BEAUTY AT THE HEX

Radio personality, writer and comic sensation Ben Voss is back with his razor-sharp, motor mouth alter - ego Beauty Ramapelepele in Bend It Like Beauty.

As the gap between Africa and the West widens, Beauty is torn between the capitalist trappings of western society and the familiar traditions of her home, South Africa. To keep her options open she has strengthened her ANC ties and at the same time taken an all-expenses first class trip with the Department of Tourism to showcase South Africa to the old foe, England, as well as some other western powers. That's what her itinerary says, anyway. But is she just looking to fast track her own immigration?

In Bend it Like Beauty South Africa's loudmouth seers the colonizer she is trying to impress and skewers the ailing colony she is tired of living in. With vitriolic candour she dishes out her verdict on her trip to the United Kingdom and what it is like to be a South African abroad.

In the process she answers such pressing questions as: Should "British Museum" not just read "Britain - a Museum" Why do Indians in London talk with an English accent and why are western politicians so much more expensive? Also she checks out whether, on his visit to the UK, Jacob Zuma made it into Buckingham Palace during the Changing of the Guard and showed the Queen his own crown jewels and could Julius get into Britain on a woodwork scholarship?

From an anal probe at Heathrow airport (the British were convinced she was smuggling cocaine) to her final speech to the South African cabinet she gives us a fly on the wall account of being a Black Beauty in Britain.

Ramapelepele, who is fast becoming a recognized socialite and self-made woman amongst South Africa's business and political elite, will enjoy a brief season where she shares a few secrets of her success.

Funny, fiery and fresh, Bend It Like Beauty has played in London for a three week season and now tours South Africa, taking in Durban, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pretoria, and The National Arts Festival in Grahamstown where Bend it Like Beauty won an Ovation Award for Best Comedy.

Bend It Like Beauty runs at the Hexagon Theatre in Pietermaritzburg from February 16 to 19 at 19h30. Tickets R90 (R70 students/seniors). Bookings e-mail hexagon@ukzn.ac.za or on 033 260 5537.