NIEU-BETHESDA NEWS — Mondays are strange in Nieu-Bethesda.

The village often has a sense of emptiness as school children are ferried off at dawn and the last dust from the weekend tourists settles over the valley like a soft silk scarf in the dusk. Most Monday evenings have a quiet eeriness to them.

But now and then on a Monday evening, you can be wandering along, with not a soul or a hound or a donkey in sight, and suddenly come across a cabaret/cowboy/broadway show on the stoep of ‘The Karoo Lamb’ – the restaurant opposite the Owlhouse.

Only in Nieu-Bethesda can a couple who call themselves ‘Wallace and Delacey’ (their names are Elaine Wallace Lounden and Mark Shorey and they live in England), come on a road trip through South Africa, practise a little up the valley near the municipal dump (where the acoustics are excellent), and ask to put on an impromptu show or two for whoever wants to listen.

Only in Bethesda can the performers park their hired Hyundai at the front door and crank up the car sound-system for backup music! Only in Bethesda can one (time and again) be treated to a musical repertoire of International standard (Elaine’s accomplishments ‘exemplify a lifetime in the arts with achievements in musical theatre, media and education, while Mark has a lifetime committed to communications, journalism, radio presentation and broadcast automation’). Only in Nieu-Bethesda, can 90-year-old Uncle Neil Sheard be treated to his favourite song, “We’ll meet again’ and beam with delight at the singing of it.

 And with the Owlhouse making a dramatic stage set behind this quirky and colourful couple, they brought back a lifetime of memories as they sang, ‘The Rose’, ‘When I fall in Love’ and a couple of cowboy songs with a plastic water pistol as a prop, to round off one of those beautifully bizarre Monday evenings in Nieu-Bethesda.

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