Santa's Story

When 90-year-old Santa Pelham wrote her about her life, the intention was to simply create a memoir for future generations. But her story became something more, as will be seen in the one-woman show performed by her daughter, opera diva Aviva Pelham.

By Eugene Yiga

28 Aug 2012

Santa's Story, described as "a journey of courage and hope through discrimination to heartbreaking losses", will cover her voyage from Germany to Spain, France, and Africa. The production will be directed by Janice Honeyman with designs by Mannia Manim and Dicky Longhurst. (They were the team behind The Blue Iris.)

Live Klezmer music

Santa's Story will feature live Klezmer music performed by the arranger Matthew Reid (on clarinet and saxophone), Nicky Jansen (on keyboard, guitar, flute, accordion, and saxophone), and Petri Salonen (on violin). Aviva (whose award-winning career spans almost 40 years) will also sing in Spanish, French, Yiddish, Hebrew, and English.

Santa's Story will be showing at the Fugard Theatre in Cape Town from 29 August to 9 September. Performances are nightly (except Mondays) at 8pm with various weekend matinees. Tickets are available from Computicket or the Theatre's box office on +27 (0)21 461 4554. Generous discounts are available for Friends of the Fugard, which you can sign up for by calling the box office or by going to www.thefugard.com.

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Eugene Yiga

About Eugene Yiga

Eugene graduated from the University of Cape Town with distinctions in financial accounting and classical piano. He then spent over two-and-half years working in branding and communications at two of South Africa's top market research companies. Eugene also spent over three-and-a-half years at an eLearning start-up, all while building his business as an award-winning writer. Visit www.eugeneyiga.com, follow @eugeneyiga on Twitter, or email moc.agiyenegue@olleh to say, um, hello.