A Woman in Waiting is a powerful biographical journey into the dark heart of what life was like for women in apartheid South Africa which has won several international awards.
In this one-woman tour de force, Thembi Mtshali-Jones leads us from her memories of a rural childhood, waiting to see her mother once a year, through the exhilaration of urban chaos and unfolding realisations of the humiliations her mother endures, to her own years as a domestic worker, leaving her baby in order to tend other people’s children as her mother once had to leave her. Her transformation into a performer and singer who would bear witness to these years is a testament to the strength of the human spirit and a celebration of the capacity to “speak or our hearts will burst”.
Through searing narrative, lullabies, chanting, haunting images and powerful song , A Woman in Waiting speaks for South African matriarchs who have endured life in the shadow of apartheid’s brutal grip, and held themselves and their families together against unimaginable odds.
Based on Thembi Mtshali-Jones’s life
Created and directed by Yael Farber
Written by Yael Farber with Thembi Mtshali-Jones
Starring Thembi Mtshali-Jones
AWARDS
BBC Gold Sony Award, London, UK (2001)
Scotsman Fringe First Award, Edinburgh Arts Festival (2000)
Best Actress, Carthage Festival, Tunis, Tunisia (2002)
Baxter Mondays: See a performance and have a light meal in the Baxter Restaurant beforehand for only R100.
