RUSTENBURG High School for Girls’ forthcoming staging of Hair Raising began as an endeavour to use drama as an outreach tool.
It’s not a conventional school play, there are no fixed characters and no neat chronological sequence of events. The audience is, instead, taken on a journey about what “hair” means to different people at stages of their lives.
In preparation for the production, the students learnt a lot about cancer and chemotherapy, which while unsettling at times, was also inspiring and enriching. And St Luke’s Hospice has since been chosen to receive profits from ticket sales.
Karin Wiese, deputy headgirl in 2006, who was diagnosed with an osteosarcoma stage 2B tumour in her right femur in her matric year, was one of the inspirational people who helped prepare the cast.
“After the success of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie last year, we felt a need to take an altogether different approach this year,” says director and head of the dramatic arts department Adrian Skelly. – Arts writer
l Hair Raising will be staged in Rustenburg’s Kemp Hall on August 19, 20, 22 and 23. Tickets are R70. To book, call 021 686 4066.