Tracey Saunders
In a world where we are faced with countless tales of tragedy and abuse, Dannelene’s stands out for the strength of her faith and courage in the face of adversity and fear.
Woman Alone relates the story of Dannelene Noach, a woman born in Wupperthal, who like many medical professionals, heads to the Middle East. She was appointed as a clinical co-ordinator for a hospital consortium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia where she uncovered extensive corruption.
What followed is the stuff of nightmares and the play reveals the circumstances of her imprisonment.
Her battles begin even before her arrest where she finds herself at odds with the patriarchal system, entrenched misogyny and the many everyday violations that the women of the country are faced with. In her capacity as a nurse she addresses injustice where she can in the face of a system where women are routinely devalued.
Her description of herself as “working in a lion’s den” aptly captures the circumstances she faces. She finds herself right in the jaws of the lion when she herself becomes a victim of the system.
Her friendship with a local Muslim woman and her abiding Christian faith are the two constants from which she draws strength. A tattered page of the bible remains her talisman and although the page eventually fades her faith doesn't.
Abrahams has adapted the text without losing the authenticity of Noach's voice and it is difficult to imagine how a less literal adaptation would translate.
Van Rooi shows again why she is a multiple award-winning actress as she single handedly wrestles with the script. Her captors are always off stage, as elusive to the audience as they are to her.
She sketches them with chilling accuracy and we become acquainted with them though the aftermath of their deeds rather than their faces.
Her encounters with them are brutal and while “one only dies once” she faces the degradation of brutal physical abuse and rape more often.
There are fates worse than death and Noach survives them with a fierce stubbornness which the actress portrays with a grim determination.
In van Rooi's hands the text reveals the harsh brutality of her incarceration and the humiliation she suffered.
Throughout, her faith remains steadfast and sustains her during her ordeal. Her stature and being bring to mind the quote from Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night's Dream, “Though she be but little, she is fierce!”
She reminds the audience that dynamite comes in small packages and her courage and fortitude are mirrored today in the women who stand up to gangsterism in communities of the Cape Flats. She seems to grow in stature during the course of the play and emerges victorious from the broken and beaten woman in the opening scene.
The final image of her in her neatly starched nurse’s attire wrestles with the searing image of her bruised and battered body. There were moments during the play where the restlessness of the audience was palpable.
The overwhelming physical desire to absent oneself from the theatre more a function of the desire to avoid the incomprehensible suffering than a function of the play's tempo. Since the production premièred at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, Abrahams has tightened the script and van Rooi’s projection works well in the more intimate space of the Baxter’s Studio Theatre.
While the sentiment of the production bears little resemblance to Dario Fo’s and Franca Rame’s A Woman Alone what it does share with its namesake is the depiction of a world where misogyny is rife and women fight constantly against abuse and sexism.
The time and place are specific but the themes of abuse, corruption and faith are universal.
There are hundreds of South Africans in prisons abroad and South Africa is one of only two countries (the other is Ghana) who do not have prison exchange treaties in place.
Roach’s unlawful and immoral incarceration provide a compelling argument for the necessity of such legislation.
Noach herself is a woman focused on the present and the difference she can make in the lives of South African women who encounter abuse on a daily basis. Her strength and tenacity appear undiminished and if anything she seems to have acquired another coat of armour in the war that she continues to wage.
Both her and her family; husband, daughter and son were in the opening night audience. To them she is a mother and wife, a lover and friend – no longer a woman alone.
l Tickets: R100 to R120. Book: 0861 915 8000, or see www.com puticket.co.za