Claremont dancer and choreographer Steven van Wyk, whose recent feats include playing Cosmo Brown in the international and South African tours of Singin’ in the Rain, says the new Underground Dance Threatre production PULP is the company’s “most intriguing work yet”.
This is no small claim given that Underground Dance Theatre took home the kykNET Fiesta Blue Couch Award for producing the most ground-breaking work of 2015.
The company is known for its innovative style blending contemporary dance, South African dance theatre and physical theatre.
Van Wyk, who was nominated for the Fleur du Cap Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his role as Cosmo Brown, was resident director and resident choreographer of The Fugard Theatre’s Rocky Horror Show and resident choreographer on musicals The Sound of Music and Sunset Boulevard.
He has also taken part in the Asian and South African tours of Dirty Dancing, and played “Riff” in Jerome Robbins’s West Side Story Suite for the American Dance Festival in North Carolina.
Cape Dance Company, Bovim Ballet and Cape Town City Ballet are among the companies he has also performed with.
An intoxicating marriage of film noir and dance theatre, PULP is the most intimate work yet from these leaders in local dance.
The show will be performed at the Rosebank Theatre from Thursday July 7 to Saturday July 16 and at the Galloway Theatre in Cape Town from Wednesday July 20 to Saturday July 23 .
PULP is created and performed by Van Wyk, Thalia Laric (Nicola Elliott’s Run! and numerous productions with First Physical Theatre) and Cilna Katzke (Sean Bovim’s Tango Nights;iKapa’s Stadium and various productions with Cape Town City Ballet).
The production begins in a hazy dream, a silent movie where bodies hide secrets.
Mysterious beauty, dark comedy, and seat-shifting tension all co-exist within a work that follows the peculiar logic of dream.
Like the iconic film noir private detective navigating a morally ambiguous, labyrinthine city populated by femme fatales, mobsters and suspicious housewives, so must the audience navigate the world that is presented to them in PULP, searching for clues, gathering evidence, and perhaps preparing an alibi as they deal with their own demons.
“The show also references jazz dance, musicals and is a pastiche of film noir history.
“PULP is a world that’s dark, delicious, dangerous and very exciting – come share the journey with us,” Van Wyk said.
Tickets for The Rosebank Theatre cost R100 and can be booked at Webtickets(www.webticket. co.za)
Tickets for the Galloway Theatre shows are between R90 and R100 and can be booked at www.water fronttheatreschool.co.za/booknow
