She Died Dreaming is a fun, bumpy ride.
Chris Tobo reviews the all-woman four-hander, She Died Dreaming.
THERE were no men on stage in She Died Dreaming, fizzy all-woman four-hander which opened The Playhouse Theatre’s South African Women’s Arts festival at The Playhouse Loft Theatre last Thursday. And yet their presence (and absence) is powerfully felt in Julian Seleke Mokoto’s latest play about four new South African women.
Nomsa Buthelezi plays Hilda, an air hostess with an artistic bent who spends her time trying to capture the man of her dreams on canvas when she isn’t entertaining friends and fellow air hostesses Grace (Linda Sebezo), Promise (Zama Ngcobo) and Anathi (Kelly Khumalo) on the immaculate patio of her suburban home. These women come across as independent, carefree and a bit wild, yet their men loom large in their lives, be they real (Grace’s philandering pastor husband) or imagined (Hilda’s painted dream hunk), dead (Anathi’s late lover) or alive (Promise’s too-perfect husband).
At several points during the play the men metaphorically gatecrash the women’s wine-fuelled gatherings as each woman gets her chance to either gush, gnash or blubber (in some cases, all three) over the male object of her affection. Even Hilda, whose portrait-bound beau is clearly a figment of her imagination, is driven to fits of intense emotion as she vacillates between talking up and chewing out her fantasy fiance.
The sense of fun and mischief which permeates through the production’s three acts is noticeably tempered with a whole lot of religious sermonizing and bible-quoting, making the whole thing come across as a Sex and the City by way of Tyler Perry.
The four actresses bring their A-game to sell Mokoto’s uneven script: Buthelezi radiates nuclear levels of warmth and charisma as the slightly manic yet likeable Hilda and Sebezo displays impressive comedic chops as the balls-out and outspoken Grace. Ngcobo imbues ‘good-girl’ Promise with a steely confidence while a luminous Khumalo brings a touching vulnerability to party-girl Anathi.
She Died Dreaming isn’t a perfect production. At times the characters come across as mouthpieces for Mokoto’s views on gender relations and religion, an inevitability given he’s both writer and director. There’s an uneasy tension which borders on contradiction between what the characters’ personal desires and the play’s central quasi-religious message, a tension underscored in the play’s suddenly tragic final act when Hilda prays to God to fill her with his love before taking her own life, presumably due to intense loneliness. Fortunately Mokoto’s assembled a strong, vibrant cast to send the material soaring in performance, even if it would barely take off in lesser hands.
