Theatre Doyenne’s Grand Stage Encore

Theatre doyenne Sandy Rudd has worked in theatre for over 40 years and shows no signs of slowing.

“Putting up posters at 70!” shouts Rudd as passersby marvel at the white-haired woman singing show tunes outside the National Theatre of Namibia’s (NTN) box office on a bright winter morning.

‘Forty Years of Fabulous’, Rudd’s celebratory retrospective, premieres at the NTN next Friday.

Featuring a selection of Rudd’s eclectic portfolio of musicals, theatre of the absurd, cabaret, deaf theatre, drama, children’s theatre, tributes, Independence Day shows and intense one-handers, ‘Forty Years of Fabulous’ is on show on 16 and 17 May and includes Friday’s gala performance and a Saturday evening show and matinee.

The two-hour multimedia production will consist of excerpts from Rudd’s work between 1983 and 2024.

The ‘Forty Years of Fabulous’’ cast and crew include Big Ben, Sharon van Rooi, Esther Fellner, Patricia Ochurus, Odile Gertze, Lize Ehlers, Roya Diehl, Vocalfront, Emil Struwig, Ndinomholo Ndilula, Adriano Visagie, Rodelio Lewis, Ethan Madison, Aedin Mohrmann, Ndayola Ulenga, Othello Joseph, Verena Wüstkamp, Roberto Meneguzzo, Christopher van Wyk, Justina Andreas, Liz Ross, Gretel Coetzee and Ernst Steynberg.

Let’s Sing Ensemble Choir, The Hot Pocket Band, members of Free Your Mind, Song Night, Drag Night Namibia and Theatre Sports, as well as representatives from the local deaf community are also set to take the celebratory stage.

“The Covid-19 pandemic silently devastated performing arts in Namibia. This show will reignite a love for theatre among past and present practitioners, as well as the public. It is truly one of the most lavish shows to be held at the theatre in a long time,” says Rudd.

“I like huge, lavish productions. People still talk about ‘Meme Mia!’ ‘Hot Mikado’, ‘Jungle Book’, ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dream Coat’ and ‘Aladdin’,” she says.

“Besides highlighting the major musicals, I will also be including some of my favourite moments from straight dramas and comedy.

“Shows like ‘Meisie van Mariental’, ‘Meet Me at Dawn’, ‘The Complete Works of Shakespeare’ and ‘Lysistrata’. There will be delights of choirs, dancers and many more delicious things to remind you why you love the theatre so much. It truly is a two-hour extravaganza that will delight and amaze.”

‘Forty Years of Fabulous’ will also include an ‘in memoriam’ segment for theatre makers the industry has lost, as well as an exhibition featuring posters from Rudd’s productions throughout the years, many of them by long-time collaborator Andrew Weir.

The poster exhibition will open at the National Art Gallery of Namibia on 15 May at 18h00.

Supported by some of Namibia’s theatrical best and having secured almost a million dollars in goods and services from DB Audio, NTN, the College of the Arts, HEC, Future Media, The Sign Shop, Unframed, Weirdesign, Song Night and Gondwana Collection Namibia, Rudd will present ‘Forty Years of Fabulous’ as a display of enduring passion despite an industry that has seen better days.

Asked about the secret of her professional longevity, Rudd gives credit to her community and its patrons.

“It’s because I worked at the College of the Arts and I worked with incredible people. The banks, the institutions, the embassies, people believed in art and investing in art, so my life was incredibly easy,” she says.

“My first sponsorship was from Liqui Fruit, and that was huge. It was nearly the cost of a motor car. For this show, I’ve had no monetary support. From the community, the support has been extraordinary, nearly a million dollars’ worth,” she says.

“But it’s been tough. I feel for young theatre practitioners who are coming up. These days, it’s very, very tough.”

A celebration of Rudd’s storied career but also an opportunity and invitation to truly return to the theatre, ‘Forty Years of Fabulous’ aims to “plant seeds of the past for the future”.

“Everyone in Windhoek should come! There is something for everyone. There’s Disney. There’s drama. Oh, there’s one bad swear word, but you’ll get over that,” says Rudd.

“If your child’s never been to the NTN, and if they’re five or 15, just bring them so people can start falling in love with the theater because you can’t love something unless you’ve seen it,” she says.

“I did ‘Jungle Book’, years ago, in the ’80s. We made big, beautiful foam elephants. And the little boy in that play at the NTN – he was about six or seven – told his mother elephants live in that building,” says Rudd.

“We’ve got giraffes in this play,” she says.

“So, hopefully, people come and then go home and say: There are giraffes in that building.”

Tickets for ‘Forty Years of Fabulous’ are available from webtickets.com.na

– martha@namibian.com.na; Martha Mukaiwa on Twitter and Instagram; marthamukaiwa.com

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