OBITUARY: Renaye Kramer — the ‘formidable’ theatre producer who stayed out of the photograph

She was always at his side, at every opening night, at every corner of his life. In each theatre venue they sat next to each other. When he was still unknown and struggling to find his voice, she was there. They were childhood sweethearts.

David Kramer’s wife, his daughters’ mother, friend, business partner and mentor, Renaye Kramer, died suddenly of an undisclosed illness on 13 October. In his grief, he turned to his fans and friends on Facebook to share his gaping loss and asked for some private time. A time in which to mourn, to reflect and try to make sense of this life where everything can change in a split second.

Renaye Kramer, née Lange, was born on 28 October 1951 and died in Cape Town on 13 October 2026, at the age of 74. She is survived by him and by their daughters, Jesse and Amy.

Kramer is the singer, songwriter and playwright in the red veldskoene and hat, the face on the posters. Renaye ran the companies behind him, David Kramer Productions and Blik Productions, and dealt with the finances, the negotiations and the logistics.

By the time she spoke to the journalist Marguerite van Wyk in 2023, the couple had staged 20 productions together. She rarely gave interviews and she kept steering the questions away from herself.

Renaye grew up in Worcester, in the Western Cape. Her father, Louis Lange, was an entrepreneur and a storyteller, and she thought her feeling for the business side of theatre may have started with him. She met David at school, also in Worcester, in the 1960s. 

“He was completely different from other boys,” she told van Wyk, “with his antique desk and rocking chair that belonged to his grandmother in his room, paintings by his brother John, an artist, on the wall. My walls were covered in Twiggy posters.”

Later David went to the army and afterwards to Leeds University in England to study textile design. She took a teaching degree at the University of Cape Town (UCT). They were childhood sweethearts and when he returned, they found each other again and married, long before he was famous.

From 1983 the couple took theatre concerts around the country, to the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town and the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, among other venues, with shows such as The David Kramer Jol. The work that made the partnership public began in 1986, when David started writing with the late Taliep Petersen, a Cape Town singer, composer and director who had grown up in District Six. Their musical, District Six: The Musical, mourned the suburb and the loss that came with it.

It was produced by the Baxter and by Renaye and ran for more than 550 performances, later moved to the Market Theatre, toured abroad and returned to the Baxter. The theatre director Fred Abrahamse directed the original production.

Abrahamse says: “Renaye was a stalwart of the theatre world and an astute, deeply committed producer. I first met her when I directed the original production of District Six: The Musical, on which she was a co-producer.

“She had an extraordinary eye for detail and an ability to identify exactly where the ‘fat’ could be trimmed from a budget without compromising the work. Her forthright and direct manner could sometimes ruffle a few feathers, but I never experienced it as anything other than honesty. In fact, that honesty and forthrightness were qualities I greatly admired in her.

“Her passion for doing justice to David’s work was unwavering, and she understood better than most that we work in an industry called showbusiness, and ‘business’ is, after all, half the word. Yet beneath that formidable professional exterior was great warmth. Whenever we met at a social occasion or a theatre event, she always had a smile, a kind word and a genuine interest in what one was doing.”

The cast of the first production included a boy of 11. It was the singer Alistair Izobell. He says: “I first stepped onto the stage as Broertjie in District Six: The Musical in 1987. I was 11 years old.

“Renaye was there: quiet, steady and essential. For four decades she and David were constants in our [the cast’s] lives. They took a handful of boys from the Cape Flats and opened a world we never knew existed.

“She never sought the spotlight; she did not need applause. Her gift was seeing what others could become, and then refusing to let us settle for less. She was gracious and unassuming, yet firm when it mattered.

“When we made poor choices she spoke plainly, without drama, and then moved on. When we married and had children, she and David celebrated with us. When we began producing our own work, we still turned to them for the standard they had taught us: respect the audience and honour the work.

“She would have turned 75 on the 28th of October. Instead we sit with the quiet weight of her absence. David stands without his true north. Jesse and Amy have lost their mother. We have lost the woman who helped shape our lives without ever demanding credit for it. Renaye Lange-Kramer was a giant who never needed validation.

“She believed in the stories, the hard work and the changing of lives. To every project she touched, and to every person who walked through her door, we say simply: Thank you, Renaye.”

Dock Road

In 1990 she and David became partners in the Dock Road Theatre, an entertainment complex in the V&A Waterfront, housed in what had been South Africa’s first electric power station, built in 1882. State arts councils took the bulk of public money for the performing arts.

The Dock Road took none, and about 90% of the work staged there in its six years was original South African writing. The first production, Fairyland, a revue by Kramer and Petersen of the cinema crooners of the 1950s, won the FNB Vita Award for Best Musical and ran for more than 1,000 performances. Among the playwrights the Kramers invited in was a young Lara Foot, who is now chief executive of the Baxter.

Foot says: “It is with sadness that the Baxter Theatre mourns the loss of Renaye. She was an insightful and highly successful producer, who made a massive contribution to The Baxter’s canon of great works.

“Renaye produced David and Taliep Petersen’s District Six: The Musical, which was the longest-running show ever at The Baxter, as well as many more groundbreaking David Kramer shows. On a personal level, Renaye was incredibly kind and encouraging towards me, from when she first saw my work when I was in my early twenties.

“She and David staged several of my plays in their wonderful Dock Road Theatre and she continued with her support and encouragement of our shows at The Baxter for many, many years. Fly high.”

‘Immeasurable’ influence

In 1992, Renaye produced Poison, about drug abuse and gang culture on the Cape Flats, at Artscape, and went on to manage its tours to Malaysia and London. Kat and the Kings, about the “coloured” singing groups of the late 1950s and early 1960s, opened at the Dock Road in 1995.

It went to the Tricycle Theatre in London, then to the Vaudeville Theatre in the West End and the Cort Theatre on Broadway, and in 1999 won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical.

Marlene le Roux, chief executive of Artscape, says: “Renaye was the force behind some of South Africa’s biggest cultural exports. She produced the celebrated works of the dynamic duo David Kramer and Taliep Petersen, productions that carried our stories to stages far beyond our shores. She was also the backbone of David Kramer’s prolific journey as a solo artist, steadily guiding his work behind the scenes with care and conviction. Renaye never sought the spotlight, yet her influence on South African theatre and music is immeasurable.”

Renaye also produced Ghoema, a musical built on the ghoema drum rhythm and the early music of the Cape’s slave communities, and co-produced The Kramer Petersen Songbook at the Baxter, which played to sold-out houses. The contradiction in her working life was plain to anyone who watched it. She decided what a production could afford and what it could not, and she avoided every photograph. Hugo Theart, artistic director of the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (KKNK), who worked with her there, had a story about that.

He says: “It was always a privilege and an honour to work with Renaye. She had a firm grasp of every detail, approached everything with clarity and purpose, and never left room for uncertainty.

“Renaye was a straight shooter, guided by integrity, professionalism and an unwavering commitment to excellence. Despite her remarkable achievements and the pivotal role she played in so many successful productions, initiatives and artists’ careers, she remained exceptionally humble.

“She never sought the spotlight and was happiest supporting others behind the scenes. I remember asking her and David to join a photoshoot for a KKNK production she was producing, and she genuinely could not understand why anyone would want a photograph of her.

“That humility was one of her most endearing qualities. Renaye was a passionate supporter of theatre, always present, whether for a major production or the smallest community event. I valued her honest feedback, which was always constructive, supportive and rooted in a desire to uphold the highest standards of quality.

“She cared deeply about the work, the people behind it, and the future of the industry. I have the greatest respect for her, and I will miss her presence tremendously.”

‘I could never have travelled this road alone’

Other theatre-makers describe the same presence from the audience. The playwright and theatre activist Mike van Graan says: “Renaye always struck me as a formidable woman, and as integral to David’s phenomenal output and achievements. She was genuinely interested in the work of other theatre-makers and, personally, I greatly valued her supportive attendance and feedback. What a shock! Her quiet, strong presence will be missed.”

The photographer John Hogg learnt early that the way to reach David was through Renaye. He says: “When I needed to communicate with David I learnt that it would be through Renaye and so it was most of the time over the ensuing years.

“Always helpful, kind and generous in an unfussy way and genuinely pleased to hear from or see me whenever our paths crossed, I always felt seen. In my eyes David and Renaye were a consummate couple and they just looked right together.

“I soon realised that she was very much his equal and thought of them as such, almost as one. I had underestimated her standing in the theatre community until this sad day – the social media tributes are enormous and deservedly so. There are people in life that you’re glad you met and bring on a smile when you think of them. Renaye was one but today’s smile is a sad one.”

David’s own account of what she gave him came earlier this year, when he turned 75. He said: “I could never have travelled this road alone. I owe an immeasurable debt of gratitude to my wife, Renaye, and to my daughters, Jesse and Amy, whose love, patience and support have sustained me through every triumph, disappointment, opening night and new beginning.

“I also think of my brother John, who taught me to look closely at the world in which I live. Through him I learnt that if you respond honestly to your own place and circumstance, what may at first appear regional can resonate far beyond its borders and become universal. At 75, I am still writing. I am still dreaming. I am still making theatre.”

Their daughter Amy Kaye describes what her mother did that audiences never saw: “She worked largely behind the scenes throughout her career, yet her contribution to South African theatre was remarkable. Beyond producing successful shows, she had a particular talent for finding creative and innovative ways to bring new audiences into theatres, including people who might never otherwise have considered theatre-going part of their lives. 

“She understood that building an audience required more than putting a production on stage; it meant finding ways to make theatre accessible, inviting and relevant to people from different backgrounds and generations.”

‘All our hearts are broken’

The singer Anton Goosen says he met her in 1980. He says: “I only saw her less than a month ago and she was full of life, jovial. I really don’t think anybody expected this, such is life. Love is what I will remember about her, love.”

Marianne Thamm, journalist, writer, performer and erstwhile theatre critic, says: “I’ve known Renaye forever, since I’ve known David, which has been many years. So, the two of them are this couple like Benson and Hedges. I will miss her warmth, her enthusiasm for people and their work and just that she went to everything and celebrated everything. And yes, it’s impossible to think that one will be at an opening night and we won’t see her with David. My heart goes out to David. Really. All our hearts are broken. It’s such a shock.”

Renaye Kramer spent four decades out of the photograph. On the morning of 14 October David announced his loss. The tributes came nevertheless. They came from the youngsters from the Cape Flats, from a director whose budget she trimmed, from a playwright whose plays she put on in a converted power station.

Indeed, she might not be in the photo, but few of the people in it got there without her help. Dim the theatre lights; a breath of fresh air has just left it. DM