Valencia Govindasamy
This year’s South African Women’s Arts Festival (SAWAF) comprises drama, dance, slam poetry, musical concerts, panel discussions and a children’s theatre day. The headline productions are Santa’s Story starring Aviva Pelham, Fishers of Hope by award-winning writer/director, Lara Foot and A Woman in Waiting by Thembi Mtshali.
Santa’s Story(Saturday and Sunday) is a moving, one-woman show depicting Santa Pelham’s journey of courage, inspiration and hope. Director Janice Honeyman shares: “It’s the intriguing biographical story of Santa Pelham, nee Erder, and her escape from Nazi Germany. It follows her life as a refugee in Europe, her escape to Zimbabwe (then Southern Rhodesia), and her salvation from the cruelty and injustice of war. It touches on Jewish values and family life. It shows the horror of war, the discrimination against the Jews, and it strikes a very deep emotional cord within an audience.”
A Woman in Waiting is a biographical journey into the heart of what life was like for women in apartheid South Africa. Directed by Yaël Farber, it uses visual imagery, song, chanting and evocative action to relate a compelling story that is part of the fabric of our history. On what attracted her to the play, the director says: “As a South African who grew up under apartheid, but on the privileged side of the divide, I wanted to create a work of theatre that spoke for the incremental losses of humanity that apartheid created. The details of humanity are always where the cruelty of political systems exact their highest toll and it is up to us, the storytellers, to bear witness to these details. I wanted to be a part of revealing how individual lives were violated by apartheid, as well as documenting these stories in a way that history text books cannot convey. Not only is it an issue of revealing the past, but remembering and acknowledging this past to the new generations through testimony, using the power of theatre.”
Asked what audiences can expect from the play, Farber says: “A tender, poignant, wrenching tour de force performance from one of our country’s finest performers; a testament to the past and the capacity of the human spirit – specifically the matriarchs of South Africa, to rise above it.”
One to look out for is If The World was Listening which is performed by dancers of The Playhouse Dance Residency. The periodic-styled piece is choreographed by Sandile Mkhize and is a questioning and thoughtful dance work. Touching on the themes of the production, director Leagan Peffer shares: “We reveal and conceal ourselves through our stories. Who listens? Who is interested? Who cares? In the production, we witness a spectrum of stories with different life experience, influence. Personal interactions, love, betrayal and rejection, self-discovery, devotion and patriotism, forgiveness, are expressed amid interrogating social issues such as sexuality, gender differences, modernity versus traditionalism, and domestic violence.”
Also opening this week is Fishers of Hope, the Open Mic and Slam Poetry, the Sundowner Concert as well as a gala concert.
l For the full programme and ticket info, see Computicket or call the Playhouse box office at 031 369 9540/9596.