SARONSBERG THEATRE

A friend and I moseyed down to our own dinky little theatre last Saturday.  It’s upstairs in a really cool Victorian building, with a restaurant (De Kreeft Stamkafee) and pub downstairs.  The service is friendly and the atmosphere relaxed; on hot summer days it is pleasant to sit out on the streetside veranda with the sprayers disseminating a cooling mist. 
Proprietor Chris Kreef (he of the Kreef Hotel fame) is very well connected in the music industry and consistently brings great acts to Tulbagh.  Often one artist will perform on the Friday night and another on Saturday, usually for a modest couvert fee, and on Sundays one can listen to whoever has stayed on to busk on the veranda for the price of a drink.  You will, however, find yourself unable to resist the delicious food!  Chris’ wife Tania Grobler is the inspiration behind the menu, which has a distinctly home style flavour, and the restaurant is especially renown for its melt-in-the-mouth steaks.
The evening we were there the artist performing was Herman Kleinhans.  Not knowing much about Afrikaans music, we were very pleasantly surprised – that young man has a great voice, sensitive lyrics and obviously much talent!  Egged on by the odd tequila, he was even kind enough to play a couple of more familiar English numbers for die Engelse tannies!
Sitting in the cooling breeze, we watched the sunset colour the clouds and mountains pink and counted ourselves very lucky to experience such a wonderful evening with good food, wine and live music in our little village.