Wits provides political opening to Student Theatre Fest

Originally published in Cue.

Opening the annual Student Theatre Festival for the second year in a row, the University of the Witwatersrand brings a political piece that played to a packed crowd at the Rehearsal Room yesterday. Dedicated to South African domestic workers, Maid in Mzansi is relevant and powerful.

The cast of seven workshopped the play with their director, Roberto Queiroz. The script is based on interviews with their own domestic workers, a personal touch that works well to prevent the piece from straying into a depiction of binary good and evil, and allows for a sensitive look at all the characters. Although some dialogue is remarkably unsubtle, the solid cast performance and mature satire carry the play.