(Tom Read, Pauline
Dalais, Caroline Smart, Sivani Chinappan & Hamish Kyd, with Mayuri Naidu, Kajal
Bagwandeen & Mpume Mthombeni in front. Pic by Val Adamson)
Here’s your chance to be part of a ground-breaking new entertainment
project which celebrates the unfettered magic of radio drama, brought to you
live onstage!
Due to public demand, Clinton Marius’s record-breaking radio
comedy, Lollipop Lane, which delighted
thousands of fans for four years, morphs into a serialized stage show – bringing
back to life the whacky gallery of folk from the block of flats where “the lift
doesn’t quite go to the top floor”.
Scripted by Marius and directed by Caroline Smart, the new series
will be staged as a bi-monthly theatrical radio comedy, performed before a live
audience. The exciting new venture will subsequently be broadcast on Tape Aids
for the Blind’s DSTV channel.
“Since Lollipop Lane’s
four-year run on air ended in 2012, I have continued to field calls from fans for
the show to be revived in one way or another. So it is exciting for us to be
able to offer a new platform for them to re-united with all their ‘old friends’
from the series,” says its creator, Clinton Marius.
“The first episode, sub-titled The Big Biscuit Bake-Off, which focuses on one of the highpoints of
the radio comedy series, will be treated as a bridge between the radio show and
its future presentations which will be staged and recorded as theatre-soapie
episodes.
This transformation element will represent an ongoing staged
soapie! The Big Biscuit Bake-Off is
to be presented at Durban’s Catalina Theatre on Wilson’s Wharf on October 24
and 25 at 19h30, with a matinee performance on October 26 at 14h30.
Lollipop Lane - The
Big Biscuit Bake-Off stars Pauline Dalais and Sivani Chinappan, with Kajal
Bagwandeen, Hamish Kyd, Mpume Mthombeni, Tom Read, Mayuri Naidu and Caroline
Smart in the stellar cast.
“The idea to retain the radio element of Lollipop Lane came
from a notion I had of revisiting the presentations of the hugely popular
Springbok Radio comedy productions that came from Durban – Tom Meehan’s Men from the Ministry, Father, Dear Father
and The Navy Lark,” explains Caroline
Smart.
“These productions were recorded in front of an audience at
the Durban SABC studios, then edited and sent to Johannesburg to broadcast.
However, the productions often went “on the road’, giving performances at
venues outside Durban and further afield.”
“This is the idea behind Lollipop
Lane’s revival – to provide work for actors, make it available for
fundraising purposes, reach a wider audience and ultimately to benefit members
of Tape Aids for the Blind. I’m also delighted to be able to introduce the
magic of radio theatre to a new generation!”
Lollipop Lane - The
Big Biscuit Bake-Off runs at Catalina Theatre on Wilson’s Wharf on October 24
and 25 at 19h30, with a matinee performance on October 26 at 14h30. Tickets R100
available at Computicket, telephonically on 0861 915 8000, or online at www.computicket.com. Early booking is
advised.
The staging of Lollipop
Lane – The Big Biscuit Bake-Off is grateful for the support of the KZN
Performing Arts Trust.
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