ANOTHER ONE’S BREAD

The complex dynamics of food insecurity, nutrition and hunger will play out on stage in a new theatre production written by renowned South African playwright Mike van Graan (When Swallows Cry, Pay Back the Curry).

Directed by award-winning television actress Pamela Nomvete and described by Van Graan as “a dark comedy about food, funerals and feeding schemes”, Another One’s Bread serves up the complexities associated with acquiring food and nutrition, using humour, fact and the downright outrageous.

The play runs at the Mannie Manim Theatre at the Market Theatre until February 4.

Commissioned by the Centre of Excellence in Food Security (CEFS), the play explores various themes related to hunger in the context of the relationships between four women in Khayelitsha.

What keeps these disparate women together is their membership of The Substitutes, a group of professional mourners hired to provide “mourning-related services” at funerals. The play takes its title from the Afrikaans expression “een man se dood is ’n ander man se brood” (one person’s death is another person’s bread).

The play falls within the CEFS’s food contestation thematic area of research which, through the food politics and cultures, as well as the Symbols research projects, explores human relationships to food and the power dynamics around food production.

CEFS director Professor Julian May said: “The specific goal of the centre is to research the human, cultural, ethical and spiritual environment within which barriers and opportunities to the achievement of food security and nutrition take place.

“In particular, a goal of the project is to increase our understanding of the role played by gender, identity and power in the food system.”

The play features performances by Faniswa Yisa, Chuma Sopotela, Motlatji Ditodi and Awethu Hleli, with choreography by Jackie Manyaapelo. For more information visit markettheatre.co.za