September 28, 2005
By Lucille Davie
UMOJA, the African song and dance troupe, is to get a new home at one of the city's oldest theatres, the Victory Theatre, which is being renovated.
"Umoja, which has performed to standing ovations in 26 countries, needs a venue in which to work on their show," says Joe Theron, the troupe's benefactor and the brain and money behind the renovations.
Meaning "spirit of togetherness", the troupe combines jazz, gospel and the energetic beats of kwaito and pantsula in its show, also called Umoja: The Spirit of Togetherness.
Theron, a music producer and magazine publisher, says that when he was approached in 2000 to record a soundtrack for Umoja, he was knocked out by the performers' energy and talent, and took them under his wing.
These days he accompanies them on tour - at present they are all in Canada.
"We need to show the international community that there is more to South Africa than just lions," he says. The show traces the musical history of South Africa.
The creators of Umoja, Todd Twala and Thembi Nyandeni, originally performed in Ipi Thombi, which ran on and off for 23 years. Umoja grew out of Ipi Thombi, premiering in London's Shaftesbury Theatre in November 2001 after a successful run in South Africa.
Theron would like to have six travelling casts. At present there are two casts, with three in training, with 50 members in each cast. Many of the performers are former street kids with little or no training.
"They have raw, natural talent and boundless energy, which makes the show what it is - a real story about real people. It's a story of Africa, its music and the people. It's a show that makes you feel good - something we all need today," he says.
Umoja has won the prestigious First National Bank Vita Award for Best Musical Production.
"The show has the potential to be as good as any overseas show," Theron says.
He aims to make the revamped Victory Theatre a home for Umoja; "There are no venues to train youngsters," he explains.
Grand plans
Theron has grand plans for the theatre, which, until the 1970s, was the Victory Cinema. At the end of 2004 he bought the building and the four neighbouring shops, which he plans to incorporate into the theatre.
It will have a bar on the corner, a 280-seat restaurant upstairs, with unusual views down Louis Botha Avenue and across to Sandton, and a 100-seat balcony. The restaurant will be called The Victory, and will serve a traditional menu, with items like bobotie and oxtail.
The windows facing Louis Botha Avenue will be double-glazed, to cut down on traffic noise. Theron has had the floor taken out of the theatre, where there used to be a bar. It is being re-levelled, with a small stage for the Umoja band elevated behind the stage.
"The stage will be as big as the stage at the Nelson Mandela Theatre at the Civic Theatre," he says.
There will be up to 200 parking bays alongside the neighbouring petrol garage.
But Theron's main aim is to create a home for Umoja. He will be constructing offices for the troupe, change rooms and recreation rooms.
His plans include buying the block of flats across the road from the Victory Theatre, and making it available for cast members.
History
The Victory Theatre, probably built in the 1920s, used to be called the Grove Kinema (nowadays the Fruit & Vegetable Kinema is opposite the theatre, in Osborne Road).
Across the road from it was the Orange Grove Hotel, popular with Joburg residents as a country resort.
Italo Bernicchi, a cameraman operating out of Killarney Film Studios, which produced news features in the 1960s and 1970s called African Mirror, used to show Italian films at the Moncine Cinema in Bree Street.
In the late 1940s he was approached by African Consolidated Theatres with an offer to show his Italian movies at the Grove Kinema. He did this for the next 35 years.
"After the war the cinema's name was changed to the Victory Cinema," he says, to commemorate the Allies' victory.
Bernicchi imported Italian, French and German films for the cinema. "I was the first person to hold film festivals here," he says.
But by the 1980s Ster Kinekor was on the scene and Bernicchi says it soon dominated the film industry, charging high prices for people to see movies.
He could not compete, and remembers the closure of the Victory Cinema in the early 1990s. "It was a sad moment. It was closed by [late arts journalist] Percy Baneshik, who cut out a piece of the carpet and framed it, and had it hanging in his lounge."
Bernicchi took the rest of the carpet, laying it in one of the rooms in his house. He created a 42-seat cinema, with seats from the Victory.
His home-grown cinema is called Preview Theatre, and Bernicchi now shows old movies to small groups of movie faithfuls.
"I have electric curtains, a projector and play movies from my own collection. I get DVDs and videos from the US."
For giving up the cinema, Bernicchi made the condition that it must be kept as a theatre. Several months after he left, it was revamped and opened with Ipi Thombi.
Other shows included the Rocky Horror Show and a number of variety shows.
Theron has been working on the renovations since the beginning of the year, and plans to open with Umoja in June 2006.
From Canada the Umoja cast travels to the US for several months, starting in February. The other cast is in South Africa, doing corporate shows. In the new year the performers will go to Cape Town, and then on to Germany for a three-year tour from mid-year.
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