Written and Directed by David Kramer
Resident Director and Movement director Fiona du Plooy
Reviews Below:
I was thrilled to attend a preview of Orpheus McAdoo by David Kramer at Artscape. I was unable to attend the opening, so I was at the preview. The musical is being presented by Cape Town Opera. The season runs until November 4, 2024. The preview which I attended was like an opening night, with the audience bursting into applause after each scene, followed by a rapturous standing ovation.
Love, love, loved this big musical which is inspired by the true story of Orpheus McAdoo, an African-American who established a concert company, The Virginia Jubilee Singers. In 1890, on tour in Europe, the company hit a rough financial patch. While in Glasgow, they were invited to Cape Town by Lady Loch, wife of Henry Loch, the High Commissioner to the Cape Colony. So off they went to Africa. Stirring songs by David Kramer conjure up the awe and joy they felt about coming to Africa.
The company was an audience fave for two years but increasingly faced competition from a minstrel show in a tent. The minstrels fed into what audiences perceived to be Black theatre – jolly blackface. Orpheus set the bar with his company – always seeking to achieve choral excellence and dignity and not pander to minstrel fare.
The company then toured Australia (a very successful tour) and then returned in 1895 to Cape Town, on the cusp of a new century. Hoping to increase audience attendance, Orpheus decided to shake up the company’s repertoire and introduce opera, with his wife Mattie Allen singing. The critics were not impressed by Black people singing opera. Orpheus and Mattie faced artistic challenges, intersecting with race and perceptions by the largely white purveyors of their concerts who hankered for minstrel entertainment.