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Saturday, October 2, 2021

CORNUCOPIA FOR ST CLEMENTS

October soirée time at Mondays @ Six at St Clements on October 4 at 18h00 for an evening of entertainment, conviviality, delectable bistro fare and food for thought. Professor Pieter Scholtz will engage the audience with a spring “literary” happening: Cornucopia.

The programme will include readings from Dylan Thomas and Spike Milligan. There will also be a spot of live music.

* Cornucopia: In classical antiquity, the cornucopia, from Latin cornu and copia, also called the horn of plenty, was a symbol of abundance and nourishment, commonly a large horn-shaped container overflowing with produce, flowers, or nuts. In this case ideas, words and creativity.

Scholtz was a co-founder of Mondays at Six, which began, going on 20 years ago. For many years the soirées were held every Monday. Three or four years ago, they switched to monthly.

Emeritus Professor Pieter Scholtz headed the Department of Speech and Drama at the University of Natal in Durban (UKZN Howard College campus) for more than 20 years (1973–1995). During this time, he wrote and published 17 plays for young audiences in a series entitled Plays for Young Africa. Productions of these plays were presented in the Open-Air theatre each year for six-monthly seasons. On his retirement in 1995, the theatre was officially named the Pieter Scholtz Open-air Theatre. During his tenure in the Drama department, he directed some 150 productions.

Scholtz received many awards for his playwriting and his productions, including the Amstel Playwright of the Year award on two occasions for two of the plays in his Tambootie series. Two of his books were published by Struik Publishers (Tales of the Tokoloshe and Demon of the Curry Powders).

One of the highlights of a busy and turbulent life in the theatre was his production of Umabatha (the Zulu Macbeth), which was first presented in the open-air theatre (1969) and subsequently at the World Theatre Season in London in 1972, with Welcome Msomi in the title role. The production played to capacity houses and great acclaim at the Aldwych Theatre.

As an actor, he played the lead in Hamlet, NAPAC's first Shakespearean production, in 1964. Many remember him for his legendary "lead" performance in Fiddler on The Roof.

Since 2007, he has been writing and publishing plays, novels and collections of poetry under his own imprint: Horus Publications. Some were written post-retirement when he spent the English summers on a long-boat he owned for a time. Some were written during European summers spent in the “water tower” he had, for some years, in France. More recently, some were written in his erstwhile “treehouse” in Eshowe. Mainly these days he writes from his “room with a view” of the Indian Ocean on the Durban beachfront.

Wear a mask. Covid protocols observed.

The event will be held outdoors (dress accordingly) with carefully spaced seating. The past two months it has rained, and the event has been moved inside.

Bookings limited to diners in support of St Clements restaurant and staff. (They stay open especially.)

Orders are now taken at the table. During early curfew times, meals were served during the performance. This option will continue. Orders are entered separately as before. If you wish to dine after the presentation, place your order before 18h00.

Cornucopia takes place on October 4 at 18h00.

St Clements is situated at 191 Musgrave Road. Mondays @ Six run between 18h00 and 19h00. Table bookings are essential on 031 202 2511. There is no cover charge but there is a donations box to support presenters. When the donations box is passed around, the suggested minimum is R50 per person.