Are Cape theatres alive with the sound of racism?

Being in the New Space Theatre for the first time since the old New Space closed nearly three decades ago — and only hours after reading Sandile Memela’s indictment of supposedly racist Cape theatre — had me wondering about his diatribe and the state of protest theatre right now. (Yes, I know, what protest theatre? There is, after all, plenty to protest about.)

And let’s be entirely honest: the man has a point. Is his point valid? Is it fair? That’s all debatable. But he has a point worth making, has stated it eloquently, and sure as hell has a right to say it in this free country of ours. As, um, do I. So…

Memela slams the “lack of transformation in the arts”, particularly in the Western Cape, noting that at Artscape, the Baxter and the New Space the audiences are largely white (and you have to wonder if his inference is not that they are supposedly also largely racists).

So I was disappointed to see, in last night’s opening night of Great Dames with Broadway star Christine Pedi, that in this instance at least, Memela was on the money. In a full, papered house, the audience was not only at least 97% white, there was hardly a soul under 45, most were well gone 55, and easily 75% of them were female. Of the remaining 25%, a good 80% were gay, as Pedi was keenly aware, which left only 20% either straight or in the closet (as Pedi was also keenly aware). Pretty much on par for Cape Town.

What does it all mean? I fear that it may mean that theatre as we know it at the Cape must be dying, and that most of the males are already dead or gay. Women do, after all, generally last a tad longer than blokes. (I’m not talking about sex here.)

What could it all mean? Could it mean that most people paying to see a Broadwayesque show starring a female singer who impersonates the grande dames of the stage … are, you know … gay? Are we to deduce that gay men like Liza with a Z and Bette Midler? What does this tell us? Could it be that people are exercising their personal choice according to their own culture and interests? Could this be democracy at work?

Could it mean that straight black Capetonians are (by and large) not all that interested in a Broadway-ish show starring a woman impersonating Julie Andrews and Judi Dench? Could it mean that black Capetonians aren’t all that big on Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music? Gosh.

So, if we’re to follow Memela’s argument, are we to conclude that Christine Pedi is racist because she specialises in songs performed almost entirely by white dames, and that her audiences, by paying to see her perform this racist repertoire, are only proving that they’re the diehard racists they supposedly always were?

Are we to deduce all this without knowing anything at all about the individuals in the audience other than the colour of their skin?

And would that not be, you know, a racist thing? To judge somebody by the colour of their skin? Just asking.

Having said all that, I believe that, broadly, Memela does have a point. But more about that later … let’s have some fun with this post first…