POWERFUL performances will be on stage this week, as part of the South African Women's Art Festival at the Durban Playhouse.
'A Woman in Waiting', a biographical play based on the life of Thembi Mtshali-Jones, takes you to the heart of what life was like for women in apartheid South Africa.
The play is one of the theatre highlights of this year's festival and will be staged at the Playhouse Loft theatre from 20 to 22 August at 7.30pm.
Written by Yaël Faber and directed by Yaël Faber, this one-woman tour de force starring celebrated singer and performer, Thembi Mtshali-Jones, takes us on a moving journey that traces her memories of early rural childhood, waiting to see her mother once a year, through the exhilaration of urban chaos, the humiliations her mother had to endure, her own years as a domestic worker and the heartbreak of leaving her own baby in order to tend to others people's children.
It's a powerful piece of theatre that traces Mtshali-Jones’s life as a woman of colour growing up under the brutally oppressive poverty and racist policies of South Africa’s apartheid system and of the stroke of luck that made it possible for her to leave a life of domestic service behind for a career in the performing arts.
'A Woman in Waiting' also serves to reflect the many and varied musical styles in South Africa's amazing diversity of cultures.
Tickets cost R80 with discounts for block bookings and pensioners. Bookings are through Computicket or call the Playhouse box office on 031 369 9596.
Lovers of the emotive art form, dance, can look forward to two captivating productions by the Playhouse Dance Residency at 7pm on 22 August.
The Playhouse Dance Residency performs their award-winning piece, 'If The World Was Listening'. Coming fresh from Grahamstown, this periodic styled piece, choreographed by Sandile Mkhize, is a high-intensity, questioning, and thoughtful dance work.
Tickets to 'If the World Was Listening' cost R80 and can be booked through Computicket.
The second is a production for schools entitled I AM – a children's story that focuses on mankind's destructive behaviour towards Mother Earth. In the last days of a barren South African land, a grandmother hands over the last seeds of life to her grandchild and sets the child the task of saving the land. Elements of earth (sand), sun (fire) and water (rain) are explored and brought to life on stage.
The tree of life which represents Mother Earth gives birth to new seeds which replenish the earth. The tree of life is symbolic of women and the motherly role they play in giving birth to a brighter future for South Africa.
The two school performances start at 10am on 20 and 21 August. Book through Computicket.
Discounted parking is available for all Playhouse patrons at The Royal Hotel Parkade and at Albany Parking.
