Cabaret hits out at abuse

A DISTRESSING encounter with a bullying schoolboy when she was 17, led drama teacher Jo Stemmet down a spiral of self-esteem dilemmas and ultimately resulted in her hard-hitting cabaret called Woman, n which she is taking to the National Arts Festival next month.

Stemmet, 37, who teaches drama and music at Selborne College, said a fellow schoolmate pushed her down the stairs and called her “fat ass” after she accidentally brushed past him.

“I was a size 30 and had never thought about my weight before,” recalled Stemmet.

The crushing comment played on her psyche and led to her feeling “uncomfortable in my skin”.

“I developed a weight problem after that and started hating every aspect of myself in the mirror.”

Describing Woman, n as “a onewoman cabaret that exposes what it means to be a woman in a persistent patriarchal society”, Stemmet has based much of it on Eve Ensler’s The

Vagina Monologues and drawn on material from authors Sylvia Plath and Maya Angelou.

While the theme of her show, which she also staged in East London last year, is intense and thought-provoking, Stemmet has alleviated it with humour and songs by Bette Midler, Nancy Sinatra and Aerosmith.

“The essence of the play is that there are so many women going through the pain not only of abuse, but also being told by magazines that we are not physically okay. It undermines women’s confidence, yet we are often aiming for standards that don’t exist because images of women are photoshopped to perfection.”

Because she knew many women had stories to tell about gender-based violence and discrimination, as well as other painful issues affecting women, Stemmet invited a few of them to share these during her show.

● Woman, n will be staged at the Alexander Playhouse on June 22 and 23 at 7pm and tickets costing R90 are available at Lee Gold Music. Tickets for its six National Arts Festival shows from June 26 are available online. —