Cape Town - On accepting his Lifetime Achievement honour at the 58th Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards, an emotional David Kramer remembered and paid tribute to his dear friend and musical partner, slain Taliep Petersen.
Kramer, along with Peter Cazalet, received Lifetime Achievement Awards at a glittering ceremony at the Oude Libertas Amphitheatre in Stellenbosch on Sunday.
Kramer was honoured for his immeasurable contribution to the arts and entertainment industry as a national and internationally renowned artist, singer, songwriter, guitarist, creator and producer of iconic musical theatre production and an archivist of South African music and stories, while Cazalet was acknowledged for his vast contribution to the national and international arts and entertainment industry, initially as a ballet dancer and subsequently as an award-winning set and costume designer and Capab’s head of design.
“Thank you so much to the Fleur du Cap panel for deciding to give me this wonderful Lifetime Achievement Award, I am truly honoured,” Kramer said.
“Sixty years ago, my father brought home a guitar from the furniture shop where he worked. That guitar in my hands at the age of 11 changed my life, and is the reason why I am standing here today, so I thank my father for doing that.
“There are so many people to thank. There are so many of you here that I have worked with. I do wish that my partner Taliep Petersen could still have been here with us,” an emotional Kramer said.
“Because it was Taliep and I, two entertainers, two guitar players, two performers who had nothing to do with the theatre world, who audaciously decided, ‘Why don't we write a musical?. We said let's get together, I said I've got some songs, he said, (he’s) got some songs, I said I've got some characters, and we got together and we wrote District Six the Musical in 1986. It was produced by the Baxter Theatre and ourselves in 1987 and it changed Cape Town theatre which was very much a white affair until that time. For the first time, we had audiences from all walks of life, flocking to see their story on stage.
“We were audacious, Taliep and I didnt know our upstage from our elbow, and I think people really didn't expect us to stay with it, but we had a wonderful time together and we wrote many musicals together until he was tragically murdered.”
Petersen, 56, was shot dead in his Athlone home on December 16, 2006, in a robbery that turned out to be a hit orchestrated by his wife, Najwa Petersen, 59. Najwa was sentenced to 28 years imprisonment.
Other winners on the night included Contested Bodies, produced by Abrahamse and Meyer Productions, which garnered awards for Best Director - Fred Abrahamse, Best Costume Design - Marcel Meyer and the cast of Matthew Baldwin, Lungile Lallie and Marcel Meyer were acknowledged for the Best Performance by an Ensemble.
The award for the Best Performance by a Lead Actor was a bittersweet moment as the late Mncedisi Shabangu was announced as the winner for his portrayal of Zacharia in Athol Fugard’s play Blood Knot. His name was one of the many who featured in the memorial section of the programme where artists who passed away during the year were remembered and mourned.
Mwenya Kabwe won the award for the Best Performance by a Lead Actress in a Play for her role as Rosa Feigel in Hold Still, which also earned acclaim as the Best New South African script for writer, Nadia Davids.
JM Coetzee’s Life & Times of Michael K, adapted for the stage by Lara Foot, a joint production between the Baxter Theatre, Theater der Welt in Düsseldorf and Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg took home the coveted Best Production Award.
Winners of the 58th Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards are:
1. AWARD FOR MOST PROMISING STUDENT
Mikayla Joy Brown | University of Stellenbosch/Honours
2. BEST NEW SOUTH AFRICAN SCRIPT
Nadia Davids | Hold Still
3. BEST NEW DIRECTOR
Carlo Daniels | No Complaints - New Day, New Dawn
4. BEST THEATRE PRODUCTION FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE
Marinda Engelbrecht and Margit Meyer-Rödenbeck | Vlooi en die geheim/Kipper and the Secret
5. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ENSEMBLE
Marcel Meyer, Matthew Baldwin and Lungile Lallie | Contested Bodies | Doctor James Barry, Lord Charles Somerset and John Nobody
6. BEST PERFORMANCE IN A REVUE, CABARET OR ONE-PERSON SHOW
Daniel Newton | Shadow Boxing | Flynn
7. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MUSICAL OR MUSIC THEATRE SHOW
Earl Gregory | Star+Crossed | Billy
8. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL OR MUSIC THEATRE SHOW
Isabella Jane | Star+Crossed | Bess
9. BEST PUPPETRY DESIGN
Adrian Kohler | Handspring Puppet Company | Life and Times of Michael K
10. BEST LIGHTING DESIGN
Gideon Lombard | Karatara
11. BEST SET DESIGN
Greg King | Fordsburg’s Finest
12. BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Marcel Meyer | Contested Bodies
13. BEST SOUND DESIGN, ORIGINAL MUSIC, SOUNDSCAPE OR LIVE PERFORMANCE
Gideon Lombard | Karatara | Sound design
14. BEST PERFORMANCE IN AN OPERA – MALE
Conroy Scott | Le Nozze di Figaro | Figaro
15. BEST PERFORMANCE IN AN OPERA – FEMALE
Brittany Smith | Le Nozze di Figaro | Susanna
16. BEST PERFORMANCE BY A SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A PLAY
Carlo Daniels | The Unlikely Secret Agent | Various roles
17. BEST PERFORMANCE BY A SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A PLAY
Berenice Barbier | Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf | Honey
18. BEST PERFORMANCE BY A LEAD ACTRESS IN A PLAY
Mwenya Kabwe | Hold Still | Rosa Feigel
19. BEST PERFORMANCE BY A LEAD ACTOR IN A PLAY
Mncedisi Shabangu | Blood Knot | Zacharia
20. BEST DIRECTOR
Fred Abrahamse | Contested Bodies
21. BEST PRODUCTION
Baxter Theatre Centre; Theater der Welt, Düsseldorf; Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg | Life and Times of Michael K
Cape Times