News

Exactly a year ago today the curtain came down here at Theatre On The Bay as it did at theatres all over South Africa.

Actors, dancers, singers, musicians, technicians, tens of thousands of wonderfully talented people suddenly found themselves out of work.

3 weeks became 6 weeks became 6 months and here we are exactly a year later with still no end in sight as we face the possibility of a third wave.

The past year has been catastrophic for the Performing Arts, incomprehensible and unprecedented.

No other part of the SA economy has been so badly impacted by the Pandemic. Artistes are self-employed. Brilliantly creative people have simply been thrown to the wolves. And never have the Performing Arts been needed more.  People are longing for the meaningful joyful experiences that theatre provided night after night year after year.

We long for a World beyond the vaccination programme where we gather together again in a room to share stories and witness wonders. The Performing Arts have enormous power to heal and that is what our country desperately needs now.

Magic happens every night when the curtain goes up in a theatre and actors enter to tell a story to just that audience.

Every performance is a one off, a performance given just once to that audience, the last part of the show finishing it with their imaginations.

This has been a strange tough year for us all. The isolation of Lockdown. But there is light ahead.
Let’s hope the third wave is not as bad as the first two and that the vaccine programme rolls out quickly.

That way people will feel positive again and we will take all possible precautions to make your visit to our theatre safe.

Actors can’t wait to act for you again. We all need human interaction celebrating the joys of life.
Not too far off we will be sitting next to each other again in our theatre waiting for the curtain to go up and the magic to begin.

Please stay safe. We need you back at our theatre. We are waiting for you.

Best regards,
Pieter Toerien.