Pinelands Players

Pinelands Players is an amateur theatre society in Pinelands, Cape Town. The society was formerly known as St Stephen's Pinelands Repertory Society (established in 1948) and Pinelands Repertory Society.

For information pre 1987, see St Stephen's Pinelands Repertory Society.

History

After 39 years, St Stephen's Pinelands Repertory Society, which had been based at St Stephen's Anglican Church in Pinelands, were given six months’ notice that they would no longer be able to use the venue. Homeless and with a bank balance of R600, a collection of costumes and a now inappropriate name, ‘The Reps’ became nomads. The name was changed to The Pinelands Repertory Society (dropping the St Stephens part), and later to Pinelands Players.

Performing in schools, clubs and the Pinelands town hall, the shows were good but the venues were uninspiring. Disaster struck when the rondavels that were hired to house the costumes and props were continually broken into and vandals eventually set fire to several of them. Pinelands Players were forced to start from scratch.

In 1991, the committee called a special meeting and put forward the suggestion that the curtain be closed permanently and the assets given to charity. However, the 40 members present took a decision to go out with a bang and not a whimper. The following year, every penny was put into a production of South Pacific at the Little Theatre. It was a turning point for South Africa as Nelson Mandela was released from prison, and on a smaller scale, also a turning point for Pinelands Players. The show was successful, made a good profit, and resurrected the society.

There wasn’t a suitable venue in Pinelands, and so many fine, award-winning musicals followed at the Little Theatre in Orange Street, Cape Town.

Nine plays and musicals were staged after leaving the church. Few of the plays drew public support, despite the high standard of theatre. When in 2001 Fugard’s People Are Living There was performed to great critical acclaim but meagre audiences, it was decided that plays were not financially viable and the society would rather stick to musicals, as well as annual Candlelight Supper Theatre productions to be held at the Pinelands town hall.

In 2017 at GrandWest, The Full Monty the Musical made a good profit and set the stage for Hairspray the Musical at the Artscape Theatre, followed by the play Calendar Girls at the Masque Theatre in Muizenberg (both in 2019). All the profit made from Calendar Girls was donated to the Masque Theatre to raise much-needed funds. Hairspray was a record-breaking show that made a far larger profit than any show that Pinelands Players had ever produced.

Productions

Productions staged by the society include:

1992: South Pacific

2001: People Are Living There

2017: The Full Monty

2019: Hairspray the Musical, Calendar Girls

Sources

Greyvenstein, Walter 1988. The history and development of children's theatre in English in South Africa. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Johannesburg: Rand Afrikaans University.

https://pinelandsplayers.wordpress.com/about/

Go to South African Theatre/Bibliography