TONYA KOENDERMAN: THE GATSBY CLUB

 

(Left: Tonya Koenderman. Pic supplied)

Amidst a world of mischief, murder, and music, deep in the underground corners of New York, lies the infamous Gatsby Club. It’s 1930 - Prohibition is in full swing. Alcohol is illegal, but there’s certainly no shortage here. The jazz is hot, the nights are wild, and the mood is electric.

Now, this intoxicating world comes alive in The Gatsby Club, a dazzling new cabaret experience at the Old Mushroom Farm in Howick starring Tonya Koenderman and produced by KZN Midlands local Charles Webster.

Returning to the stage with her signature wit and powerhouse vocals, Tonya delivers a decadent tribute to the golden age of swing - featuring timeless classics such as Le Jazz Hot, Summertime, Blues in the Night, Makin’ Whoopee, All That Jazz, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, and My Baby Just Cares for Me.

Hailed by critics as “one of the hottest properties on the cabaret circuit” and “a pint-sized dynamo”, Tonya Koenderman has captivated audiences across South Africa and beyond for more than three decades.

She began her career in Kevin Feather’s The Dooh Wah Girls in 1990, which ran for four years, and has since starred in a string of acclaimed productions including We 3, Juke is King, Jive to the Juke, Wurlitzer, All of Woman, and Shake Your Bootie.

Her solo shows - from Growing Old Disgracefully to Tonya Unwrapped and Makin’ Whoopee to Liza with a T, Divas to a T, and Born to Diva - have showcased her vocal range, comedic flair, and magnetic stage presence. Tonya has also worked extensively with Sun International, notably starring as the only local performer in the 16-month Sun City sensation Beyond Belief, where she portrayed her idol, Liza Minnelli.

Her performance credits span the globe - from South Africa to Saudi Arabia, Australia, Italy, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Morocco - earning her a loyal following and widespread critical acclaim

Step back in time and lose yourself in an evening of glitz, jazz, and vintage charm as The Old Mushroom Farm transforms into a 1920s speakeasy. Dress up (if you dare!) and prepare for a night where the music never stops and the champagne flows freely - at least in spirit.

Raise a glass (or two) and let the Roaring Thirties come alive once more at The Gatsby Club!

The show takes place on November 29, 2025. Doors open at 18h00 with the show starting at 19h00.

Tickets: R180 per person. Dinner and soft drinks available – BYOB

Bookings essential: WhatsApp 083 379 8070 or email toat@mweb.co.za

The Old Mushroom Farm is located at 11 Karkloof Road, Howick. For more information, call Charles Webster on 082 331 7271.

KZNPO 2025 SPRING SEASON CONCERT #2

 

The second and final concert of the KZN Philharmonic’s 2025 World Symphony Spring Season takes place in The Playhouse Opera on Thursday November 13, starting at 19h00.

Grammy Award-winning conductor Michael Repper makes his KZN Philharmonic debut on November 13 with a programme of English, Austrian and German classics spanning the late 18th and 19th centuries – curated to afford the audience an evening of contrasting musical adventures.  Maestro Repper opens with Elgar’s idyllic Serenade for Strings.

Haydn's joyous D major Cello Concerto heralds the debut appearance of the acclaimed Norwegian cellist Sandra Lied Haga. Her interpretation is eagerly awaited as she puts her stamp on its wealth of melodies and bravura passages. The evening climaxes in high spirits with the youthful vigour and optimism of the teenage Felix ebullient Mendelssohn's First Symphony.

There are park and bus options for patrons who would prefer not to self-drive to the concerts. There are routes from Upper Highway, St Agnes (depart 17h50); North Coast, Grace Family Church (depart 18h10); Westville Senior Primary (depart 18h10) and Berea Caister Lodge (depart 18h20). Book through the KZN Phil offices before 16h00 Monday before each concert.

KZN Philharmonic tickets are available at Quicket outlets.

For more information, call 031-369 9438, email bookings@kznphil.org.za or visit www.kznphil.org.za.

 

To link to the KZNPO’s website, click on the advert at the top right hand of this article.

 

AMAQHAWE ESIZWE MUSIC FESTIVAL

 

Celebrate South Africa’s cultural heroes and spiritual artistry at the Amaqhawe Esizwe Music Festival! Experience dynamic gospel and traditional performances from talented artists, including Bahubhe, Amayellowbone, Solwazi, Gadla Nxumalo and more.

This special event honours local and international South African representatives recognised by His Majesty the King and the SA State President, showcasing unity, excellence and the rich spirit of South African music.

The festival takes place on November 15 at 12h00 in the Playhouse Opera Theatre.

Tickets: R150 – R200 available at Webtickets

MASINGA – THE CALLING

Showmax has just dropped the trailer for Masinga – The Calling, which premieres on the African streamer on Friday, December 5, 2025.

Filmed in KwaZulu-Natal and London, Masinga – The Calling won Best Director and Best Screenplay for Mark Engels at both the 2025 Simon Mabhunu Sabela Awards in Durban and The Palermo Independent International Film Festival in Italy. 

The crime thriller explores an exiled detective's return to his homeland, where he is forced to confront the demons of his youth and the trauma of the ritual murder of his young brother who had albinism, while rescuing an Asian girl from a similar fate.

In the title role, SAFTA winner Hakeem Kae-Kazeem (Pirates of Caribbean, Hotel Rwanda) leads a star-studded cast that includes Shamilla Miller (The Umbrella Men, Devil's Peak) as his rookie partner, plus SAFTA winners Abdul Khoza (Shaka iLembe, The Wife), Fana Mokoena (World War Z, The Lab), Warren Masemola (The Republic, Tjovitjo), and Brandon Auret (Elysium, District 9, Rebel Moon), as well as Sean Cameron Michael (Black Sails, Die Byl) and Mbuso Khoza, who took home Best Supporting Actor at the 2025 Simon Mabhunu Sabela Awards.

News24’s Joel Ontong says, “Masinga - The Calling packs a powerful punch… The pacing is airtight, resulting in an instantly enthralling experience.”

Watch the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdB9RcNWpHE

GETTING TESTED

 

Presented by Njingayombuso Investment (Pty) Ltd in association with The Playhouse Company, Getting Tested is a powerful theatre production inspired by the true stories of five female dancers who meet for rehearsal, each from vastly different backgrounds but united in their pursuit of healing, identity and expression.

Through music, dance, and drama, their stories unfold, Mandisi, a bubbly soul with painful secrets; Smah, trapped by tradition; Gugu, battling privilege and illness; Nto, overcoming hate and reclaiming her voice and Matilda, embracing self-love after years of body-shaming.

This 45-minute production celebrates womanhood, resilience and transformation, drawing inspiration from the women of 1956 to the heroines of today.

Getting Tested runs from November 13 to 15, 2025, at 10h00 in The Playhouse Loft Theatre.

Tickets: R50 - R100 available at Webtickets

 

CECCHETTI KZN GALA PERFORMANCE

Experience an unforgettable evening of grace, artistry, and talent as KwaZulu-Natal’s finest dancers take the stage for the Annual Cecchetti KZN Gala Performance. This dazzling showcase celebrates excellence in dance, blending passion and precision in every movement.

Don’t miss this spectacular celebration of dance, a night that promises to inspire and captivate audiences of all ages!

The show takes place on November 15 at 13h00 in the Playhouse Drama Theatre.

Tickets: R180 available at Webtickets

KZNPO SPRING SEASON 2025 CONCERT 1: REVIEW

 

(Second violin tutti player Deidre Cicilie and Second violin, Cadet Nicola Botha preparing for Vaughan Williams’ Lark Ascending. Photo by Shelley Kjonstad)

 

Concert 1 of the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra’s World Symphony Series took place in The Playhouse Opera on November 6, 2025. (Review by David Smith)

While the KZNPO proceeds with its policy of two-concert seasons, its sister orchestra in Johannesburg luxuriates in a four-concert stretch. Durban benefits from some of the visiting conductors and artists arriving in the country. Interestingly, the Cape Town Philharmonic’s current five-concert summer season shares with its national counterparts only one artist, the violinist Jack Liebeck.

It has to be said that in him they have picked a winner. Liebeck dominated the first half of last Thursday’s concert in the most felicitous way, by pairing Vaughan Williams’s Romance for violin and orchestra, The Lark Ascending, with Saint-Säens’s Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso in a composite ‘concerto’ that, however unlikely a hybrid on paper, together made a tasteful and appealing impact.

The lark-inspired piece is a great favourite, evoking not only the English countryside in a quieter age but opening a vein of mysticism that shines through the finest of Vaughan Williams’s music. Quite apart from his impeccable intonation, Liebeck’s playing invested the highly embellished line with a purity and directness that disarmed the listener from the first sounds.

There was nothing ‘technical’ about the effects of swooping, wheeling and fluttering: the ‘magic’ arose from the soloist’s masterly bowing, which was sweet, infinitely sensitive to gradations and ‘breathing’, and in both its sonorous and aerial qualities, added up to an authoritative account, to which conductor Daniel Boico joined the sustained orchestral surging with wonderful effect.

Saint-Säens wrote his work with an exceptional young soloist in mind – Pablo de Sarasate – and provided a languorous prelude that gives way to a swaggering, mercurial rondo of jewel-like brilliance. Liebeck rendered it with satisfying poise, and a vigorous despatch of the showy passages that dot the composition, over the orchestra’s thrumming gestures.

The purely orchestral items of the concert were Mozart’s Don Giovanni Overture (1787) and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, ‘Eroica’ (1803). The former is a pungent seven-minute preamble to the opera that manages to communicate both its solemn drama and its racy energy, even with the change of context from theatre pit to platform, and the over-assertive concert ending that replaces the run-on structure of the overture into Act 1. The work had barely begun when the primacy of the string-playing became obvious, and the contest for a balance with the wind instruments was commenced. Boico gave what he could (more of that below), but the music was largely in the hands of the ensemble, and they showed a determination to make this revered overture ‘work’.

Using orchestral forces that correspond closely to Mozart’s, the Beethoven symphony is a challenge of a different order. Again, the strings had to strive for their place in the aural picture, and punched above their limited number. But this symphony is an unprecedentedly lengthy work (double the duration of most of its predecessors), which, quite apart from the mental stamina required, demands the utmost responsibility from all the players. Boico made it clear, by his gestures and in his sonic detailing, that the sweep of the work required long-phrase thinking to support the rich surface variety. Inasmuch as the orchestra assumed this task, it proved capable of rising to the heights of this composition. (The horns, for example, featured beautifully in the scherzo.) But it takes a settled and alert body of players to dovetail the varying rhythmic patterns of the funeral march, and some of that proved nervous stuff. Likewise, the complex wind contributions work to greatest advantage when their tuning is finely calculated: this was sometimes not the case.

All the sterling work delivered, however, will provide a basis in the coming week for the second of these symphonic excursions. - David Smith

The second – and final – concert of the Spring Season will take place on Thursday, November 13, 2025, at 19h00 in the Playhouse Opera.

Tickets are available at Quicket outlets. For more information, call 031-369 9438, email bookings@kznphil.org.za  or visit www.kznphil.org.za

To link to the KZNPO’s website, click on the advert at the top right-hand corner of this article.

 

SNOW WHITE AND THE ZULU WARRIOR

 

The world’s most beloved fairytale … with an African touch!

Banished from her homeland, Snow White awakens in a vibrant African kingdom alive with rhythm, colour, and spirit.

Guided by a fierce Zulu warrior and the magic of the blue cranes, she discovers that true beauty lies in courage, unity and inner strength but danger looms as the jealous Queen unleashes the poisoned marula fruit.

Featuring over 160 dancers and a thrilling fusion of ballet, contemporary, tap, pantsula and African fusion, this breathtaking dance spectacular celebrates Africa’s strength, soul and storytelling magic.

Performances of Snow White and the Zulu Warrior take place from November 28 to 30, 2025, at 18h30 in the Playhouse Drama Theatre.

Tickets R250 available at Webtickets

For more information, visit https://playhousecompany.com/

PLAYHOUSE TEST DRIVING THE ARTS

 

Join The Playhouse Company for an uplifting afternoon of music, movement and inspiration right in the heart of Durban! This special programme is part of The Playhouse Company’s ongoing commitment to nurturing the city’s artistic spirit because artists are truly the heartbeat of KZN’s rhythm and energy.

Featuring: Ikusasa Elihle, with Bazini Msomi as MC.

The event will take place on November 11, 2025, from 13h00 at the Port Cochere of The Playhouse Company.

Free Entry!

Come and feel the energy, a joyful celebration of creativity you won’t want to miss!

 

GREGORY PORTER FOR ICC

 

Catch Gregory Porter, the soul and jazz icon, LIVE on November 15, 2025, at 20h00 at the Durban ICC.

Gregory Porter returns to South Africa for three unforgettable nights of soul-stirring jazz and timeless storytelling.

The two-time Grammy Award-winner, celebrated for his warm baritone voice, poetic songwriting, and captivating stage presence, will perform live in Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Durban this November.

Audiences can expect an evening of world-class musicianship, smooth grooves, and the heartfelt connection that has made Gregory Porter one of the most beloved artists of our time.

Tickets available from ticketmaster.co.za

 

SEBA KAAPSTAD LIVE AT THE CHAIRMAN

 

The Chairman proudly welcomes Seba Kaapstad for their first-ever performance in Durban - a long-awaited homecoming for a sound that transcends borders.

 

The globally-acclaimed collective featuring Zoë Modiga, Manana, Sebastian Schuster, and Pheel, arrives as part of their three-city tour celebrating the release of their latest album. Known for their genre-bending fusion of soul, jazz, electronic textures, and African rhythm, Seba Kaapstad’s music is an experience that lingers long after the final note.

 

Though The Chairman has previously hosted the iconic Zoë Modiga and Manana in their solo capacities, this evening brings the full ensemble together for the first time, revisiting songs from their celebrated catalogue including Thina, Konke, and Tagore’s, alongside new compositions that trace the evolution of their unmistakable sound.

 

The event takes place on November 14, 2025.

 

Doors open at 16h00 and the show starts at 20h00 - bar and café open throughout the evening. Tickets from R350. Book at Quicket. (No under-18s are permitted)

 

The Chairman is located at 146 Mahatma Gandhi Road, Point, Durban.

 

DFMI CALL FOR LIVE ACTION PROJECTS

 

Deadline: Sunday, February 1 2026

 

The Durban FilmMart Institute (DFMI) has opened the call for live action projects to pitch at DFM 2026.

In preparation for the 17th edition of the Durban FilmMart, the DFMI opens the call for fiction and documentary projects in development. Approximately 20 official projects will then be invited to participate in the DFM Pitch and Finance Forum alongside 8 animation projects.

Project representatives will have the opportunity to pitch to a panel of film professionals consisting of potential co-producers, broadcasters, film funds, and distributors who will be gathering in Durban, South Africa from July 24 – 27, 2026.

Magdalene Reddy, director of the DFM, says: “39 cash grants, international market participation and professional consultancy and mentorship awards from 31 partners worth R2 626 900.00 were presented at the 2025 DFM Pitch and Finance forum to filmmakers pitching in the forum. These awards give filmmakers the needed opportunity to further develop their projects. The Durban FilmMart is pleased that we can facilitate this space for African filmmakers to connect with the local and international filmmaking community.”

Filmmakers with projects in development from across the African continent and the diaspora are invited to apply - at least one of the 3 key creatives (Producer, Writer, Director) should be from Africa or African in the Diaspora (with an African passport*). The Pitch and Finance Forum is open to both series and feature-length projects.

Successful project participants will be assigned an individual mentor to assist in preparing for the live pitch and meetings at DFM 2026. To present their project at the 17th DFM, one representative from each of the selected projects will be provided with travel* and accommodation to attend the live Pitch and Finance Forum in July 2026, in Durban, South Africa.

(*Terms and conditions apply for the travel and accommodation support).

 

Application criteria:

The programme is open to African filmmakers with an active feature length or episodic live action project in development.

The programme is open to both fiction and documentary projects.

At least one of the 3 key creatives (Producer, Writer, Director) must be from Africa or African in the Diaspora (with an African passport). Should you have any questions regarding the acceptability of your documentation which connects you to the continent, especially if it is not an African passport, please write to DFMI via info@durbanfilmmart.com

Project applications must be completed in English, however the language of the project itself is up to the imagination of the filmmaker/ writer.

At least one representative must be available to participate in the online masterclass and mentorship programme and be physically present in Durban for the duration of the 17th Durban FilmMart.

Applications can be made through the Durban FilmMart Institute website: https://durbanfilmmart.co.za/pitch-and-finance-forum-application/

Deadline for applications: Sunday, February 1 2026

To keep up to date on call-outs, filmmakers are encouraged to sign up for the DFMI newsletter on the website:  https://durbanfilmmart.co.za/ or follow on social media.