Promiscuity, lust and love in Dalliances

Published by Business and Arts South Africa

This will be the Johannesburg premiere of "Dalliances", explains Michaels, who directed the staged reading of the play as part of Reading Gay, the precursor to this year's fully fledged Festival. Director Michaels is known for his disciplined attention to detail and strong visual language. "Dalliances wowed audiences in Cape Town and went on to win five awards and nominations at the fifth International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival in 2008," says Michaels. "That really set the bar for the staged reading I directed last year so I was very pleased when it won the vote for the audience favourite to go into full production," he adds.

"Dalliances" is a sexy urban play about indiscriminate promiscuity, rampant lust and obsessive love. At the centre of this complex tale is Janet (Cindy Swanepoel), a young woman looking for love. Her best friend Leo (Christopher Dudgeon) who meets Ken (Zak Hendrikz) in a supermarket and hooks up with him in an elevator. But Ken is involved with Andy (Jacques Le Roux). A time bomb starts ticking as the lives of these four characters intersect and
intertwine.

"A playwright's greatest reward is seeing life being breathed into the characters he or she has created," says Jacobs who graduated in Performing Arts from the Tswhane University of Technology. "Dalliances has been produced locally and internationally but adding a Johannesburg premiere to
the list is a great privilege," he carries on. Jacobs made his television debut in "Song vir Katryn," scooped a KKNK Nagtegaal Debut prize for his debut play Plofstof in 2003 and was nominated for the international Oscar Wilde Award for "Dalliances" in 2008.

"Dalliances" carries a PG16 SNL and only has 5 performances from October 9 to October 13 nightly at 19:30 at the UJ Con Cowan Theatre, Bunting Road (adjacent to the SABC in Auckland Park). Tickets are R60. R30 for valid student card holders and pensioners are available from Computicket at www.computicket.com . Block bookings of 10 or more are available at R25 and a season ticket for all four plays can be bought at the UJ Arts Centre office on the Kingsway campus. For further details contact 011 559 3058 or visit www.uj.ac.za/arts

THATSOGAY is supported by OUT Africa, Joburg PRIDE and Exit Newspaper.

Notes to Editors:

UJ Arts & Culture is a world-class performing and visual arts facility offering a wide range of vocational and hands-on practical training programmes in various aspects of the performing arts on all four UJ campuses. The UJ Arts Centre is located on the Kingsway Campus and comprises an art gallery, a 436-seater state of the art theatre, dance studios and choir rooms. Other facilities include the intimate Experimental Theatre on the Kingsway Campus and the 150-seater Con Cowan Theatre and dance studios on the Bunting Road Campus. In addition to producing student drama, dance and musical theatre, these venues also serve as receiving houses for professional South African and international productions, concerts, exhibitions and events.

For interviews and images please contact Di Sparks of Behind the Scenes Communications at 011 648 7385 / 073 208 8483 or disparks@artslink.co.za