A new play titled Contested Bodies or Doctor James Barry, Lord Charles Somerset and I, presented by Abrahamse & Meyer productions, will premiere at Artscape in March. The show will run from 16 March to 2 April 2022.
The play centres on the relationship between acclaimed surgeon, Doctor James Barry, his African manservant, John and the then, Governor of the Cape Colony, Lord Charles Henry Somerset. Barry lived his entire adult life as a man but was named Margret Ann at birth and was known as female in childhood. Barry’s biological sex only became widely known to the public and his colleagues after his death in 1865.
In Contested Bodies, things get down and dirty in the Governor’s residence when the three men decide, as part of their evening’s entertainment, to enact a lewd and lascivious play penned by the ultimate libertine and provocateur, the salacious Marquis de Sade. The enactment of the De Sade play reveals many unspoken truths and recalibrates the men’s friendship and relationship with each other.
Adults only
This volatile “comedy-of-very-bad-manners” stars Matthew Baldwin as the tempestuous Doctor James Barry, Marcel Meyer as his good friend, Lord Charles Somerset, and introduces local audiences to up-and-coming young actor, Lungile Lallie as Barry’s trusted manservant, John.
Contested Bodies is directed by Fred Abrahamse, with detailed period costumes by Marcel Meyer, and moody lighting by the award-winning Faheem Bardien.
Please note Contested Bodies is strictly intended for adult audiences only and carries an 18 age-restriction. The play contains scenes with strong language, nudity, violence, prejudice, and sex.
What: Contested Bodies
Where and when: Artscape from 16 March to 2 April 2022
Tickets: Computicket
WS
