Speaker 1: Aptor WhatsApp Sarah Jane on seven to two five six
Speaker 1: seven one five six seven all right.
Speaker 2: August is Women's Month and the twenty twenty five Antscape
Speaker 2: Women's Humanity Festival is back with a strong message, piece
Speaker 2: in action, working together among a powerful lineup of events.
Speaker 2: One performance is already generating some buzz. It's called I
Speaker 2: Want to Call You Daddy. It's a raw, intimate, wo
Speaker 2: woman play written and performed by Marcia Underwood, a Cape
Speaker 2: Town based artist who blends music, poetry and storytelling. And
Speaker 2: she joins me on the line now to tell us
Speaker 2: about the play. Good to have you with us, Thanks
Speaker 2: so much for coming through on the line.
Speaker 1: Good to be here, Good to be here, Siah, Thanks
Speaker 1: for having me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, an absolute pleasure.
Speaker 2: Let's start a little bit with your background. You're not
Speaker 2: just a writer and performer, but also a singer. We've
Speaker 2: had you on, maybe not this show for a while,
Speaker 2: but certainly when I was doing the late night show.
Speaker 2: Tell us little bit about your journey as a performer.
Speaker 1: Well, it's an interesting one, and I think the audience
Speaker 1: and my followers will certainly be surprised by what I've
Speaker 1: put together. So you're quite right, I mean I started
Speaker 1: out straight after high school studying opera at U c T.
Speaker 1: I live that direct directorship of Virginia David, Professor Virginia David.
Speaker 1: So yes, some some some giants, uh that have come
Speaker 1: my way and really assisted me on my journey. And
Speaker 1: I yeah, after I studied opera, then went into exploring
Speaker 1: other genres. So yeah, the likes of I guess, jazz
Speaker 1: and contemporary styles. Uh. And for a long time yea,
Speaker 1: even up until the day, I still feature doing some
Speaker 1: yeah friendly jazz gigs. I'm gonna put it like that.
Speaker 1: And this is a lot different to that.
Speaker 2: It's a striking title. I want to call you, daddy.
Speaker 2: What inspired you to write this piece?
Speaker 1: Well, you know, when I was studying, literally almost slap
Speaker 1: bang in the middle of my journey, I had my
Speaker 1: daughter and yeah, so I mean I went back to
Speaker 1: complete my studies, but it really took me on a
Speaker 1: different journey. And this story is exactly that journey of
Speaker 1: single parenthood, of single motherhood and the struggles that come
Speaker 1: with it, and just having gone through it, you know,
Speaker 1: for close to ten years, so it's been quite a
Speaker 1: journey and I thought now is the time to tell
Speaker 1: it and using my creativity and my poetry that I've
Speaker 1: been writing all along through my career, a fifteen year
Speaker 1: career poetry song, and I've added a movement just to
Speaker 1: bring it all together. Yes, I mean I have. I
Speaker 1: don't want to give too much away. I want the
Speaker 1: listeners to come through, but it does give the good
Speaker 1: the bad, and I won't say ugly, I'd say interesting
Speaker 1: parts of the journey through narratives and song. So it's
Speaker 1: it's a lot more serious and people may be surprised,
Speaker 1: but it's a story that needs to be told, and
Speaker 1: it's you know, I think my mum always says, you know,
Speaker 1: if there's one person that you can inspire in the
Speaker 1: audience that connects with your story, with your song, with
Speaker 1: your poem, then you've done what you've needed to do.
Speaker 1: And it is so true. You know, one needs to
Speaker 1: tell your story because it's always somebody that's shares that
Speaker 1: same story. You know, none of ours stories are are
Speaker 1: set apart in that way. It's just unlocking, unlocking it
Speaker 1: for the next person and saying it's okay.
Speaker 2: Why is it important for you to tell the story
Speaker 2: as a one woman show?
Speaker 3: Particularly?
Speaker 1: I think as I was writing it and I took
Speaker 1: a bit of a performance break, one could say, last year.
Speaker 1: You know, I didn't put myself out there to do
Speaker 1: any gigs. I just sat down over a couple of nights,
Speaker 1: very many nights, a few weeks, and I sat down
Speaker 1: and I thought, okay, you know, as a singer, which
Speaker 1: direction would I like to go into? And typically one
Speaker 1: would write songs, you know, you'd write your own original songs.
Speaker 1: But I've got this burning, you know, desire for I
Speaker 1: guess lyrics, but also poetry. And when you write poetry,
Speaker 1: you know so much like yourself with writing books, you
Speaker 1: know you're putting you want to put out something original,
Speaker 1: but also something so close to your heart. And I thought,
Speaker 1: let me start here, you know, let me start with Yeah,
Speaker 1: my first, real, painful and a challenging story. And I
Speaker 1: wrote that during last year. So it was important for
Speaker 1: me to go becker and say, what's my voice really about?
Speaker 1: You know? Is it in song? Sure? But I need
Speaker 1: to dig a little deeper. And even in the writing
Speaker 1: of it, it was quite quite interesting, you know, putting
Speaker 1: pink to pep pen, saying okay, you know, how raw
Speaker 1: are we going?
Speaker 3: And how raw do you go? Because I mean the
Speaker 3: writing process.
Speaker 2: You know, I know this is that the the right
Speaker 2: You might think that you have dealt with a certain
Speaker 2: issue or healed or whatever it processed, whatever word you
Speaker 2: might want to use, and then, as you say, the
Speaker 2: minute you put pen to paper and actually have to
Speaker 2: put it into words in a way that makes it
Speaker 2: connectible and relatable to a potential audience that can then
Speaker 2: shine a light on parts of it that you hadn't
Speaker 2: perhaps processed.
Speaker 3: So what was that experience like for you?
Speaker 1: It was certainly interesting, you know, me being a very
Speaker 1: particular performer, you know, when I stand up and I
Speaker 1: sing a very you know, as in tunes that other
Speaker 1: people have written, you know, in the jazz genre or
Speaker 1: let's say poper contemporary, you know, people are most likely
Speaker 1: to clap, you know, they like the song. Then they've
Speaker 1: heard the song before, you know, and I'm laughing and
Speaker 1: I'm smiling, and it's enjoyable music. But when I was
Speaker 1: writing it, you quite write, I had to dig deeper
Speaker 1: but also realize that people may not clap. You know,
Speaker 1: the story as you're telling it is, you know, my
Speaker 1: particular story. So it is whether the audience claps or not,
Speaker 1: whether they connect or not. I just have to be
Speaker 1: willing to put it out there. So it was really
Speaker 1: going deep to say, this is my story and I'm
Speaker 1: going to tell it. You know, whether the audience uh
Speaker 1: likes it. Yeah, they may not like it, you know,
Speaker 1: whether they clap. Sure, if they do, great, that means
Speaker 1: they've enjoyed it. But I was preparing myself for Yeah,
Speaker 1: it really has to go raw, you know, and people
Speaker 1: may not like the fact that I'm going a very
Speaker 1: raw into my story of single parenthood, you know, looking
Speaker 1: at a child from the mother's perspective and their child's
Speaker 1: longing for the second parent, you know. So I had
Speaker 1: to really get deep, get in there and get the
Speaker 1: story going.
Speaker 2: So yes, online actually say not not to give not
Speaker 2: to give too much away, but too much away I'm
Speaker 2: fascinated by. I'm fascinated by some of the themes that
Speaker 2: are likely to come to come up, you know. I
Speaker 2: I know the single parenthood had journey and there's a
Speaker 2: lot of stuff that comes up.
Speaker 3: And as you say, very very raw. What are some
Speaker 3: of the what a some of.
Speaker 2: The feelings and experiences that have come up for you
Speaker 2: that perhaps you explore. Are you exploring issues around guilts?
Speaker 2: Are you exploring issues around overwhelm what are some of
Speaker 2: the themes that we might see in the piece.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I'm exploring a number of topics. And one could say,
Speaker 1: you know, when I went through single period, I was
Speaker 1: not only you know, raising a child alone, but I
Speaker 1: was also living alone. So you know, you're also having
Speaker 1: to deal with a lot of questions when you just
Speaker 1: buy yourself and of course having I haven't come from
Speaker 1: a single parent myself, so I was also doing a
Speaker 1: lot of yeah, soul searching, you know, looking at the
Speaker 1: world through my own child's eyes, you know, and thinking great, okay, fine,
Speaker 1: we are we are weak with us, you know. And
Speaker 1: it's a daily things. It's a complete daily journey and topic.
Speaker 1: So there are themes that are being explored, and it
Speaker 1: is of course single motherhood, but also the challenges around
Speaker 1: the justice system. So and that was my initial debut.
Speaker 1: I had a little insert at the Albisarch's Conference at
Speaker 1: u c T and that was under the topic of
Speaker 1: children justice, children's rights, and that particular topic came through
Speaker 1: or comes through in this play. So yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: there are certainly challenges at the our maintenance courts. I mean,
Speaker 1: one needs to to put it out there and I
Speaker 1: do go through that, yeah, and it's a very real factor.
Speaker 2: The play features as part of the Women's Month Humanity Festival.
Speaker 2: Why is that such a.
Speaker 3: A great vehicle for the piece specifically?
Speaker 1: Well, were I'll be positioned is in the arena, and
Speaker 1: that's fantastic because it's one hundred and twenty nine seats
Speaker 1: and the show spans over three days, so from the
Speaker 1: sixth till the eighth, and then on the ninth in
Speaker 1: the afternoon at two o'clock, So then that's also part
Speaker 1: of the festival. But that intimate space is exactly what
Speaker 1: this play, you know, our leverages off. And it's incredible
Speaker 1: because with that intimate space, I'm able to then connect
Speaker 1: directly with the audience in close proximity, you know, with
Speaker 1: the movement and the sound and the poetry. So it's
Speaker 1: going to be one for the books.
Speaker 2: Do you have any plans to sort of outside of
Speaker 2: the festival for the piece?
Speaker 3: Is it something that.
Speaker 2: You'd like to perform elsewhere?
Speaker 3: What?
Speaker 2: What do you think that I suppose a crude way
Speaker 2: of saying it is, has it got legs?
Speaker 1: Absolutely? Absolutely? Yeah. I've been part of a number of
Speaker 1: other festivals, you know, abroad and I thought about that too,
Speaker 1: you know. So it will be recorded video recorded as
Speaker 1: part of my submission to other festivals. So I look
Speaker 1: forward to featuring it that you know. The topic is uh,
Speaker 1: it's international, you know, there are no a few single
Speaker 1: appearance in one corner of the earth is Yeah, we
Speaker 1: spread for far and white for sure, for sure. So
Speaker 1: it's going to again, it's going to move, you know,
Speaker 1: and I look forward to it.
Speaker 3: I don't know how old your your daughter is. How
Speaker 3: can I ask cow old she is?
Speaker 1: Absolutely well, she'll be thirteen.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, so's she's at the age I mean, has
Speaker 2: she said will she see it?
Speaker 1: Does she?
Speaker 3: I'm fascinated to know because.
Speaker 2: I mean she perhaps is the one audience member whose
Speaker 2: response means most to you.
Speaker 3: What are her thoughts?
Speaker 1: Absolutely well, without giving too much away, Yes, she was
Speaker 1: not far from me when I was physically writing the play,
Speaker 1: you know, she was right there. And yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: I listened to her you know in so many yeah,
Speaker 1: in so many ways. And the play, Yeah, it features
Speaker 1: definitely a raw material from her mind and her soul.
Speaker 2: Do you think it's something in a few years time
Speaker 2: or even you know, when she's in a twenties thirties,
Speaker 2: she might be able to look back on and it
Speaker 2: and it be something that explains a lot to her, almost.
Speaker 3: Like a gift to her.
Speaker 1: Absolutely it is, you know, I think naturally as an artist,
Speaker 1: you know, every little bit of music that one puts out,
Speaker 1: you know, every gig, every performance, and over the years,
Speaker 1: you know, the very many times that she's been to
Speaker 1: my gigs and seeing me, it's always just been you know,
Speaker 1: for her. You know, as our kids look at us,
Speaker 1: it's to achieve for them, you know, once you have children,
Speaker 1: it's to achieve for them. And even this piece, it's
Speaker 1: to honor her. You know that she's not alone. You know,
Speaker 1: I certainly wasn't alone in this journey. There were other
Speaker 1: single parents around me, but I've always let her know,
Speaker 1: you know, she's not alone. You know, even though she
Speaker 1: may feel alone, there are other little boys and little
Speaker 1: girls out there feeling the same thing, you know, feeling
Speaker 1: that sense of abandonment, not knowing, you know. So it
Speaker 1: is definitely to honor her feelings and to honor her journey.
Speaker 1: And she's in her own way strength and buy it
Speaker 1: and enlightened by it. And I'm just so proud of
Speaker 1: her as well, So yeah.
Speaker 2: The play runs from the sixth to the ninth of August.
Speaker 2: How can people get tickets?
Speaker 1: So we're tickets that's where the tickets are being sold. Yeah,
Speaker 1: looking forward to it. From the sixth to the eighth.
Speaker 1: It will be running every night at seven pm and
Speaker 1: then on the ninth at two pm in the afternoon.
Speaker 3: So ye, yeah, looking forward to seeing it.
Speaker 2: It is called I Want to Call You Daddy, and
Speaker 2: it's an intimate one woman play written and performed by
Speaker 2: Marseille Underwood at Cape Town based artist Make sure that
Speaker 2: you get your tickets for that and head to the
Speaker 2: Artscape to find out more about the full program from
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty five Women's Humanity Festival.