The legendary South African play Curl Up and Dye returns to the professional stage in December 2022 at The Olympia Bakery Theatre in Kalk Bay, Cape Town.
Set in 1989 in a down-at-heel hair salon in Joubert Park, Johannesburg, the play presents a microcosm view of the so-called urban “grey areas” of what was then the apartheid-era Group Areas Act coming apart at the seams; and it is experienced viscerally through the overlapping lives of five women all trying to survive their harsh realities by attempting to take control of, or escape, the social forces that ground them down.
The original 1990 production packed audiences into theatres across the country, venturing not only to the usual big-city venues but also to places as different as White City, Soweto, and Sasolburg. Curl Up and Dye was a highly acclaimed box-office hit because it struck a note with South Africans of all stripes in a nation that was poised on the cusp of change.
Mirror to our society
Following its extensive South African run, Curl Up and Dye played in London and Germany, winning a Fringe First at the Edinburgh Festival in 1990.
Subsequent to its publication in the collection, South Africa Plays, the play became a South African schools’ setwork book and has been a staple for school and university productions for some 30 years.
Today, as it did when originally performed, this freshly reinterpreted portrayal of Curl Up and Dye still seems utterly contemporary, presenting a mirror to our society that is comic, tragic and cuts to the bone, especially since matters of race, identity and gender-based violence in South Africa remain as urgent and fraught as ever.
The cast features Sue Pam-Grant, Sive Gubangxa, Lauren Snyders, Lisa Gombard and Nomakhosi Meveni.
What: Curl up and Dye
Where and when: Olympia Bakery, Kalk Bay until 24 December 2022
Book: Quicket
WS
