious person described being gay as “aberrant” and “a lifestyle choice guaranteed to bring [gay people] pain and unhappiness.” The more one reads about this abhorrent creature, the more offensive he becomes, banned form Twitter and Facebook for his racist and distasteful rants he epitomises everything that makes Straight Pride the absolute objectionable, hateful farce that it is..

This farce however, will be welcomed, supported, endorsed and encouraged - this is why we need to keep fighting, this is why we need Pride!

MUSIC MOVES

M

adonna has earned her ninth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 albums chart with Madame X. The singer’s 14th studio album which was released in June. Die-hard fans moved 95,000 equivalent album units in the first week of its release.

As Billboard pointed out, Madonna has earned at least four top 10 albums in each of the last four decades, and has the second-most No. 1 albums of any female artist following Barbra Streisand.

In 2015, her album Rebel Heart peaked at No. 2 on the chart, while MDNA and her live Sticky & Sweet Tour album both made it into the top 10 in 2012 and 2010, respectively.

Madonna’s new album follows four recent singles, “Medellín,” “Crave,” “I Rise,” and “Dark Ballet” as well as performances at the 2019 Billboard Music Awards and Eurovision 2019. The latter performance, despite being one of the worst I’ve ever seen.

“Madame X, by contrast, is endlessly fascinating. It is an intriguing, often brilliant, though occasionally awful record,” said Alexandra Pollard of the UK Independent.

“Influenced by several years spent living in Portugal, and recorded in Lisbon, London, New York and Los Angeles, Madame X is such a cultural melange – Latin trills, Jamaican dancehall instrumentals, African drums, choral masses and disco beats crop up throughout – that it sometimes verges on collapsing in on itself. At other times, though, what is thrown at the wall sticks beautifully. “Come Alive”, which features London’s Tiffin Children’s Chorus, is vast and cinematic. “I Don’t Search I Find” is a cross between Nina Simone’s

“Feeling Good”, a Nineties house track, and an orchestral Bond song (Madonna, of course, recorded the theme for Die Another Day in 2002).

The album is lyrically unbound, too. “People tell me to shut my mouth, that I might get burnt,” she sings on “Dark Ballet” – surely a nod to the shock and horror she has elicited while blazing a trail through pop for the past four decades – “Keep your beautiful lies/ ’Cause I’m not concerned.”

Mostly, though, the record is less a personal riposte than a political one. On “God Control”, clearly an attack on America’s feeble gun-control laws, she sings, sounding as though her jaw is firmly clenched, “When they talk reforms it makes me laugh, they pretend to help, it makes me laugh.” On “Batuka”, a rabblerousing chant buoyed by the Batukadeiras (a Portugal-based choir of Cape Verdean heritage), she decrees, “Get that old man, put him in a jail, where he can’t stop us, where he can’t hurt us.”

It’s not hard to imagine who that old man might be.

Madonna has always positioned herself as a voice for the voiceless. Sometimes she goes too far in that quest and ends up coopting identities. She does so quite literally on the risibly misjudged “Killers Who Are Partying”, on which she declares, that faux-English accent bubbling dangerously to the surface, “I will be gay if the gay are burnt/ I’ll be Africa if Africa is shot down … I’ll be Islam if Islam is hated … I’ll be Native Indian if the Indian has been taken.” It’s well-intentioned, but being an ally doesn’t quite work like that.

A recent New York Times profile (which Madonna hated so much she announced, once again, that it had made her feel raped) I admired the singer for eschewing the expectations of how older women should behave. “She might have been doing all this for the younger generations,” it noted, “so that when Miley Cyrus was 60, no one would bat an eyelash if she twerked on stage.”

It seems just as likely, though, judging by Madame X, that Madonna is doing it for nobody but herself. As she announces on dancehall bop “Future”, “Don’t tell me to stop ’cause you said so.”

Mag 31

HEALTH

GET INTO FAST So winter is over, you’ve spent the cold months slacking off from your training schedule, those warm winter comfort foods have added a few kilos and you need to get in shape again as Spring and Summer loom. Here are a few exercises to kick-start getting yourself back in shape …

Exercise 1

SIDE-TO-SIDE PUSH-UPS We’re all familiar with that great exercise - push-ups. But why not make them a little more interesting and challenging with a sideto-side variation.

Start with your hands together, thumbs touching. Keeping your back straight and your hips in line with your shoulders and your core engaged, move one hand out to the side and do a push up.

Your feet do not move.

Repeat the same push up on the other side Try for 12 to 15 reps – rest for a minute and repeat the exercise 4 times

Exercise 2

HIGH PLANK LEG LIFTS As with all plank variations, you’re really working your core here.

But with the leg lift, you’re giving those glutes a bit of a workout as well.

Start in a plank position and keeping your legs straight lift one leg back, as high as you can without bending the knee. Repeat with the other leg.

Again 12 to 15 reps with each leg, rest and repeat four times.

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O SHAPE Exercise 3

HIGH PLANK KNEE-TO-ELBOW This is one of the best moves for a strong core and tight abs.

Bringing your knee to the elbow really works the sides of your waist (your obliques).

Start in a plank position with your hands in line with your shoulders. Keep your legs straight. Bring one knee forward till it touches your elbow. Repeat with the other Knee. Vary this exercise by bring the knee forward to the opposite elbow.

12 – 15 reps with each leg. Rest and repeat 4 times.

Note however, that If you’re really serious about losing weight and getting in shape, you absolutely have to clean up your diet and take time for recovery! It’s simply not healthy to work out for hours and only focus on calories burned. You must also start incorporating more quality, unprocessed foods into your diet, stay hydrated, and don’t forget to get enough sleep!

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Exercise 4

MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS This move is awesome for the abs and really kicks up the fatburning cardio to speed up your fitness target.

As with the previous exercise, start in a plank position with your hands in line with your shoulders. Keep your legs straight.

Bring your knees forward till it they touch your elbow in quick succession, as fast as you can.

Try this exercise for 30 seconds and slowly build up to a minute.

Rest between exercises x 4

Exercise 5

SIDE LUNGES Lunges in general work a lot of muscles resulting in more calories burned! These side lunges work your glutes, quadriceps, adductors, abductors, hamstrings, calves, and your core.

Stand straight. With your core engaged and chest up, step to the side and bend your leg, keeping the other leg as straight as possible. Return to the upright position and lunge to the other side.

Exercise 6

CURTSY LUNGES Lunges of all sorts are amazing for strong legs and a nice butt. A curtsy lunge is a great variation to really give your glutes a good workout.

Stand straight. With your core engaged and chest up. Legs shoulder width apart. Keeping one leg still, move one leg behind and across as in a curtsy, bending the front leg at the knee and curtsy as low as possible. Return to the upright position and repeat with the other leg.

12 to 15 curtsies with each leg. Rest and repeat x 4

Exercise 7

JUMP SQUATS Yes, that exercise we all leave till last as it is strenuous and can be exhausting, but persevere – It’s a great leg strengthening and cardio workout, that will burn up calories and get you breaking a sweat.

Standing with your feet shoulder width apart and your arms at your side. Start by doing a regular squat, arms straight out in front of you, then engage your core and jump up explosively.

When you land, lower your body back into the squat position to complete one rep. Land as quietly as possible, which requires control.

Try 12 – 15 reps x 4 with a rest in between.

Note: If you have issues with your knees this exercise can be quite jarring so be cautious, you do not want to injure yourself.

Alternatively do the exercise without the jump. Stand and lower your body slowly in to a squat, hold it for a count of 10 and return to a standing position.

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CUM FEEL PROUD 6, Sixth Street, New Doornfontein, Johannesburg · Phone 0114025258 · 083-9652227 Email: hlabanga@me.com · Open at 12 noon every day of the year · Closing times: Mon-Wed 3am Thur-Sun 6am · GPS lat: 26.1989 long: 28.0629 SEPTEMBER diary Friday 6th Leather Night - Free entrance with leather gear · Friday 13th Long Schlong Night - Free entrance for 20cm + · Saturday 14th Full Moon Party Celebrate hedonism with free libation wine · Friday 20th Fetish Night - Indulge your fantasies · Sunday 23rd Sept Heritage Day Party: come celebrate your queer heritage/ turn braai day into naai day · Friday 27th Public Pigz Night Be a pig on the bar counter for an entrance refund OCTOBER diary Friday 4th Pre-Tswane Pride Leather Night Free entrance with leather gear · Friday 11th Long Schlong Night Free entrance for 20cm+ · Sunday 13th Full Moon – Celebrate hedonism with free libation wine · Friday 18th Fetish Night – Indulge your fantasies · Friday 25th Pre-Pride Public Public Pigz Night Join us for the largest annual gathering of naked men. We will be open around the clock from 12 noon Friday 25th till Monday 6am to celebrate African Pride.

NOVEMBER diary Friday 1st Leather Night Free entrance with leather gear · Friday 8th Long Schlong Night Free entrance for 20cm + · Tuesday 12th Full Moon – Celebrate hedonism with free libation wine · Friday 15th Fetish Night – Indulge your fantasies · Friday 22nd Public Pigz Night Be a pig on the bar counter for an entrance refund · Friday 29th Fire Crotch Night – Free Entrance with Red Pubes

Mondays: Daddies & Toy Boys – R30 entrance between 6 & 9 for under 20s and over 50s Every Tuesday is Buddy Night. Bring a friend for free!

Thursdays: Student Night. R45 with student card, all day.

OUT ON FILM ON THE BIG SCREEN WITH DANIEL DERCKSEN LOCAL IS LEKKER

Zenobia Kloppers is brilliant as ‘Fiela Komoetie’ in Fiela se Kind

There’s some exciting local releases to look forward to: From highly acclaimed South African director Quentin Krog (Ballade vir ‘n Enkeling / Vir die Voëls) comes the thrilling Ander Mens (23/8), with Bennie Fourie as a punch bag type of oke whose troubles begin when his wife leaves him for their marriage counsellor and that’s only the start of his troubles; Rafiki (30/8) follows the love story between two women who must contend with small town busybodies and the judgment of their conservative society; a notorious gangster in 50s Sophiatown fights the police to the death in Back Of The Moon (6/9); a coloured woman living in the arid Karoo takes in a lost white child and raises him as her own in the new Fiela se Kind (13/9), The Story Of Racheltjie De Beer (18/10) brings the tragic legend to life on the big screen, and Moffie, based on the memoir, Moffie, by André-Carl van der Merwe and tells the story of a conscript who embarks on his military service in 1981 South Africa (release date 28 Sept).

SEPTEMBER HIGHLIGHTS Bill Skarsgård returns as Pennywise the Dancing Clown is back to terrorise the town of Derry in IT Chapter Two (6/9); Downton Abbey: The Movie (20/9) re-unites television’s favourite characters and is set in 1927–1929, featuring a royal visit to Downton Abbey by King George V and Queen Mary; Brad Pitt plays an astronaut who goes into space in search of his lost father, whose experiment threatens the solar system, in the sci-fi thriller Ad Astra (20/9); the musical Teen Spirit (27/9) stars Elle Fanning as a shy teenager living in a small village who dreams of pop stardom as an escape from her dismal surroundings and shattered family life.

OCTOBER HIGHLIGHTS Antonio Banderas is sensational as film director who is over his professional zenith and in the middle of a creative crisis, with various physical and mental ailments in Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain and Glory (4/10) - as a boy, the sight of a naked man became the trigger for his later homosexuality, and as an adult he confronts his childhood gay friend who turned straight.

Joaquin Phoenix plays Joker (4/10), whose slow dissent into madness brings Mag 36

The cast of Downton Abbey: The Movie Antonio Banderas is sensational in Pain & Glory

the criminal mastermind known as the Joker to life; in Late Night (4/10) Emma Thompson plays late-night talk show who teams up with one of her new staff writers in an attempt to save her career; Will Smith plays the Gemini Man (11/10), an aging hitman who is targeted by a younger clone of himself; Ansel Elgort plays a young man whose troubled childhood leads him to the world of art forgery in The Goldfinch (11/10); and Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin and Bill Murray all reprise their roles in Zombieland 2 (Double Tap) (25/10) moving to the American heartland as they face off against evolved zombies, fellow survivors and the growing pains of the snarky makeshift family.

NOVEMBER HIGHLIGHTS Gabriel Luna plays a new, modified liquid metal Terminator who is sent from the future to terminate a hybrid cyborg human and confronts the original Terminator in Terminator: Dark Fate (1/11); Doctor Sleep (8/11) is a sequel to The Shining, with Ewan McGregor as Dan Torrance, a man with psychic powers who struggles with alcoholism; Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott and Ella Balinska team up as the new Charlie’s Angels (15/11); Matt Damon and Christian Bale join forces in Ford v Ferrari (22/11) to produce the Ford GT40 for a showdown at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans; in The Good Liar (29/11) Ian Mc Kellen plays a career con artist who walks the most treacherous tightrope walk of his life when he meets a well-to-do widow (Helen Mirren); and Daniel Craig and Chris Evans team up as detectives who travel to a lush estate to interview the quirky relatives of a patriarch who died during his 85th birthday celebration in the neo-noir black comedy mystery Knives Out (29/11).

DECEMBER HIGHLIGHTS If there’s one film to look forward to, it’s the animated fantasy Cats (20/12), based on the musical of the same name, which in turn was based on Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats

by T. S. Eliot. It is directed by Tom Hooper in his second musical film following Les Misérables, written by Lee Hall and Hooper, choreographed by Andy Blankenbuehler, and executive produced by Steven Spielberg. It stars James Corden, Judi Dench, Jason Derulo, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen, Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson, and introduces Francesca Hayward in her first feature-length film role.

Dame Judi Dench & Rebel Wilson star in Cats

Also released on 20 December is the much-anticipated Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (also known as Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker), an epic space-opera film produced, co-written, and directed by J. J. Abrams. It is the third instalment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, following Abrams’s The Force Awakens (2015) and Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi (2017), and the final episode of the nine-part Skywalker saga.

Read more about the latest and upcoming films: www. writingstudio.co.za

Ewan McGregor as Dan Torrance in Doctor Sleep

Mag 37 Swift Idris Elba & Taylor star in Cats

OUT ON DVD LET’S WATCH DVD’S WITH DANIEL DERCKSEN If there’s one DVD / Blu-Ray you have to add to your collection, it’s Rocketman, a super-sensational musical odyssey showing Elton John’s transformation from the shy, working-class piano prodigy Reginald Dwight into a global music superstar, that blurs the lines of fantasy and reality, fuses the worlds of music, fame and fashion, and stamps a glittery platform heel down on the cinematic rulebook. Taron Egerton delivers an astonishing performance as John, with great support from Jamie Bell as legendary lyricist Bernie Taupin, the best friend and creative partner of over 50 years without whom John might not have survived. It is available from 11 October, but if you pre-order it on Loot, you will get it sooner.

Taron Egerton delivers an astonishing performance as Elton John in “Rocketman”

Independent filmmaker Alan Brown celebrates the joy of gay romance in the beautifully crafted Five Dances, showing what happens when a gifted young ballet dancer from a conservative small town starts to train at a dance studio in New York, and discovers first love with his male dancing partner. Broadway actor and musical star Ryan Steele is perfectly cast in the lead role, with Reed Luplau equally moving as the man who steals a young man’s heart. A visually sensual glimpse of life and first love in the downtown contemporary dance world, the film won the best Narrative Feature Film at the 2013 Tel Aviv International LGBT Film Festival, and both the Audience and Jury Awards for Best Feature Film at the Rio LGBT International Film Festival.

Brown’s rousing Private Romeo is an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet that is re-enacted at an allmale high school military academy, where gay love blossoms between the two cadets, Sam Singleton / Romeo played by Seth Numrich and Glenn Mangan / Juliet played by Matt Doyle. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at Outfest, the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.

Alan Brown’s beautifully crafted “Five Dances” Numrich and Glenn Mangan in “Private Romeo”

If you ever wondered what would happen if a gorgeous straight man and stunning fiancé fall in love with a hunky karate instructor and dancer, make sure to watch Xavier Villaverde’s El Sexo de los Ángeles (Sex Of Angels). This sassy and sexy film navigates sexual fluidity, torn affections, and open relationships in a steamy love triangle, depicting a polyamorous bisexual relationship and love triangle, with great performances from Álvaro Cervantes as the irresistible hunk, and Llorenç González and Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey as the couple who falls under his spell.

Dean Francis’s powerful Drown is based on Stephen Davis’ stageplay and explores the volatile relationship between a sexually frustrated and confused Surf Lifesaving champion, whose attraction to an openly gay Lifesaver leads to tragedy. Matt Levett is superb as a young man who desperately fights his true sexuality, with great support from Jack Matthews as a gay man whose outcry for love you will never forget. This not-to-bemissed Australian film won best film and awards for performances at the 2015 FilmOut San Diego, the 2015 Melbourne Queer Film Festival.

Another Independent film that is worth watching is Akron, with Matthew Frias and Edmund Donovan as two teenagers who meet during a football game at the University of Akron, where they fall in love. Their budding relationship is threatened by the knowledge that their respective families first met years Mag 38

Dean Francis’s powerful “Drown”

before, during a tragic accident. The film was a winner at the Columbus International Film & Video Festival, Rochester LGBT Film Festival, OutReel Cincinnati Film Festival and Miami LGBT Film Festival.

One of the most peculiar gay romances you will ever encounter is the Diemo Kemmesies’ German film Silent Youth. This coming-out film tells a very ordinary story about a young man (Martin Bruchmann) who visits Berlin where he has a chance encounter with a hooded stranger (Josef Mattes). The result of their encounter is extraordinary. The film is both melancholic and poetic in its description of two strangers who are inexplicably bound by some mysterious power and is a perfect example of unintentional realist cinema, observing the mundanity of life in expert fashion to create an intense cinematic experience.

He Loves Me is a mind-blowing experimental film written and directed by queer filmmaker Konstantinos Menelaou that features real-life boyfriends Hermes Pittako and Sanuya Shotekatells as a gay couple who is convinced that a holiday away from the city will help mend and strengthen their rocky relationship.

The two hitchhike to a remote seaside enclave, filling their days and nights with passionate lovemaking and making excursions into the rocky outcrops for sensuous times under the sun. A narrator articulates their inner thoughts as they enjoy the sand and surf, taking us to an emotionally charged confrontation that will either result in destruction of their already fragile relationship, or a chance to once again discover the spark that originally brought them together. The film is daring as in its depiction of sex as the two men explore the unconventional nature of love and its ability to survive against the odds.

Diemo Kemmesies’ German film “Silent Youth” “He Loves Me” is a mind-blowing experimental film

It’s also worth streaming auteur filmmaker Gregg Araki’s outlandishly weird Starz six-part series Now Apocalypse, which caused such an uproar with its unconventional and candid exploration of identity, sexuality and artistry in strange, bewildering Los Angeles and was cancelled after the first season.

Avan Jogia plays Ulysses, a gay man suffering marijuana-fueled delusions, his super-hot straight buddy Ford (Beau Mirchoff) is a very naïve and horny stud who falls prey to older gay men, and Kelli Berglund plays the ultimate fag-hag.

There’s also the fantastic HBO / BBC collaborative series Years and Years, a six-part series that follows the British Manchester-based Lyons family in 2019, the story accelerates into the future, following the lives and loves of the Lyons over the next 15 years as Britain is rocked by unstable political, economic and technological advances. The series offers two unique gay relationships, Russell Tovey plays a gay housing officer who falls in love with Maxim Baldry, a Ukrainian refugee, and Fran Baxter plays a storyteller who becomes involved with Jessica Hynes as Edith Lyons, a political activist. The series was created by Russell T Davies, is a Welsh screenwriter and television producer whose works include the gay-themed Queer as Folk, Cucumber and Banana.

Now Apocalypse

Russell Tovey is brilliant in “Years and Years” Mag 39

ON STAGE

EXPERIENCE IT LIVE! WITH DANIEL DERCKSEN

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JOBURG

t Theatre On The Square in Sandton Cupcakes and Commiserations (3 – 21 Sept) is a psychological thriller that offers a smorgasbord of love, obsession, investigation and crime with Tammany Barton as a housewife who deals with the disappearance of her husband; Annie Robinson and Mark Mulder step in the shoes of Basil and Sybil in Fawlty Flowers (15 – 26 Oct); and the evocative and witty Gertrude Stein And A Companion (30 Oct – 16 Nov) was a winner at the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival with Shirley Johnston as author and poet Gertrude Stein and Lynita Crofford as her lifelong partner Alice B. Toklas who rejected the conservative values of middle class America in the early nineteen hundreds finding refuge in the bohemian decadence of Paris.

At the Joburg Theatre My Favourite Things (27 – 29 Sept) explores the fascinating and deeply moving story of Rodgers and Hammerstein- the song writing duo who quite literally changed Broadway forever with their ground-breaking musicals; Joburg Ballet’s sublime Giselle (4 – 13 Oct) showcases South Africa’s finest dancers; Janice Honeyman’s pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk (2 Nov – 22 Dec) features Casper de Vries and Germandt Geldenhuys Broadway’s smash hit musical Rock Of Ages will rock the Teatro at Montecasino (27 Sept – 20 Oct) featuring 28 nostalgic rock anthems, the sensational British piano-double-act Worbey & Farrell spin their magic on the keyboards in Rhapsody (6 – 17 Nov), and Peter Pan On Ice is on from 6 Dec – 11 Jan.

WESTERN CAPE

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ate69’s much anticipated down-and-dirty Adult Pantomime, The Three Blind Mice, opens on 04 October and will run until 21 December. If the two previous offerings (Macbeth and The Three Little Pigs) is anything to go by, then this promises to sell out soon!

Frans Swart’s tribute production, Ge Sing: Hoor My Lied! will visit Grand West’s Grand Arena on 28 Sept and features Andre Schwartz, Louis Loock, Arina de Witt, Jannie Moolman, the PJ Twins from TV’s The Voice who pay tribute to Ge Korsten.

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Evita Bezuidenhout

At Theatre on The Bay you can catch Pieter-Dirk Uys and Evita Bezuidenhout in #HeTwo (28 Aug to 14 Sept), the sensational British piano-double-act Worbey & Farrell spin their magic in Rhapsody (8 - 19 Oct) and share laughter with Mark Banks On Ice (23 Oct to 2 Nov).

At Artscape Fred Abrahamse’s staging of Tennessee Williams’ elegiac masterpiece The Glass Menagerie (1 – 30 Nov) promises lost of dramatic intrigue; the super-sensational Belinda Davids will blow your mind in Whitney (20 Nov – 1 Dec) and Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show stars Craig Urbani as the Sweet Transvestite (6 Dec – 12 Jan) Singer, songwriter, storyteller Nataniel performs his latest stage creation, When Giants Waltz at Artscape (10 – 15 Sept), and you can see Nataniel in Concert at the Durbanville High School Auditorium (13 Dec) as he reflects on his favourite stories.

At Alexander Bar Francis Chouler can be seen in Nocturne (10 – 21 Sept), an honest and unconventionally moving story of a man dealing with the effects of a life altering incident.

The Masque Theatre in Muizenberg brings us Calendar Girls (6 – 21 Dec), a funny and poignant play based on the 2003 film of the same name.

At the Milnerton Playhouse four Southern women escape their boring routines and meet for an impromptu ‘happy hour’ in The Savannah Sipping Society (27 Sept – 12 Oct) and you can see the Stephen Sondheim revue Putting it Together (29 Nov – 14 Dec).

At the Kalk Bay theatre catch the harmony, comedy and chaos of Man Band (until 21 Sept), and Mike Mccully & The Harmonix’ That 80s Show (8 – 19)

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DURBAN

he annual showcase extravaganza Shall We Dance is on at the Playhouse Opera (6- 17 Sept); Cellist with Rabies, created and performed by Jemma Kahn, will be the flagship drama production at this year’s 27th annual Hilton Arts Festival taking place at Hilton College, near Pietermaritzburg, from 13 - 15 Sept); and at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre KickStart is re-staging the delicious, sophisticated and enormously funny Noel Coward evergreen, Private Lives (24 Oct – 3 Nov), and the family end-of-year pantomime Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland ( 29 Nov – 5 Jan), and you can see Pieter-Dirk Uys’ #HeTwo (19 - 24 Nov) At the iZulu Theatre, situated at Sibaya Casino, you can see Burn the Floor “The Rebels of Ballroom” (12 – 29 Sept) and the world’s premier live ABBA tribute features performers from ABBAsolutely fABBAulous (13 Dec – 12 Jan) The Rockwood Theatre Durban presents A Tribute to the most Popular Music from Hollywood’s Greatest Movies (14 Nov – 26 Jan), featuring a formidable 10 piece cast of performers and musicians who will blow you away.

PRINCE ALBERT

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isit The Showroom Theatre in the heart of the Karoo for Marion Holm en Margit Meyer Rödenbeck in the hilarious Die Voordele van Eierwit (11/9), Blackie Swart en Jannie Moolman in Brandewyn en Melktert (14/9) Madeleine Barnard’s Mother City Jazz/Small town Blues (26/10).

Experience Theatre Live and visit www.writingstudio.co.za, featuring listing of theatres in South Africa and internationally.

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