Cold Case: Revisiting Dulcie September
DIRECTOR: Basil Appollis
CAST: Denise Newman
VENUE: Golden Arrow Theatre
UNTIL: May 30
MY WORD! Redesigning Buckingham Palace
DIRECTOR: Sandra Temmingh
CAST: Basil Appollis
VENUE: Golden Arrow Theatre, Baxter
UNTIL: May 30
DESPITE what the name suggests, this is less the anatomy of a death and more the exploration of a life.
While her assassination remains a spectacular mystery, the life of political activist Dulcie September proves the more gripping for its ordinariness.
Being a life led under apartheid it wasn’t a kind or benign ordinariness, but what turns out to be fascinating about September – or at least how she is presented in the one-hour play – is how she faced what came her way.
We revisit the very idea of who this woman was, who was so vocal about the iniquities of apartheid at a time when her race and gender put her at the bottom of the power scale. The play makes personal an idea – small people who fought apartheid on an individual level –which is lost in talk of “the Struggle” and the official narrative written by the victors.
The Golden Arrow Studio’s tiny stage is strewn with strategically placed cardboard boxes and the idea of boxes is constantly referenced throughout the work, in both words and ideas.
The play starts with September explaining how her life has been reduced to a few lines on paper in boxes, some of them even hidden away.
We learn how September went from mild-mannered Methodist to denizen of the dance hall to exiled guerrilla living the life in Paris.
We hear her talk about the people she mixed with – Neville Alexander, Alex La Guma, Bettie van der Heyden – and the intricacies of female political prison life which was very different to what the men experienced on Robben Island.
In addition to playing September, Denise Newman also plays various people she knew, like her mother. Carefully delineated characters range from the flamboyant French friend to the practical Van der Heyden or Dulcie’s quiet sister, Stephanie.
Newman is focused inward when playing September, adopting different outward gestures and mannerisms for the other character. She delivers a constant monologue with poise, directly addressing the audience as she moves around the box-littered stage with economic movements, no gesture wasted.
The audience giggles when Newman affects an Afrikaner accent to bring home the absurdity of the security police’s work, and breaths a sigh of nostalgic recognition when she talks about childhood games we played, but there is a dark thread running through the monologue.
When she mentions “the persistent breeze of guilt” it isn’t just about not catching her killers but a subtle reprove about how she has been forgotten.
Imagery of the French reaction to her death, her funeral and how the French people have remembered her are projected against a screen towards the end of the play – very much at odds with the footnote in history that she represents in South African history textbooks.
Running in tandem with My Word! Redesigning Buckingham Palace, Cold Case represents a step forward in the theatrical presentation of the coloured person as more than just the jolly singing coon which is the tired stereotypic shorthand so often abused on our stages.
Both plays – written by Basil Appollis and Sylvia Vollenhoven – are measured and nuanced portraits of interesting people who just happened to be coloured and have teaching in common. They are both intriguing lessons which don’t devolve into didactic exercises and both feature understated performances.
Poignant without descending into melodrama, both plays are emotionally touching for creating a glimpse into the lives of real people who didn’t let the system get them down, demythologising them without breaking them down.