Hair-raising 80s shine through in stage drama

[caption id="attachment_225676" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The cast of ‘Curl Up and Dye’ will be on stage at the Opera House on Wednesday[/caption]

Curl Up and Dye, the well-known play written by Sue Pam-Grant, is opening at the Port Elizabeth Opera House on Wednesday.

The play is set in a hair salon in Bok Street, Joubert Park, Johannesburg, against the backdrop of apartheid South Africa in the 1980s.

In Curl Up and Dye, the audiences get to meet five remarkable women immersed in a mostly predictable life in Joubert Park.

“We laugh with them, we cry with them and we leave their world deeply touched,” Stageworld director Marlene Pieterse said.

The production features a strong cast of leading women such as Emily Bradley (Rolene), Anneke Groenewald (Mrs Du Bois), Dannielle Koning (Charmaine), Nobesuthu Rayi (Miriam) and Olwethu Mdala (Dudu).

Rayi said though she was born in the 1980s, she had no recollection of actually living in apartheid South Africa and added that Curl Up and Dye made her understand those troubled times better.

“I got to understand the racial tension and in the process I had to remove Nobesuthu and engulf myself in Miriam, my character.

“Miriam has been working at the salon for the past 20 years.

“She has lived; she has been hurt. But with that hurt she is able to move on, move forward and keep on living,” Rayi said.

The actress said while rehearsals were under way, the actors were left exhausted at the end of the day, and some of the white cast members struggled with having to be racist towards her while acting on stage.

“I’m the oldest here and I was their lecturer at some stage and so when their characters have to be racist to Miriam it’s a challenge, which is when we have to remove ourselves from our characters,” she said.

She described Pam- Grant’s writing as “biting”, especially in the context of 2017, and said that the issues discussed at the salon were universal.

Curl Up and Dye forms part of the Opera House Dance and Drama season which consists of commissioned works staged every month for a week-long run.

Cingiwe Skosana from the PE Opera House said the programme was designed to breathe life into ready productions produced largely by local experts.

The show starts at 7pm on Wednesday and there is a 2pm matinee next Saturday.

• Tickets are R100 per person and R150 for doubles and are available from Nomgcobo Mkize on (041) 586-2256 or 061-996-0200.