CHRIS THURMAN: A stirring musical despite uncomfortable home truths
Most of the conversations I have with South African performing artists revolve around familiar themes: the difficulty of securing and filling venues, the financial precariousness of almost every show, the unpredictability and unsustainability of our arts funding practices (such as they are). So it felt refreshing to sit in a full Artscape Theatre last weekend, with a 500-strong audience packed in for a matinee performance of the musical Calling Us Home.
If you can reproduce this kind of turnout a few dozen times over the course of a three- or four-week run you have a potentially profitable production on your hands — even with the costs of a large cast, orchestra, crew, sets, tech, travel, front of house, security, marketing and more...
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