DAVID KRAMER

David Kramer is a South African writer and director whose ground?breaking work in South African musical theatre has focused primarily on the communities of the Cape. The thrust of the five musicals that he has written with Taliep Petersen, and one on his own, is in the retelling of a suppressed history of the so?called “Coloured” people.

He began his career as a singer/songwriter, performing at folk clubs and campus concerts at Leeds University in the early 1970s. He recorded his first album when he returned to South Africa. Initially many of his recordings were banned by the SABC, but by the mid?80s he had been awarded 10 gold and 1 platinum album for his record sales.

In 1985 he worked under the direction of the late Barney Simon, creative director of the Market Theatre in Johannesburg and as a result of this watershed experience, he started letting other actors interpret his songs, which led to his writing a musical. Three of these musicals have toured internationally. Since KAT AND THE KINGS made its international debut at the Tricycle Theatre in 1999, it has gone on to be performed in the West End and on Broadway, and a second company was formed that toured Germany, Holland, Switzerland and Austria for two years.

In 2001 David presented a concert showcasing eccentric musicians discovered in small towns in the semi?desert area of South Africa called the Karoo. KAROO KITAAR BLUES has made an enormous impact on South African audiences, and toured to capacity houses all over South Africa. A live CD was recorded and the show was awarded two FNB Vita Awards. A documentary directed by Liza Key about these musicians and David’s work with them has just been completed and was recently shown at the Amsterdam International Documentary Festival.

He has written a musical in Afrikaans, DIE BALLADE VAN KOOS SAS, which explores the trade in “bushman” skeletons during the early 1900s, and won the De Kat Herrie Award at the Karoo Arts Festival.

During the last two years David has also directed two very successful one?man shows starring Marc Lottering, called FROM THE CAPE FLATS WITH LOVE and BIG STAKES AND SLAP CHIPS, as weil as a British version of POISON at the Tricycle Theatre.

In June 2002 he returned to the Tricycle with his band where he performed a retrospective of his work in a series of concerts.