POPArt Theatre takes a bold step against the scourge of gender-based violence in South Africa with their latest thought-provoking play, “Text Me When You Arrive”, which runs until February 11 at the AFDA JHB Campus in Milpark.
Co-written by Aaliyah Matintela, Sibahle Mangena and Thuli Nduvane, “Text Me When You Get There” is directed by Sinenhlanhla Mgeyi and MoMo Matsunyane.
In the play, three friends make a YouTube video, advising women on “how not to get raped and killed in South Africa”.
The trio will take the audiences through various scenarios that, in raising such awareness, will “ensure“ their safety and prevent or lessen their chances of being sexually assaulted.
Among the advise offered is a combination of the social media hashtags - #StayVigilant #MeToo #AmINext - and the things our mothers warned us about.
This hard-hitting production piece first premiered at POPArt Theatre in 2020.
POPArt’s artistic director Hayleigh Evans told IOL Entertainment that though the play is satirical, it aims to educate and stir a conversation around the harsh realities facing women in our country.
“The satire is a comment on all these things that we’re told as women, to be ‘stay safe’ and how safety becomes our responsibility and what we see uncovered in the show is that it is so much a part of the rape culture pyramid,” Evans said.
“What we did with this run is, because the audience feels quite feminist …it feels quite radical. It feels like it's a show for women, we’re doing a special ‘bring a guy to the theatre and get 50 bucks off your ticket’.
“We want men to see the show. We want to reach an audience that can look at our experiences and empathise with them and go, ‘Oh, I'm part of the problem.’
“I programmed it quite specifically during orientation week on all the campuses because I think consent male-female relationships are very important conversations to be having at the beginning of any school year, particularly in the tertiary spaces because this kind of insidious rape culture is happening during orientation week.
“It gets established and they get cemented every single year.”
“Text Me When You Get There” is on at the AFDA Red Roof Theatre, AFDA JHB Campus, 41 Frost Avenue, Milpark from February 9 – 11.
“Sunday is our ‘bring a man into the theatre and get 50 bucks off’.
“Candice Chirwa also known as the ‘Minister of Menstruation’, an activist for menstrual health will be inviting men to experience a period pain simulator during our post-show talk.
“I think women have internalised misogyny quite a lot and particularly. And I'd like people to walk away with the fact that ‘thi is everyone’s. And it’s not on women to stay safe. It’s about changing the entire culture of how we think about safety”.
The panellist for the after-show discussions on Sunday include Sinenhlanhla Mgeyi, Aaliyah Matintela, Sibahle Mangena and Thuli Nduvane, MoMo Matsunyane and Candice Chirwa.
Tickets are available from R150 at popartcentre.co.za.
The staging of “Text Me When You Get There” forms part of the “Iyabuya iPOPArt Festival”, a celebration of live and independent arts, which kicked off in January and is set to run until the end of March.