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| The stage is set to tell the story of Dulcie September |
One
of the motivations for me going back to university was to equip myself with the
skills to tell the stories of growing up in District Six and on the Cape Flats.
Not only my stories, but the stories of many who cannot tell their own. We’re a
deeply divided society, a country still trying to recover from an oppressive
past. We cannot sweep it all under the carpet and expect to move on. There will
always be a bump there to trip us up, to nag at us to pull it straight.
People
need to be acknowledged. Maybe nothing will undo the hurt but at least it’s not
being ignored, we’re not being told to get over it and move on. We need to
listen to each other with respect, be slow to judge. We need to know that
someone saw our pain and understands; only then can we move forward.
I
am encouraged by the two shows I saw recently at the Baxter Theatre – Cold Case: Revisiting Dulcie September,
which premiered at the National Arts Festival in 2014 and My Word! Redesigning Buckingham Palace.
Buckingham Palace:
District Six is, of course, the name of the novel
by teacher and author Richard Rive, published in 1986. The tragedy of forced
removals in District Six has been well-recorded. Less well-known is the story
of anti-apartheid activist and ANC representative, Dulcie September who was
assassinated in Paris in 1988.
The
Baxter Theatre’s intimate Golden Arrow Studio provided the perfect backdrop to
the personal stories of a childhood with an abusive father, a budding activist
and a committed freedom fighter. Denise Newman is an accomplished story-teller
who moved many members of the audience to tears, made us laugh at reminiscences
of growing up in places like Athlone (where September was from). She held our
attention for more than an hour, all eyes riveted on her one-person show … surrounded
by the cardboard boxes which represent the cold case of what remains of the
woman. 27 years later her killer has not been found. Theories abound, the
mystery remains unsolved…
The
biased history which we were forced to learn during apartheid needs to be
balanced by stories such as these, giving value to our own experiences. The
tens of thousands of people who attended her funeral, the street, square and
boulevard named after her in Paris, make us proud of our struggle.
When
I met Newman afterwards I couldn’t help enveloping her in a hug, I felt that I knew
her, or at least the woman she had brought to life on the small stage. The run
at the Baxter ended last night but look out for a couple of shows in August at the
Artscape Theatre, to celebrate Woman’s Day.
Cold Case
has won the Standard Bank Ovation Award and the Adelaide Tambo Award for
Celebrating Human Rights through the Arts.
2 comments:
Thanks Nadia - this is a crucial intervention in how we think about life after apartheid.
Thank you for your moving reflection on the play Cold Case. Your writing, and what I can glean about the play from your blog, capture for me the amazing capacity in South African's that I have noted before. The capacity to speak of terrible suffering and hold it somehow in a place of overcoming: The importance of being acknowledged; to have someone witness that our lives have been unfairly damaged; and we are left living the consequences; and at the same time able to express strength and humour. Quite amazing.
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