Irene Stephanou keeps the satirist flag flying
THE National Arts Festival in Grahamstown starts tomorrow!
In a year of political turmoil and upheavals that range from the EFF disrupting the state of the nation address to President Jacob Zuma showing his middle finger to everyone who has objected to his entitlement about Nkandla, there is no doubt that satirists and stand-up comedians are going to have a field day. The diva of South Africa satire, Pieter-Dirk Uys, always claimed that in South Africa the scripts for satire were gloriously written by politicians.
This year, the genre of satire will be celebrated as the festival’s featured artist. While a host of new names will appear under the festival’s spotlight, it will be amiss not to recognise the work of South African actress, writer and theatre educator Irene Stephanou for her determined courage more than three decades ago to position the genre of satire on the National Arts Festival’s Fringe programme.
During the state of emergency years in the early ’80s, and at a time when the right to freedom of expression and the right of creative expression were not a core part of the South African value system, Stephanou’s work at the National Arts Festival gave the Fringe a political gravitas that was fearless, uncompromising and challenging.
In 1984, together with Peni Flacas, Stephanou developed ‘n Stukkie Jols, in which she played a host of roles that dealt with a variety of South African stereotypes. The show received great critical success and the Rand Daily Mail newspaper called her “a treasure chest of talent”.
Her second one-woman show, Is Every Sperm Sacred?, directed by Vanessa Cooke, dealt with South Africa’s transition to democracy. The production won the 1992 Vita award for comedy and it was selected for a reading at the Third International Women’s Playwrights Conference in Australia.
The play was also recorded for ABC Radio in Australia. Stephanou was invited to perform extracts from this show on the eve of the new millennium on Robben Island for Nel- son Mandela and the South African parliament.
Her third one-woman show, Meze, Mira and Make Up, also directed by Cooke, was nominated for five awards in South Africa. After a major national tour of South African venues, the play was invited to be performed in Australia and Greece.
Apart from her strong reputation as one of the strongest South African artists to have started her national career at the Fringe Festival in Grahamstown, Stephanou is also highly respected for her passionate commitment to development work and in particular for the life skills course that she runs at the Market Theatre Laboratory. The course was named Theatre and Life by Barney Simon, the creator of the laboratory and co-founder of the Market Theatre.
In 2005, Stephanou, together with Leila Henriques, published the book, The World in an Orange – Creating The- atre with Barney Simon. To date this book is one of the most reputable and comprehensive texts that documents the work of Simon, an artist whose death 25 years ago is also honoured at the festival this year with the revival of his iconic play, Born in the RSA.
In 2005, Stephanou wrote and staged Acropolis Café, a play docu- menting the life of Greek café owners in South Africa. In 2006, she was invited to speak at a conference at the University of Crete on the topic of Diaspora, Language and Theatre Education.
At present Stephanou has a radio programme on the New Panhellenic Voice, a Greek community station. The programme documents stories of the arrival and integration of Greek immigrants into South Africa.
Stephanou’s show at the festival this year, Searching for Somebody, marks her return to the Fringe Festival this year after a long absence. Her contribution to the creative and cultural life of South Africa has been acclaimed by human rights advocate George Bizos.
She is an activist, actress, performer, writer and satirist whose return to the National Arts Festival, together with the many satirists on this year’s programme, will continue to give the festival a political gravitas that is pioneering in its style, reflective in its content, affirming by its vision and celebratory of the spirit of our nation.