The Royal Countess Zingara: a dazzling theatre-dining experience

 The Royal Countess Zingara show: Star Rating: ★★★★☆

Imagine a woman who can handle a bow and arrow with her feet and eat fire — that’s Orissa Kelly, one of the recent additions to The Royal Countess Zingara theatre-dining experience ending soon in Cape Town.

This latest iteration of Madame Zingara, founded by entrepreneur Richard Griffin almost 20 years ago, hosts a show called La Dolce Royal. It has operated at Century City for the last few months inside the circular Spiegeltent adorned with shiny chandeliers and stained glass windows.

Zingara’s strength is that it welcomes guests into a world where eyes are dazzled by performers that bend possibilities. 

Kelly performs until the show closes on 17 May and then moves on to Johannesburg where in opens three days later at Melrose Arch. She is originally from the United Kingdom where she made her name as a foot archer and acrobat.

Kelly has featured on the TV show Britain’s Got Talent and broke a Guinness World Record for the “furthest archery shot executed with her feet — while aflame”.

Another act that will end their run in Cape Town is the duo Jonny Grundy from the United Kingdom and Manuel Artino from Italy, who show body strength on an aerial strap and inside a bathtub.

Watching the show reminded me of the musical, The Greatest Showman. This film succeeds at creating an alternative world of characters that are weird and entertaining.

Zingara aims to do that with its costumed performers, including contortionist Lunga Buthelezi, as well as aerial cradle acts Juan Pablo Palacios and Victoria Perez Iacono from Argentina.

The Timekeeper, played by Andile Magxaki, welcomes “dreamers and nightmares” to the show where “time belongs to us” at a “place where reality wobbles”.

His role could have been extended throughout the show with a bit more storytelling, especially about the performers. This would enhance the experience of otherworldliness. The characters have so much story about them, such as Axel Perez, a Mexican from Los Angeles, whom we discover at the end of the show, when the cast is introduced, is a sixth generation circus performer.

The Clorettes, a singing troupe, could also enhance their stage presence. Entertainment needs characters who stand out on stage and not merely appear under bright lights.

Based on my previous experience of this show’s forerunner Madame Zingara, I was also expecting a bit of humour. There was none of this — no funny clowns showed up. Sometimes one does not need more acrobats but just good old storytelling to engage an audience. That being said though, one should not expect every edition of Zingara’s incarnations to have the same characters. 

Overall, the team under the direction of creative director Griffin pulled off something that does not exist elsewhere in South Africa. They put together an evening where reality is paused and magic takes over.