SoloAfrika Festival of MonoDrama – an Applauz Arts Initiative trio takes to the stage at Artscape Theatre!


Fat Man’s Coop and The Real Mrs Muhammad formed part of the SoloAfrika Festival of Monodrama, a 6-day festival that showcased a series of one-man and one-woman shows at the Artscape Theatre.

Fat Man’s Coop, a play on the name of an American hip hop personality, starring Dominic Paulsen, tells the story of a young South African man and his struggles with obesity, depression and suicide. The story starts inside the bedroom of the character, which became his “coop” as he withdrew from his world. The character then takes the audience on a journey of his childhood, telling the story of his alcoholic father who reared him with violence as a way to “make me right for the big world”. The character also touches on how obesity lead to the end of his singing career, memories of throwing stones at cars with friends in Belhar (only at the BMW’s want hulle kan betaal!) and the day he brought his girlfriend home for Christmas Lunch – all which proved to be both traumatic and entertaining.  


The production is an overall negotiation between multiple identities, where the story of a black-identified young man who is mislabelled as “boere” intersects with struggles with physical and mental health, a conversation which sets the tone for identity reflection in Heritage Month in South Africa.  

The Real Mrs Muhammad, starring Simone Heradien, tells the story of an intercultural relationship between a Muslim man from Pakistan and an atheist South African woman. The story encompasses four different characters, all simultaneously revealed by one person through voice and movement – Simone, Saajid, the chosen-wife of Saajid and their son Hassan.

Their love story journeys from their first meet-up in the plane, to their long distance relationship between Cape Town, where Simone resides, and Pretoria, where Saajid resides. Later on, Saajid reveals that he is secretly engaged to a chosen wife in Pakistan. Things get interesting once the wife migrates from Pakistan to Pretoria and moves in with the live-in lovers, leaving the audience to deliberate on who will triumph as the real Mrs Saajid Muhammad!
   
The Real Mrs Muhammad is a clever interplay between romance across the culture line and gender dynamics.     

***All monodramas are directed by Kurt Egelhof from the Applauz Arts Initiative. The above productions, along with Not Now! Not My Children, starring Natalia Da Rocha, are still playing today and tomorrow at the Artscape Theatre – buy your tickets at the Artscape Theatre Box Office/Computicket for R120!


Set of The Real Mrs Muhammad 

Cultsha Kennis with Simone Heradien and director Kurt Egelhof 

Simone Heradien with audience members 

Artscape Theatre 

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