Lifting the curtain on Durban’s Alhambra
|Published
The old pictures today feature Durban’s much-loved Alhambra Theatre at the corner of King Dinizulu (Berea) Road and Julius Nyerere (Warwick) Ave.
The pictures were both published in a feature in the Tonight section of the Daily News on October 6, 1985, probably dealing with the closure of the landmark when the Natal Performing Arts Council (Napac) moved to the current Playhouse.
The first picture shows the original Alhambra Cinema built on the site in 1922. The Indie cinema was built for H. Howard, and designed in a Moorish-atmospheric style by architect Arthur George Cross. The picture was supplied by the Local History Museum.
The second picture is of a postcard for the opening of the current Alhambra Theatre on December 31, 1952. It was opened by John S Schlesinger.
Bought by African Consolidated Theatres in 1927, the old complex was pulled down in 1952 to create an 800-seat theatre. It continued to run as a cinema until 1963, when the lease was taken over by Napac as a venue for live performances. Its final show before moving to the Playhouse was a rendition of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana.
The theatre then became a church and by 2017, was the Durban Christian Centre.
On the Facebook Page Durban Down Memory Lane, many shared fond memories of what was to become the city’s entertainment hub.
Among the popular shows repeatedly mentioned were musicals like My Fair Lady, West Side Story, Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Ipi Tombi and Fiddler on the Roof. Serious theatre takes in Shakespeare and memories of Pieter Toerien starring in a production of Hamlet in 1974, to An Inspector Calls and Equus. Pantos like Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh were highlights for many young Durbanites.
Pieter-Dirk Uys’s first tour took place at the Alhambra, and Four Jacks and a Jill performed there regularly. SA singer Gé Korsten famously sang the role of Pinkerton from Madame Butterfly, while others remember Richard Clayderman’s tour.
Annemarie Wepener remembers watching Dame Margot Fonteyn dance with Sadler’s Wells Company at the Alhambra. “It was just breathtaking. At some point the audience were provided with flowers to throw on to the stage at the end of the show as she took her curtsey,” she writes. Heather Cairns remembered the ballet was Coppélia.
Carole Anne Scott wrote: “I watched almost every single show there more than once as my Dad Mike Jackson was property master there. Loved going to work with him. I even got to fly when they were doing Peter Pan.”
Sally Baird remembers: “My parents took me to all the live shows there. That is where I saw my first ice show. I said to my Dad that I wanted to do that but he said sorry we don’t have an ice rink. That was before the rink opened and I started skating and was hooked from then on. I have skated for 65 years and loved every minute of it.”
A portable skating rink was brought into the theatre for the ice shows.
Wayne Farrell writes: “My mother took me there to audition for the role of Peter Pan. I had to wear a leotard, and that was me, bye. This Peter Pan flew away fast.”