I recently had the great pleasure of spending another weekend at Oudrif. We went to see the flowers, but ever since I first heard that locals had seen aardvarks in the area, I have been dreaming of a sighting myself … And every time on the way there, I would say, “This time!” But for seven years, the aardvarks had ignored my wishes. Until now! Once again, I said, “THIS time.” And just before arriving at Oudrif, right in front of us, like a mythical creature imagining itself into being, there she (or he) was: an aardvark! Pure wonder!
Needless to say, I am in love!
As I am in love with this little one, who is the latest CLAWS (Clanwilliam Animal Welfare Society) rescue puppy staying at Oudrif before finding his forever home:
Every year, CLAWS fundraises through a Lucky Draw Raffle. This year, you can win a Karavan Press book hamper – among many other fantastic prizes – and support CLAWS.
CLANWILLIAM ANIMAL WELFARE NPO 262-101
Entries close on 26 October 2024
Draw will be on 28 October 2024
Prize not redeemable for cash
Winners will be announced on social media and contacted directly
I have the huge honour of interviewing the following authors at upcoming literary festivals.
First up: Prince Albert Leesfees is taking place between 30 August and 1 September, and I will be interviewing Andrew Brown about his The Bitterness of Olives on Saturday, 31 August, at 10:15 a.m. I am not only looking forward to this conversation, but to returning to Prince Albert and the local Leesfees. More great memories will be made for sure.
And then it’s Open Book time! Taking place between 6 and 8 September, the Open Book Festival is a highlight of every literary calendar. Karavan Press authors will be busy at the festival this year, and I can’t wait to listen to them all. I will be interviewing an author that I assist in distributing in South Africa, an Island Prize runner-up in the first year of the prize’s existence, Hamza Koudri. He will be on a panel with Damilare Kuku and Zibu Sithole and I have the privilege of chairing the session about WRITING SISTERS on Friday, 6 September, at 12 p.m. I interviewed Zibu at the festival last year and absolutely loved reading I Do … Don’t I?, the sequel to The Thing With Zola. And I can’t wait to meet Hamza and Damilare and to talk to them about their fascinating novels in the context of this topic that is very close to my heart (I only have one sibling, a brother, but he is the best sibling in the world, and I can’t imagine my life without him).
842 days since I wrote the last Operation Oysterhood post. More than four and a half years since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Unlike millions around the world, I have been exceptionally lucky: despite enormous fear, repeated exposure, numerous scares, I have never tested positive for Covid-19. Until today.
I survived the pandemic, the lockdown, managed to save Karavan Press and navigated other major crises. Towards the end of last year, I was tired, but optimistic and full of ideas.
But, 2024 has been an extremely difficult year in all kinds of ways: I lost two of my Furry Family members – beloved Glinka and Mozart – under horrific circumstances right in the beginning of the year. The third, gorgeous Salieri, at seventeen, had to have a serious operation. Grief-stricken, I fell ill and my mind refused to function for quite a while. The accumulated work-related backlog eventually required twelve- to sixteen-hour work days to catch up and meet impossible deadlines. In the middle of this, just about everything was breaking down: Topolino, a water pipe, the garage, the gate, the fridge, the washing machine, etc. I felt like a disaster magnet.
On the literary front, success hit – unexpectedly and in full force – and brought another set of challenges with it that continue to require careful steering, especially on the cashflow front. It is amazing to have such troubles, and I am thrilled that Karavan Press books are selling well, winning prizes and have to be continuously reprinted, but it has not been easy to manage the demand. Karavan Press still operates with very limited resources.
Yet, all the books were published on time for all the festivals and launches, and in the end, I managed to catch up with most of the work, stabalise the financial crisis and adjust the schedule to deal with the rest of the year. People have been patient and kind. I felt ready for the second half of the year.
The recent storms managed to unsettle it all again. After a weekend away in the beginning of July, I arrived home to three serious roof leaks, a partly collapsed ceiling in my study and other water damage (including wet books and papers). Professional attempts to repair the damage during breaks in the relentless weather failed dismally. I was assured that the provisional fix would keep me safe and dry through the rest of the winter. Only a few days later (last week Thursday), I woke up to an actual waterfall in my study – in the exactly same spot that had been professionally ‘repaired’. I reported it immediately, but to no reaction. So, knowing how busy everyone in the roof-repair business had been and how tough it was to get anyone to assist right now, I simply took a big plastic cover and secured it on top of my roof myself (I looked like a real drenched szczurek after that excursion). Since then, it has kept the spot dry throughout all the rains. I meant to find someone else to help me to fix it all properly, but it is nearly impossible to function when your home is dripping and collapsing on your head. The waterfall broke my spirits, and the next day in the afternoon, I also started feeling under the weather (!).
I was sure that the flu got me – all the symptoms pointed that way – and have been in bed since Saturday morning, gradually recovering. Yesterday, I finally felt that there was hope. The only people who visited me were my love (bringing groceries, flowers and eye smiles – we were both wise enough to wear masks, keep our distance and limit the visits to a few minutes) and a friend, who also brought soup and eye smiles and stayed only a short while. But she also brought Covid-19 antigen tests – just in case, she said.
I spoke to my doctor this afternoon – there is no doubt: I have been suffering through the latest manifestation of Covid-19. Two positive antigen tests confirm the diagnosis. Luckily, I have been isolating so far anyway and should be safe to leave the house without posing a danger to others on Friday latest – if I am symptom-free, but I am already definitely heading that way. Intuitively, I knew I had to take care of myself, rest, get well, and I cancelled all my work and social appointments for this entire time – I did not think that I had Covid-19, but the pandemic taught me how to protect myself and others as much as it is possible when it comes to all such viruses. And I am glad that I listened to my intuition, and my body. As my Italian friend used to say: your body never lies. My body has been saying: it’s all too much, I am not coping, please rest.
I am listening.
I am casting spells for a calm rest of this rough year.
And I am hoping for more patience and kindness. I feel quite vulnerable right now. I have been fearing this diagnosis for four and a half years. It has arrived and I am not taking it for granted.
I have the privilege of chairing two sessions at the Kingsmead Book Fair this year on Saturday, 25 May.
12:30 – 13:30, Mackenzie 1| The body keeps score: tales from under the skin Karina Szczurek (Hair: Weaving & Unpicking Stories of Identity) asks Kim Ballantine (Hot Tea and Apricots: A Memoir of Loss and Hope) if it’s smart to trust your gut.
14:30 – 15:30, Music Centre | No place to call home Karina Szczurek (editor of Fluid: The Reason To Be) talks to Kobby Ben Ben (No One Dies Yet), Irene Muchemi-Ndiritu (Lucky Girl) and Buntu Siwisa (Paperless) about how it feels to be foreign.
Louis Viljoen’s latest play – The Sin Drinkers – is previewing at the Baxter’s Masambe Theatre tomorrow night, 23 April, and will run until 11 May. I am super excited for several reasons. The most obvious is that I am a huge fan of the people involved and would book a ticket (or several) to see them do their work under any circumstances. But in this case, I had the privilege of reading the play already a few months ago, long before it went into production, and immediately fell in love with the text. It sets one’s heart on fire, a fire fuelled by desire, loss, longing, shame and whiskey. I know that to see it come alive on stage will be a theatrical treat of note. Louis Viljoen‘s plays thrill and entertain while taking you into the darkest, most secret, places of your mind, and it is impossible not to feel and think and expand your ideas about yourself, others and the world when you are watching – or reading – them. Another reason why I am excited about The Sin Drinkers is that it is one of the plays included in a forthcoming collection of Louis Viljoen’s plays that Karavan Press will be publishing, our first title of this kind. So, dear theatre lovers, don’t miss The Sin Drinkers on stage at the Masambe Theatre from tomorrow night – book now!
The official press release:
NEW LOUIS VILJOEN PLAY, THE SIN DRINKERS, PROMISES TO ENTICE WITH A WHISKEY-SOAKED JOURNEY AT THE BAXTER’S MASAMBE THIS APRIL
Award-winning playwright and director Louis Viljoen’s new gripping tale, THE SIN DRINKERS, explores broken people on an intoxicated journey in pursuit of redemption. THE SIN DRINKERS premieres at the Baxter’s Masambe Theatre from 23 April to 11 May 2024.
“If I’m good in the light, and bad in the dark, then what am I at dusk?” – THE SIN DRINKERS
Frank, a practiced booze-hound and a hunter of people, tracks down his daughter’s best friend in the hopes of unearthing secrets and solving a mystery that has caused a rot in his soul. Theresa, an aimless young woman masking her regrets with debauchery and a sharp tongue, reluctantly invites Frank into her life in order to rectify the mistakes in her past. What follows is a darkly comedic, whiskey-soaked journey into the pitch-black parts of the human psyche.
With THE SIN DRINKERS, writer and director, Louis Viljoen, reunites with broadcasting legend John Maytham and acclaimed actor Emma Kotze to tell a story of shattered lives and the dark truths that slither under people’s skins.
Viljoen has been described as a playwright who creates worlds and characters that are gleefully devious. His ability to construct extraordinary narratives out of ordinary situations, entertains in an unashamedly unconventional manner. Viljoen acknowledges that his aim is not to create theatre for everyone, but for those who appreciate pushing boundaries. His plays are often peppered with dark humour, biting wit, and intense emotional exploration. With a fearless yet philosophic approach he uses profanity and explicit sexual references as tools with which to expose human cruelty, power struggles and the darkness that lurks beneath the seedy underbelly of life. Social taboos feed the thought-provoking boldness of his work, which isn’t for the faint-hearted.
Keith Bain (Daily Maverick) has described Viljoen’s style as “terrifyingly intimate … with clever turns of phrase and prose that borders on poetry” as “dark comic twists and turns … invariably take us into a universe of upside-down morality”. Veteran journalist, author and stand-up comedian, Marianne Thamm, also proclaims that Viljoen’s “scalpel-wielding writing … kicks boring English into shape”, while theatre critic, Beverley Brommert (Theatre Scene Cape Town) characterises Viljoen’s ghoulish theatre style as “sharply witty” with “well-considered direction” that “rates highly as worthwhile theatre”.
Emma Kotze first stepped into a world of Viljoen’s creation in Oh, Baby I’m A Wild One (2016), where she delivered an endearing yet unsettling performance as a desperate young woman in search of salvation. Years later she took that Viljoen experience further in the more mature, and inevitably darker, The Grass Widow (2023). Playwright, Philip Rademeyer, described Kotze’s performance as single handedly encompassing “outcast, innocence and hope, monster, seductress, machine gun and bruised young woman”. Marianne Thamm echoed the sentiment, labelling Kotze’s performance “compelling and brilliant”, while actress, Maria Vos, heralded Kotze’s portrayal “a fabulous agent of righteous chaos”. Kotze is excited to take this exploration of Viljoen’s work further as she steps into the role of Theresa in THE SIN DRINKERS.
With his distinctive modulated voice, John Maytham is set to take on the role of Frank opposite Kotze’s Theresa. Maytham too is well-acquainted with the distinctive style of Viljoen’s plays. His performance in The Outlaw Muckridge (a significant theatre experience as the first production staged at The Baxter when theatres reopened to limited audiences in October 2020) showcased his versatility and ability to bring a complex character to life, with a clear understanding of the unique blend of language, imagery, and storytelling that characterise Viljoen’s plays. Beverley Brommert (Weekend Special) lauded the play as proof that theatre “is not only alive and well, but in blazing form”, as Maytham’s polished delivery did “full justice, whether bellowing or whispering” to the richness of metaphors reflected in Viljoen’s text. Lindsay Kruger (Broadway World) also praised Maytham for “an inimitable performance” with which he lured the audience in with “sympathy, curiosity, aversion and amusement”. In his plays, Viljoen uses damaged people as vehicles to reveal dark truths, and The Outlaw Muckridge is no exception. Very much aware of this Viljoen trait, Mariana Malan (Theatre Scene Cape Town) also praised Maytham for his portrayal of a “damaged man with empathy”.
After their successful collaboration with The Grass Widow and The Visigoths, Viljoen reunites with designer Kieran McGregor. McGregor understands how to create the isolated worlds in which Viljoen’s character’s reveal their twisted tales, as he adds his own exceptional design aesthetic. This will be McGregor’s fourth project working alongside Viljoen, having also done the design for the Viljoen penned The Eulogists.
The haunting tale at the centre of Frank and Theresa’s encounter in THE SIN DRINKERS may not be for the marginally sensitive or the easily offended, but it promises to move and surprise you as they reveal their darkest transgressions. Will their journey lead them to a point of redemption or are they forever doomed to just pour another drink to soothe their scarred souls?
THE SIN DRINKERS will be onstage at the Baxter Theatre Centre’s Masambe Theatre from 23 April to 11 May 2024. It carries an age restriction of 18 for explicit language and scenes of a sexual nature. Tickets are available online through Webtickets and range from R130 to R170 per person.
‘Our box met with a bit of a red wine incident …’ Joanne wrote close to midnight yesterday and sent the picture above. I don’t know details of the ‘incident’ – yet! – but I just love it that this was my confirmation of our incredible win last night at the HSS Awards! I was interviewing Tan Twan Eng (what a pleasure that had been!) earlier in the day and had a prior evening commitment, so I could not fly up for the awards ceremony, but Joanne was there to represent us. It was ‘like the Oscars’, according to her, and WE WON!
It is such a joy that we were recognised with the HSS Award for Best Fiction Edited Volume for our Short.Sharp.Stories anthology, FLUID: The Freedom to Be. I have the photograph, but it is still difficult to grasp that this wonderful thing happened to us. And it happened at the same time when Dawn Garisch won the HSS Award for Best Fiction Short Stories for her collection, What Remains. And Frankie Murrey won the HSS Award for Best Emerging Author in the Fiction Category for her debut, Everyone Dies. The stories we tell and nourish and publish are spreading their wings and doing remarkable things!
Karina Magdalena 