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My Fellow South Africans, a satirical take on contemporary South Africa

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My Fellow South Africans, a multi-sketch revue by award-winning playwright, Mike van Graan (Pay Back the Curry, Green Man Flashing, When Swallows Cry) will be performed at Isithatha in Gqeberha on the 23rd and 24th June 2023 and various other venues in the city until the 28th June.

The revue comprises older, updated and new sketches that comment on contemporary South Africa in ways that make the audience think, and perhaps squirm, even while laughing.

There’s SAA that provides a one-way ticket to Status Junk; a tour guide that offers a ride up the cable car, the only car that has not been hijacked; a production of Romeo and Juliet to address racism between ‘black’ and ‘brown’ communities on the Cape Flats; Shakespeare doing a TIXERB (BREXIT in reverse) as he seeks to buy a Hamlet in South Africa, and much, much more.

The talented Kim Blanche Adonis performs this solo piece that combines comedy, singing, poetry and drama – at times playing multiple characters in one sketch – through sixty minutes of high energy and focus.

Van Graan directs the piece which genuflects in some sketches to the direction of Rob van Vuuren and Daniel Richards in previous versions of some of the sketches.

Taken from Ramaphosa’s preferred opening to his ‘family meetings’ during the COVID lockdowns, the title of the revue is used ironically as the piece does not shy away from sharp and critical commentary, allowing the audience a moment of catharsis in a country where citizens are going through a lot.

Humour is one of the ways in which we have learned to cope with the many challenges we encounter on a daily basis. My Fellow South Africans offers an hour-long respite from the darkness of the news, the clouds that have replaced the rainbow, and of course, ESKOM.

The premiere season of the show was extended after its final week sold out.

This is some of what critics had to say about the revue:

My Fellow South Africans is bracing satirical sketch comedy, performed by Kim Blanche Adonis with great skill…Adonis…is funny and fabulous and there are moments of laugh-out-loud laughter and we need that. – Robyn Cohen, Cape Robyn

My Fellow South Africans does exactly what it promises to do: it gives audiences an entertaining satirical take on contemporary South Africa and does so by merging wit and commentary in a provokingly entertaining manner. – Barbara Loots, Theatre Scene Cape Town

Die stuk volg in die voetspore van die bekroonde Pay Back the Curry, State Fracture en Land Acts en is ‘n uitbunding, satiriese katarsis vir ons veelvuldige krisisse, met selfspot en humor as salf en versterkmiddel teen die donker. – Susan Booyens, Litnet

…this revue will spark conversation, discussion and debate, all of which are necessary in the year leading up to having our thumbnails stamped as we ink an ‘X’ onto a ballot. – Jamie Uranovsky, www.broadwayworld.com

My Fellow South Africans runs at ARTSCAPE in Cape Town until the 17 June, after which it will be in the Eastern Cape for the Power of Humour conference hosted by the Nelson Mandela University. A short tour of schools and other venues is being planned in the province with both My Fellow South Africans and He Had It Coming, a second revue performed by Adonis and penned by Van Graan and which focuses on the scourge of gender-based violence.

For more information and to book a show, contact Chantal Bezuidenhout on 069 196 4098.

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