African Celebration at the 2008 Grahamstown festival.

AN AFRICAN CELEBRATION (main, music, presented by Standard Bank, directed by Janice Honeyman, with musical direction by Janine Neethling, Guy Butler Theatre).

Reviewed by Leon Muston, Arts Editor

THIS celebration of Standard Bank’s 25 years of sponsoring the National Arts Festival is one of the best productions on show this year and it’s a pity it was only scheduled for the one night.

The show lived up to its name, representing the very best in African entertainment ranging from choral singing to urban dancing, jazz and opera.

After an up-tempo opening from the Cantus Africana Choir, singing a medley of South African classics “Mamosimane” and “Mbube”, Sibongile Khumalo lit up the stage with her great stage presence and awesome vocal ability, singing one of her own compositions.

The audience was then introduced to the Young Artists Jazz Trio featuring the three most recent winners of the Standard Bank Young Artist Awards for jazz: guitarist Concord Nkabinde, saxophonist Shannon Mowday and pianist Mark Fransman, who collaborated on each other’s compositions.

Sibongile Mngoma demonstrated her stunning soprano operatic style before handing the stage over to a unique dance sequence combining tap and gumboot dancing – a segment which had to be seen to be believed.

But the undoubted highlight of the evening came when Zwai and Phelo Bala took to the stage accompanied by diminutive singer Nicholas Nicolaidis.

The trio performed “Largo al Factotem” from Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville”, but in a way which had the audience both applauding their vocal ability and roaring with laughter at their humour.

In addition to the traditional lyrics, the singers threw in elements of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”, Mandoza’s “Nkalakatha” and other traditional South African songs.

It would probably have been a good idea to have made this the finale, as the next few contributions seemed rather tame by comparison, but overall it was a phenomenal night’s entertainment, which one can only hope can be restaged for a longer run sometime in the future.