Little Abbey Theatre
The Little Abbey Theatre was a performance venue in Durban, formerly an old church, on the corner of Commercial Road, today Dr AB Xuma, and Albert Street, today Ingcuncwe.
Contents
History
The Durban Arts initiative, a sub-group of the city council, rented the church and adjacent buildings and reconstructed the theatre. It opened in the early 1980s.
Attached to the theatre was the Little Abbey Theatre Foundation, a tertiary theatre school which was connected to the professional theatre. Pamela Perry and Dr Sandra Herrington spearheaded the school and the theatre.
Many of the Durban acting fraternity who were involved in radio dramas performed at the Little Abbey, including Ingrid Mollison, Caroline Smart and Pamela Perry.
The Theatre is famed for launching the career of Henry Cele, who rocketed to international stardom in the title role of the monumental TV series Shaka Zulu. Cele was discovered by film director William Faure, who saw him playing the main role in a production titled Shaka Zulu at the Little Abbey Theatre.
The venue closed in the mid/late 1980s.
Productions
Productions staged at the theatre include:
1984: Macready!
1985: Stop the World – I Want to Get Off, How Dr Bones Saved Christmas
1987: Santa's Christmas Strike
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 Unpublished doctoral dissertation.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://www.fad.co.za/2018/10/18/theater-memories/
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