You Strike A Woman, You Strike A Rock/Wathint’ Abafazi, Wathint’ Imbokotho: The script

Summary

SDUDLA … A woman in her early 50s, highly politicised. She has suffered under the apartheid regime – her husband was arrested and taken away; her son fled into exile. These experiences have made her bitter and her behaviour is somewhat eccentric.

MAMPOMPO … A rural woman in her late 30s. She is gullible and believes the propaganda put out by the apartheid regime. Her main goal in life is to provide for her children.

MAMBHELE … A Cape Town woman in her late 30s. As a townswoman she is slightly more sophisticated than Mampompo and has developed risqué techniques to sell her chickens.

The many characters who people the market are visualised by the actors. Mampompo and Mambhele sell chickens. Sdudla sells oranges and vetkoek. Most of the props are mimed, except for the sticks. The actors play a variety of roles.

PRODUCTION HISTORY

The title of the play is taken from the slogan associated with the 1956 Women's March. Thirty years later we created a theatrical homage to the courage of our mothers. The play tells the personal stories of three women selling their wares in a township on the outskirts of Cape Town. It is a celebration of the spirit of millions of black women in South Africa who refused to give in to an oppressive system.

The play was first performed at the Arena Theatre, University of Cape Town, in May 1986, then at the Grahamstown Festival of the Arts on 29 June 1986 and later that year at the Baxter Studio Theatre, Cape Town, and the Market Theatre, Johannesburg, with Thobeka Maqhutyana, Poppy Tsira and Nomvula Qosha directed by Phyllis Klotz, stage manager Xolani September and set designer Sarah Roberts. The Community Arts Project and the Young People's Theatre Education Trust supported the production with financial assistance during the rehearsal period.

The play is set in a township marketplace, near a taxi rank. The non-realistic set suggests a wide open, dusty space. The action is played out against a triangular black plastic builder's sheet suspended from the ceiling. Behind the sheet hang three hessian panels of different sizes. Three rostra form a U – the upstage rostrum is twice the length of and a little higher than the other two. The rostra and floor are painted a muddy brown to give an earthy effect.