Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
‘Blonde Poison’ for Baxter
HOT on the heels of its London success, the gripping play Blonde Poison starring leading South African actress Fiona Ramsay, comes to The Baxter from June 11 to 29.
Following its hugely successful run in London, Ramsay returns to the Baxter with the gripping one-person show written by Gail Louw, for a limited season.
Blonde Poison reunites the creative expertise of Ramsay, one of South Africa's most revered artists, and multi-award-winning director Fred Abrahamse, with set design by Marcel Meyer.
When the production was staged at The Playground Theatre in London in March this year, critics raved, some giving it five stars. Paul Wood from
Curtain Call Reviews called it “Theatre
at its best”. Oviya Thirumalai from Adventures in Theatreland said, “Blonde Poison is a masterclass in writing and performing a compelling one-person piece … a must-watch show that challenges the notions and morals of being human and leaves you both amazed and slightly haunted by Ramsay's performance and by the chilling truths and questions in the writing.”
Set against the backdrop of the Holocaust, it is a morality tale about beauty, treachery and the high price of survival in a world beset with mistrust, espionage and duplicity. The gripping play poses questions such as, “What would I have done in her place?”
“It encourages us to confront our own humanity, and the choices we make when threatened with certain deportation, possible displacement, vicious persecution and the horrors of war,” explained Ramsay, who portrays the character of Stella Goldschlag.
Goldschlag lives illegally in wartorn Berlin during World War II, where she was betrayed, beaten and tortured. When offered the chance of saving herself and her parents from the death camps, she became a “greifer” or “catcher” for the Gestapo, giving information and “ratting” on Jews in hiding.
Stella's character ranges from a tortured and pitiful victim to a callous, cruel agent of death, from a beloved and loving daughter to a pitiless betrayer of friends, and from a gentle and tender lover to a woman of depraved and decadent promiscuity.
She was dubbed the Marilyn Monroe of Berlin and given the alias “Blonde Poison” by the Gestapo, who embroiled her in their treachery.
Decades after the war, Stella agrees to an interview with a childhood friend – now a respected journalist – offering her a last chance at redemption. Can she ever be released from her past?
Despite the choices Stella made, she forces the audience to confront their own humanity, raising questions of ethical and moral choice and acknowledging the cruelty that resides within us all.
Blonde Poison is the first play written by South African playwright Gail Louw who now lives in the UK. Her play Miss Dietrich Regrets, based on the life of Marlene Dietrich and her daughter Maria Riva, was staged at the Theatre on the Square in Joburg, with Ramsay in the role of the ageing star.
* Blonde Poison runs at the Baxter Studio from June 11 to 29 at 8pm with Saturday matinees at 3pm. Booking is through Webtickets online or at Pick n Pay stores. For discounted block bookings contact Mark Dobson on email mark.dobson@uct.ac.za.