The Battered Housewives' Club - A Theatre Review and Introspection into Gender-Based Violence

The Battered Housewives Club, written and directed by Zubayr Charles, is a school drama production that was staged on Friday 20 September at Goodhope Seminary Girls High School in Hope Street, Gardens Cape Town.

Produced as an acapella jukebox musical, the show cleverly makes use of popular contemporary radio tracks to help tell the story of each of the victims, each who rendered a performance of the song during the storytelling.    

Sally reveals her story in the second act 

Starring an all-female high school cast, the show took us on a journey of five victims of gender-based violence who share their experiences at a support group, called The Battered Housewives Club. Fatima (Micaela Barnett; Grade 11), a quiet housewife with a black eye (she says “I am so clumsy”) who is known for her cooking, reveals that she accidently stabs her husband Ayoeb during a power struggle while making mince breedie in the kitchen, and what the consequences were for their adolescent daughter. Sizwe (Andile Sibisi; Grade 11), the gossip of the group, tells us how her alcoholic husband Thabo constantly taunts her about her appearance. Her story was beautifully complimented with the Glee Cast song, Pretty/Unpretty (“But if you can't look inside you, find out who am I too, be in a position to make me feel so damn unpretty”). Khanya (Akhe Beja; Grade 11), pregnant with her third child, tells the story of her husband Lamkelo, a smooth talker who dreams of making it big as a South African rapper, who is unhappy with her pregnancy. Finally, a colourful, confident and business-owning Sandi (Bohlale Mahlohla; Grade 8) arrives late to the support group meeting and reveals the story of her unhappy marriage with her cheating husband.     

Sally in her conversation with her sister Hlumelo 

The climax of the play takes place when Sally (Bradny Gumede; Grade 12), the creator of the support group who is perceived as a non-victim, reveals how being physically abused by her husband Gregory led to having a miscarriage. Sally breaks down in the group, and the scene ends with her last line “meeting ajorned”.

The show was strategically staged in two separate physical spaces. On the right hand side, the support group scenes took place under a blue neon light.  The stage curtains close and reopen indicating the start of a new scene, where the actions of the women’s stories are demonstrated on the left hand side of the stage under a bright red light.

The show also opened and closed with the cast wearing white rhobes, singing songs about power and courage that were suited to the theme – A New Day Has Come by Celion Dion was the opening song item. The audience participated in the closing scene by lighting candles and honouring the voices of the characters whose stories were told throughout the show.

The Battered Housewives’ Club is an emotion-evoking and entertaining production. It was also educational, particularly in the second act when Sally introduced the concept of gaslighting, a form of psychological abuse where the perpetrator manipulates the victim and makes them questions their own sanity, memory or perception. The show coincidently and indirectly took place as an educational response to the femicide marches and protests that took place in Cape Town during September 2019, where awareness were raised around the rape and murder of women. The show also highlighted what domestic violence looks like in different homes and cultural settings, and the different responses that come from victims depending on their physical, emotional and mental states of being at the time. With Heritage Day pending in South Africa, this show also presented an opportunity for the audience to reflect how we can converse and alter these cultural silences embedded within the relationships of the five women told on stage.   

The event was closed with an introduction to all the actresses, with a personal note by the show’s writer and director Zubayr Charles, English teacher and Drama Club facilitator of Goodhope Seminary Girls High School. Zubayr said that the show was dedicated to his mother, and reiterated that the show was born out of personal experiences with depression, where he started to realise that “if I was going through a tough time, what must these victims of abuse be going through?”

Cultsha Kennis would like to thank the Goodhope Seminary Girls High School for the opportunity to attend and review this show. We would also like to commend Zubayr Charles for the mentorship provided to his young cast (A learner said “Mr Charles is loved even by those he doesn’t teach”), and the well-thought out way in which the event was executed. Congratulations!