WRITER and director Marcia Peschke shares a deep passion for issues that affect women and self-identity. This is evident from her writing and works like Living Dead Girl.
This week she brings her creative energy to Red Eye Durban, which will take place at Durban’s City Hall this week.
Seek bodY CONTOUR is what Peschke brings to stage. She said it consists of an autoethnographic monologue and poem exploring her personal narrative and a performance art theatre piece about the abuse of poor and working class women of colour.
“The first piece is a performance art piece. I have a team of UKZN students working on this with me. I’ve created autoethnographic texts and these are personal narratives performed by the actors looking at playing characters who’ve experienced some form of exploitation and abuse. Through those pieces I looked at the abuse of poor and working-class women of colour in South Africa.
“The second part of this project explores my own personal narrative as an artist and a researcher who is interested in issues of the body, identity and gender equality. I’m very interested in creating change and creating a space for the expression of personal politics. So I’m using the medium of performance to look at the construction of identity. And I’m using autoethnography because it’s a medium of performance that allows you to look at personal narratives as well as the experience of the body and how it’s been moulded and shaped by society,” she said.
Of the second piece, which she will perform on her own, Peschke said it is personal and presents a challenge to her on many levels.
“Because I work as an academic, it’s quite interesting to explore a more personal side of yourself. I think for someone who is interested in social issues, it is very important to sort of look at your own practice and how you interact with people and I think in order to understand social issues or things that affect women quite deeply, you’ve got to look at your own voice and the journey you’ve taken, so that you can appreciate the interaction you would have with other people.
“It’s definitely something that can be quite frightening – sharing personal aspects of your life. But I think it makes you more aware of yourself and therefore more aware of others, and careful in the way that you interact with them. I’m quite excited because I generally focus more on writing, so I think it will put me out there, test me and just be a very exciting opportunity.”
Peschke is excited about being involved in Red Eye, which has seen a revival in the promotion of local arts. “I think it’s going to be great coming into an environment where artists are not just focused on themselves but also involved in creating a community where other artists and their audiences can come together. It’s not just about marketing ourselves; it’s about building a relationship with our audience in Durban.”
The programme includes digital film, comics, fashion, dance, theatre, poetry etc.
• Students R50, adults R100, under-12s free at the door or webtickets.co.za.