When Peter Maart drove down the notorious Gympie Street in Woodstock in February 2017, the man from Pelikan Park never imagined that it would give birth to his first stage production.
Aptly calling his show Gympie Straat, for Maart the inspiration was the unfamiliar sight of strong tradition and heritage of the iconic street.
At the time, the 36-year-old dad of two was living in Delft and was amazed at how close-knit the Woodstock community was, despite its reputation for drug merchants, gangsters and druggies smoking buttons on the corners.
But, gentrification effectively bettered the community where in 2017, a home was sold for R2.5 million.
The significance of this transformation prompted him to share the story, and history, of “Gympie Straat” with Cape Town.
Maart told the Daily Voice: “The storyline is about the heritage and history of this beautiful street that holds so many memories.
“With lots of visits to many elderly people who lived and grew up in Gympie Street, I decided to get the ball rolling and use each person’s story.”
Maart, who has no formal drama or arts training, wrote the musical a few months later and showcased it for the first time in October 2017.
Maart currently works as an engineer for Twinsaver and also runs his own multimedia production company Craze Zone, which he started two years ago.
He taught himself the trade by doing research and experimenting with technology.
“Due to financial constraints, there wasn’t money to go study or take up short courses for arts or the multimedia skills I required,” Maart said.
“But you don’t need to have formal training to achieve greatness, anyone can do this with the right attitude and determination.”
When his friends heard about his production, they hurried to help him bring the story to life.
“The cast was not selected, when I mentioned my vision for the show, the current cast members basically just made themselves part of the show, that’s how the team was created. All the songs are original and the cast all contributed to the song writing.”
Gympie Straat will play tomorrow at 7pm at Buck Road Hall, Lotus River. It features a live band with Rodney Buys as musical director, Jason de Laney on lead guitar, Kurt Randall on bass guitar and Anton Mannel on drums.
The guest acts are Anslin Gysman and Fagrie Isaacs.
Tickets are R80 for adults and R50 for kids and can be purchased via Webtickets or at the door.