Welcome to Maynardville
This spectacular green wooded park has earned the reputation for one of the best-loved outdoor theatre venues in the Cape Region. It offers its patrons both a beautiful park and lake for pre-show picnics and drinks, as well as a unique wooded 700-seater theatre setting. Cape Town’s annual Shakespeare under the stars has delighted audiences for 62 years but 2018 took the theatre tradition into a new era with an expanded classical experience called the Maynardville Open-Air Festival.
Press release on Maynardville 2020
Maynardville Open Air Theatre Festival hits pause
One of Cape Town’s much-loved summer institutions has been forced to suspend its 2020 season due to a funding shortfall and the increased risk in the current economic climate. The Maynardville Open-Air Theatre Festival evolved from the annual Shakespeare play at Maynardville and has come to include comedy, dance and symphony as part of a three-month line-up of classical entertainment in the unique park setting in Wynberg.
Producer Brian Heydenrych said that it was a very difficult decision to skip the 2020 season, but the festival was just too short on funds to put on a festival that would be up to the expectations of its loyal audiences. “In addition, and given what is happening economically in the world around us, putting on a festival with a funding shortfall is too great a risk factor for the producer Liquidmatch as well as all the partners,”
“We will be back,” says Heydenrych, “the Maynardville Open-Air Theatre Trust and I are already looking for ways to fund the 2021 festival and we feel sure that we will be able to resume then. We are actively seeking partners aligned to the festival and we will be calling on the public to assist. Details will emerge early next year.”
The Maynardville venue has been used as a theatre since the mid-1950’s, with the first Shakespeare play, The Taming of the Shrew, being staged in 1956. It has evolved into a regular calendar fixture for high schools who organise outings for pupils to experience the outdoor plays. It’s also famed for its tradition of taking a picnic to enjoy in the park ahead of the show.
“We are sorry to disappoint our supporters, some of whom have been coming to the show for decades. We are also very sad that the opportunity is not there for our artists this year, but this is absolutely not the end of the line for theatre at Maynardville and we look forward to sharing our 2021 programme with you later in 2020.”
Maynardville Open-Air Festival is looking for partners
The Maynardville Open-Air Festival has been wonderfully supported by its loyal patrons over the decades it has run. However, increased costs and the continue economic uncertainty has made it impossible to mount the festival from ticket sales and in-kind support from the venue partners. The Maynardville Theatre Trust is actively looking for corporate partners as well as running a crowd-funding campaign in February 2020 to revitalise the festival and take it forward into the next 50 years as the premier classical festival in South Africa.
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Weather Line
(after 5pm): 060 623 0238
(before 5pm): Artscape Box Office 021 421 7695
News
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2019 Press Release
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Find Us
The theatre is situated in the middle of the Maynardville Park with access via the front gates on the corner of Church and Wolf street. Parking is available by the Wynberg Public Library on Glaren road or along public roads around the venue.