Between Sisters
| When: | Wednesday, 07 September 2016 - Saturday, 10 September 2016 |
| Where: | Braamfontein Campus East Wits Downstairs Theatre |
| Start time: | 19:30 |
| Enquiries: | T: 011 717 1376 |
| RSVP: |
|
| Cost: | Online - R 45. At the Door - R 50 |
Between Sisters is a ritualistic exploration of two sisters and their relationship with their madam.
The Drama for Life Sex Actually Festival is a cross-community HIV and Aids arts education, activist and therapeutic intervention. The festival is curated in a way that allows arts practitioners and audience members to holistically engage with the subject, to interrogate the complexities surrounding themes of sex, sexuality, relationships, culture, gender and sexual reproductive health; within human rights and social justice discourse. Drama for Life, based at University of the Witwatersrand, is an arts centre for global social transformation and healing.
Between Sisters is a ritualistic exploration of two sisters and their relationship with their madam. Inspired by Xoliswa Dilata’s thesis on the relationship between black madams and their black employees, the play brings focus to the masks we wear in daily life; the roles we play that define us without capturing our true selves.
The two sisters engage in role-playing, acts for transgressions by planning the murder of their boss. They take turns portraying both sides of the power divide – helper and boss. In assuming the different roles, they express their own love/hate relationship and the not-so-subtle humiliations involved in domestic labour.
Refiloe Lepere spoke about why she has created this play: “As a director I am drawn to the play because in South Africa the relationship of the helper and employer is always a complex one. It has become even more intricate in post-apartheid South Africa, as it still carries the stench of the segregated and classist past. The play offers a new way of looking at the helpers in our world, as ingenious and ambitious women. It questions the idea of what is an authentic performance of self. It also moves us to re-imagine our expectations on the representation of domestic workers in our lives.”
In workshopping the play, the director incorporated the voices, experiences and stories of contemporary domestic workers in South Africa. These stories and experiences are used to give depth to the maids’ rebellion. The play takes us on a journey of the women in our lives: our mothers, our sisters, our cousins, our friends, ourselves. Refiloe Lepere’s stated objective is the hope that a narrative will emerge that navigates the intersecting fault-lines of the personal in labour relations and how power is assumed and performed.
About the Director
Refiloe Lepere writer, director; is a dramaturge at the SA State Theatre. She is also a lecturer at Drama for Life, University of Witwatersrand. Refiloe received her MA from New York University. Recently she was named as one of Mzansi’s 100 Influencers (The Young Independents). Her PhD looks at the efficacy of Performance as a Research method that can be used to document the oral histories of domestic workers in South Africa.
In her work as a journalist, director, and playwright, she weaves history, statistics and personal narrative to address issues of social (in) justice, intersectional identities and black people. Refiloe travels across the country performing, presenting, and facilitating workshops on writing radio dramas, political theatre, and addressing race and diversity.
Safe parking is available in Senate House; the entrance is on Jorissen Street, Braamfontein
SEASON: Wednesday 7 – Saturday 10 September 2016
07 – 09 September @ 19h30; 10 September @ 15h00 & 19h30.
Thursday 08 September @ 13h15 = WitsTix
RUNNING TIME: 80 minutes no interval.
BOOKING: www.webtickets.co.za
ONLINE
Full price R 45.00
Discount for students and pensioners R 30.00
WitsTix R 10.00
DOOR
Full price R 50.00
Discount for students and pensioners R 40.00
WitsTix R 15.00
Add event to calendar