A Woman Alone, Waking up and other Female Parts

Consists of two short plays by the Italian playwright Dario Fo

A Woman Alone deals with a woman entrapped by domesticity and an abusive husband. The play moves through farce to tragedy to a shocking climax.

Waking up sees a working mother desperately and hilariously trying to deal with the demands of work, motherhood.

The playwright Dario Fo is a leading anti-establishment playwright whose works have been performed extensively and in more than 30 languages. He won the Nobel prize for Literature in 1997.

 

The Director

Margot Wood is a theatre producer, director, actor and teaching artist. She completed her undergraduate studies in theatre at UCT and her post-graduate studies in Drama at US.  Productions directed for the stage include two winning productions at The Fugard Festival (2010&2011) and productions at KKNK (WAM), Suidoosterfees (WAM), NAF (Global Ballgame 2012, The Captain`s Tiger 2012, The Nose 2017). She has directed plays in a variety of styles ranging from realism to comedy, children`s theatre and musicals.

Performances as an actor include Happy Days (CT Fringe 2014), At the Edge of the Light (CT Fringe2017)

 

The Company

Anex Theatre Productions is an independent Cape Town based theatre company founded in 2006 to specifically promote the work of professional theatre makers who do not always have ready access to the professional stage.

The company has staged productions at the National Arts Festival, the Cape Town Fringe Festival, the Fugard Festival and at venues around Cape Town such as Off Broadway, the Rosebank Theatre, the Drama Factory, the Klein Libertas theatre, the Dorpstreet theatre, the Alexander Bar Upstairs. It was most recently seen at  NAF 2017 with its production of the comedy musical The Nose.

 

 

 

Audience Responses

I loved the intelligent script and the committed performances.

I thought the play was really good and hit home to what women goes through in real life. Amazing what women is still going through after 40 years still.

Really enjoyed it

Thought provoking.I don't think that performing a monologue is easy. You both played your part with aplomb. Well done!

A Women Alone and Other Female Parts Humour is one way which makes it easy for one to address “sensible” or rather uncomfortable issues especially those concerning intimate relationships. A Women Alone and Other Female Parts interrogates problematic stereotypical ideas of what it is to be a women. At the same time this play is voicing out the pain in which females experience particularly in marriages. It is a form of protest directed to the male figure. As a male myself I don’t feel entitled in particularly articulating the manner in which females should address their concerns, but I strongly feel the play should be very uncomfortable to watch and it must demonstrate the real terror that woman go through in their everyday lives. Meaning not in an amusing manner. As a male figure in the audience I should be bothered by what the play is conveying instead of laughing about it. It must really make me uncomfortable because women experience a lot of uncomfortability when having to deal with ignorant men. The issues that this play is addressing are very sensitive and should be portrayed as they are. Yes, we use theatre as a mirror to reflect really social issues about real human beings. But the as I have stated as a male figure I am not entitled at telling the female how to voice out their pain. I am not familiar with Dario Fo but judging by the text I would assume he is male. Regardless of my critic to the play, the message is clearly and beautifully addressed in a manner that builds relationships, particularly for married people. It presents these issues in a way that makes it comfortable for a married couple to have a fruitful dialogue after watching the play. And judging by the humour and how much the audience found some other parts of the play funny. That simply shows that yes members of the audience do recognise themselves in the characters. Maybe humour is after all a good way to break into these types of conversations. The presentation from the actresses was well developed and believable, I loved how they presented the characters. I would encourages man to go watch this play both married and single. This is the type of work I would watch again and again. Thank you so much for brining quality work to us.

An enjoyable evening of entertainment - funny, thought provoking and great acting!

The acting of both actresses was outstanding ad the topic powerful and relevant -albeit somewhat depressing in terms of gender gaps.

Fantastic show!! Jolly well done!!