Exploding on to the Arena stage at Artscape as one of the plays during the Applauz Arts Initiative 2nd SoloAfrika Festival of MonoDrama from August 27 to September 1 is The Real Mrs Muhammad featuring Artscape’s very own senior marketing manager, Simone Heradien, in her debut appearance on-stage.
The play tackles the complexities of an intercultural relationship between a naturalised practising Muslim, Pakistani man and a feminist, atheist Capetonian woman.
Heradien will dramatise a raw, auto-biographical, microscosmic view of her life, confronting her struggle to balance her liberalism, feminism and atheism within a relationship which is masculine, Muslim, Pakistani and culturally driven by her partner.
The two meet on a plane, fall passionately in love halfway between somewhere and Dubai, which sees her move to Pretoria where he lives.
Meanwhile, he’s secretly betrothed to another in the Motherland
The Real Mrs Muhammad is a new South African piece. Through the extensive network of Applauz Arts Initiative on the continent and abroad, they intend to export this and other productions to the international theatre community after the festival.
* The Real Mrs Muhammad will be performed on August 29 at 7pm, August 31 at 7pm and September 1 at 11am. Tickets are R120 with student and pensioners concessions of R60.
* Ten readers stand a chance to win double tickets. SMS: CTMRSM, followed by your name, surname and email address to 33258. Competition opens today and closes Tuesday at midnight.
Winners will be notified via email. Tickets are not transferable. SMS costs R1.50. Terms and conditions apply.