THE GRASS WIDOW. Written and directed by Louis Viljoen. With Emma Kotze. Production design by Kieran McGregor. Baxter Masambe Theatre.
KAREN RUTTER reviews
The Grass Widow is award-winning playwright Louis Viljoen’s latest work, premiering in the Baxter’s Masambe Theatre. It features Emma Kotze in a one-hander that explores the lengths to which a person may go to, when humiliated or hurt by another.
Particularly, in this play, when humiliated or hurt within a relationship – or even a thwarted relationship, which is then pursued with all the intent of a hunter bringing down prey. Such is the case of the first scenario described by Kotze, who deals with the mean girls and boys in her school with a uniquely personal touch. It is one boy, ultimately, who is at the receiving end of her attention, a boy who starts out dismissive but ends up desperate in the way of hormone-addled adolescents. Suffice it to say that if you’re a fan of both fornication and faeces, you’ll love this.
Ten years later, and Kotze’s character decides she is ready enough to risk a real relationship, after a decade of keeping herself emotionally at bay. Things start out swimmingly, and get even better. Until they don’t. And once more, a special solution must be found …
Told as a continuous monologue, lasting just under an hour, The Grass Widow has moments of dark humour. Viljoen has clearly enjoyed himself writing this one, and Kotze manages the demands of a solo piece with a confident physicality. The intimate Masambe Theatre is the perfect vehicle for this new one-hander, which opened, interestingly, three years since the last night’s performance of Viljoen’s play, The Hucksters, at the Baxter.
What: The Grass Widow
Where and when: The Baxter’s Masambe Theatre from 31 January to 11 February 2023
Tickets: Webtickets
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