Des and Dawn

Des and Dawn is the name under which the couple Des Lindberg and Dawn Lindberg originally performed as singers.

The name soon caught on and became a general way of referring to the influential theatrical couple, who went on to become a very successful production company, doing theatre, musicals, industrial theatre and sound recording. They themselves used the name Des and Dawn Lindberg on posters and and programmes at one time, while some writers also refer to them simply as The Lindbergs.

This entry focuses on their joint work:

For biographical and personal career information, see the individual entries under Des Lindberg and Dawn Lindberg.

Des and Dawn: Singers and performers

They started out as the singing duo Des and Dawn in the 1960s, travelling the country and specializing in folk music in both English and Afrikaans. From 1965, they travelled for three years with their show Folk on Trek.

Their first album, also titled Folk on Trek, was promptly banned on the grounds of obscenity because of dubious lyrics to the nursery rhyme, ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’, and the Negro Spiritual, ‘Dese Bones Gonna Rise Again’. They went on appeal but lost the case and all copies of the album were ordered to be destroyed – but some die-hards hid them and thankfully, there are still copies in existence today.

They had a number of hits that included ‘The Seagull’s Name was Nelson’ in 1971, which topped the charts for 20 weeks.

Their albums include:

Folk on Trek
The Des and Dawn Collection
Des and Dawn: Their Best
Des and Dawn: Unicorns, Spiders and Dragon's Tales
Des, Dawn and Nico
Des and Dawn: Stap 'n entjie saam
How did I begin?
Singalong Times Tables with Des and Dawn
Dis Maal en Deeltyd met Des en Dawn

Folk on Trek Productions

From there they developed the company Folk on Trek Productions to manage their shows. Based in Johannesburg it became the base from which they gradually moved on to cabaret and, in the 1970s, their larger TV shows and theatre productions. The Soirée Society also grew out of this activity.

The Soirée Society

Focused on experimental as well as intimate theatre, this was the banner under which they held regular musical Soirées at the Lindberg home in Houghton.

They staged more than 800 Sunday soirees at their Victorian home on Houghton Ridge, in defiance of the law which at that time prohibited public entertainment on Sundays. The Sunday soirees featured 2 000 proudly South African artists including Johnny Clegg, Sipho Nchunu, John Kani, Winston Ntshona, Oswald Mtshali, Abigail Kubeka, the Soweto String Quartet, Hugh Masekela, Jonas Gwangwa, the Drakensberg Boys Choir and many more.

CAT Productions

Their company, Cabaret and Theatre Productions, but better known as CAT Productions (sometimes listed as C.A.T. Productions), was established in 1965 and was the first non-racial theatre production company to play in public venues all over South Africa.

CAT Productions put in a very competitive tender for the theatre that was to be built in the old Newtown produce market, but lost to Mannie Manim and Barney Simon, who then went on to found the Market Theatre.

They put on a range of musical works in the 1970s and 1980s, including their highly controversial yet successful tour of Godspell (1973), put on at non-theatrical venues such as the Christian Brother’s Colleges’ school halls, in order to circumvent the censorship system and ignore the ire of the more traditional church leaders. They also formed a club called the South African Living Theatre (SALT) to get around the governments opposition to their multi-racial company.

By the 1990s, they also moved into working in industrial and corporate theatre. This work required them to transform spaces like factory floors, aircraft hangars, canteens, building sites, foyers, restaurants and pool decks into fully-equipped performance stages and auditoria.

Some of the productions they staged include:

1973: Godspell

1974: Godspell

1975: Pippin, The Shrew, Godspell

1976: The Black Mikado

1977: Godspell

1979: The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, The Importance of Being Irish, Back in Town

1980: The Shrew, I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking it on the Road

1981: Lennon, I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking it on the Road, a guitar festival called Guitars from Africa at the Civic Theatre

1982: Lennon

1983: I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking it on the Road

1985: Godspell (with PACT)