Contested Bodies: Provocative queer play to premiere in CT
mambaonline.comContested Bodies explores themes of power, race, gender identity and masculinity Adventurous theatre lovers in the Mother City are about to experience an explosive re-interpretation of some familiar Cape colonial history in an outrageous, new comic play, Contested Bodies. Also known as Doctor James Barry, Lord Charles Somerset and I, the production will have its world premiere at the Artscape Arena from 16 March to 2 April 2022.
Almost seven years to the day after political activist, Chumani Maxwele, flung human excrement at the statue of British Imperialist Cecil John Rhodes, Cape Town theatre duo Fred Abrahamse and Marcel Meyer will do some faeces flinging of their own in their latest “outrage for the stage” – a thrilling, provocative entertainment that is likely to be the most controversial and contested play of the year.
Contested Bodies explores themes of power, race, gender identity and masculinity (toxic and otherwise). The play centres on the relationship between acclaimed surgeon, Doctor James Barry, his African manservant, John and the then, Governor of the Cape Colony, Lord Charles Henry Somerset.
Barry lived his entire adult life as a man but was named Margret Ann at birth and was known as female in childhood. Barry’s biological sex only became widely known to the public and his colleagues after his death in 1865.
