Afrikaans festival of best sellers

Wessel Pretorius in Ont

Following Die Naaimasjien, Rachelle Greeff's second play, Buitepos, is directed by Fred Abrahamse, features Skoonheid star Deon Lotz with Deirdre Wolhuter and Jill Middlekop. Lotz portrays an everyday guy with time on his hands and ghosts from the past on his heels, who finds himself on a dry riverbed outside the Karoo town of Buitepos, with only his thoughts, memories and the rocks around him as company. It's on at the Baxter Golden Arrow Studio on 23 May at 7pm and at Klein Libertas Teater on 24 May at 7pm, 26 May at 8.15pm.

Theatre and television veterans Elsabe Daneel, Susanne Beyers and Joanie Combrink bring humour to the stage in Leon Kruger's Ou Blare, a family comedy that sees masks dropping to the floor and issues of middle-aged women coming to the fore. These three lifelong friends get together to recharge their spirits. They are tough, eccentric and angry. Between yoga and drinking sessions they bitch about car guards, thin mannequins, shrinks and thongs with hilarious consequences. It plays at the Baxter Golden Arrow Studio on 17 May at 7pm and 18 May at 8.15pm. You can also see it at the Klein Libertas Teater on 19 and 25 May at 3pm.

Younger generation of theatre makers

The younger generation of theatre makers is represented by exciting new playwright and director Christiaan Olwagen, whose N Is Vir Neurose deals with young adults' issues in alphabetical order. Hannah Borthwick, Roeline Daneel, Mariechen Vosloo and Wessel Pretorius star in this black comedy about work, marriage, having children and finding love - all before the age of 30.No wonder everybody is neurotic these days! See it at the Baxter Golden Arrow Studio on 21 and 24 May at 7pm, or at Klein Libertas Teater on 19 May at 10am, 25 May at 8.15pm, and 26 May at 10am and 3pm.

Wessel Pretorius' one-man show, Ont, which was crowned top drama production at this year's Woordfees festival, is about the journey towards adulthood, a study in the relationship of family members as well as a celebration of the joys of freedom and flight. The process of becoming a human being is portrayed sensitively with Afrikaans poetry compendium Groot Verseboek at hand - as well as mum's gramophone player and dad's Camel filters. It's on at the Baxter Golden Arrow Studio on 22 May at 7pm, 19 and 26 May at 8.15pm.At the Klein Libertas Teater it is on 17 May at 7pm.

Marsha Norman's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Night, Mother, translated and adapted as Nag, Ma by Antoinette Louw and Sandra Prinsloo, explores the complex relationship between a mother and a daughter. Lara Bye directs Sandra Prinsloo and Antoinette Louw in this heart-wrenching play about the blood knot that binds and sometimes suffocates us.

See it at the Baxter Golden Arrow Studio on 25 May at 8.15pm, 26 May at 10am and 3pm, or at. Klein Libertas Teater on 21, 22 and 23 May at 7pm.
Tickets available from Computicket. For more information on these shows, go to www.writingstudio.co.za/page1746.html