Award-winning actor, writer and director Patrick Kenny’s hilarious one-man play, “Yesterday’s Hero”, is not to be missed.
The semi-biographical story is about the ups and downs of Kenny’s life, from his days as a comedian on East Coast Radio to playing the dodgy Doctor Wallace on the e.tv soapie “Imbewu: The Seed”.
It follows the renowned media personality on his journey of survival, despite the misfortunes and disappointments that life throws at him.
Following his recovery from cancer in 2019, contracting Covid-19 in 2020 and the political unrest in 2021, Kenny decided to return to the National Arts Festival in Makhanda in the Eastern Cape as a one-man show performer in 2022, following a 25-year hiatus.
“Yesterday’s Hero” was created with help from his wife Shannon Kenny as well as his friends and theatre veterans, Aaron McIlroy and Lisa Bobbert McIlroy.
The 2020 Ovation winner wrote and stars in the play, with multi-award-winning comedian McIlroy in the director’s chair.
According to a statement, the production is loosely based on Kenny’s career and life.
“The story follows our hero as he bounces from fame to misfortune and back again in the pinball machine of life.
“It’s filled with hilarious stories, some true, some almost true. Like how he really got the lead role in the famous 1998 New York Castle Lager TV advert or how he and his wife briefly became champions for the Latvian cause against Russian oppression. ‘Yesterday’s Hero’ is about being almost famous,” it read.
Meanwhile, Dr Ismail Mahomed, the director of the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal shared: “In ‘Yesterday’s Hero’, Patrick Kenny is a ridiculously marvellous raconteur. Both his physical presence on stage and biographical narrative is larger than life.
“He is so funny that you keep guessing between what is really true and where an over-stretched imagination has scripted this outrageously hilarious work. If ever there was a formula to write an autobiography that can tickle every single funny bone, then certainly Kenny has mastered the art.”
Where: The Pumpkin Theatre in Ballito.
When: Friday, September 6, and Saturday, September 7, at 7pm and Sunday, September 8 at 2pm.
Cost: Tickets start at R100 and can be booked at www.pumpkintheatre.co.za.
Moscow Soloists Ensemble
Join one of the world’s most highly acclaimed chamber ensembles for an enchanting evening of opera music as they perform for the first time in the country.
The Moscow Soloists’s concert forms part of a cultural exchange between Russia and South Africa.
Founded by Yuri Bashmet in 1992, the Grammy Award-winning ensemble consists of graduates, students and postgraduates from the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory, where Bashmet serves as a professor and the head of the Viola Department.
Throughout their career, they performed in many prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York, the Royal Albert Hall and the Barbican Centre in London, the Philharmonie in Berlin and the Suntory Hall in Tokyo.
They have also toured Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Israel, Greece and Türkiye, among other countries.
Their recordings include the Schnittke Triple Concerto with Kremer, Rostropovich and Bashmet himself, and four highly successful albums --- two of which gained Grammy nominations - and the Stravinsky and Prokofiev winning the award in 2008.
Bashmet is a multi-award-winning artist and is poised as one of the greatest musicians of our time. He has received worldwide recognition as a violist, conductor and public figure and serves as the artistic director of 15 festivals in eight different countries.
Meanwhile, the ensemble’s performance in Durban includes Shostakovich’s Chamber symphony, Kuzma Bodrov’s Paganini Caprice No.24 and Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings in C major, Op. 48.
Where: The Playhouse Drama Theatre in Durban Central.
When: Friday, September 6, at 7pm.
Cost: Tickets start from R100 and can be purchased through Webtickets.