And The Girls In Their Sunday Dresses

Two-handers demand stamina, precision and a confident creative trust. When the two-hander in question was written by Zakes Mda, the stakes rise considerably.  

And the Girls in Their Sunday Dresses, currently running at the Baxter until 7 March, meets that challenge. The play is deeply attuned to the lived reality of womanhood. Set against the backdrop of post-liberation Lesotho, the narrative centres on the slow grind of government food-aid queues. This strange historical window remains relatable today across a politically challenged country and world. Furthermore, it is laced with the irony of Lesotho’s position at the time Mda wrote the play: an independent nation encircled by apartheid South Africa, catapulting the inequities of the day into the spotlight with its debut at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1988.  

The play follows two women - a sharp-tongued Lady and a weary, quick-witted Woman - performed with precision by Awethu Hleli and Tamzin Daniels. They are sister-women whose lives collide as they wait in line. As the queue inches forward, their stories unravel through satire and softness, exposing corruption, inequality and the daily bureaucratic humiliations that shape their world.

Staying for the post-show Q&A with the cast, director Mdunyiswa Kweyama, and Mda himself proved as evocative as the production. The discussion echoed what unfolds on stage: cattiness mixed with unguarded empathy.    

During the Q&A, Mda recalled being invited by US Johns Hopkins University to teach a course on “writing the other,” based on this portrayal, which still so aptly resonates today. 

"I didn't know what the hell they talking about,when they talk of writing the other," he said candidly. His natural understanding of female psychology is just that striking. "I thought as a writer, you write about the world you see, you use your imagination... what is the other in the first place."

"At one time or another, we are all the other," added Mda. 

And the relationship between these two women is as real as it gets, dancing between resentment, hope, frustration and genuine care.   

Men often appear to have effortless bromances without such heartfelt confessions. And nobody judges that. Women, by contrast, are frequently expected to be palatable to be likeable. These sister-women reframe that 'script'. They speak plainly, to the extent that they bruise each other with their words. That refusal of the need for acceptance comes full circle, making it profound.

This snapshot of their lives suggests they'll stay the course, wherever that may lead, making And the Girls in Their Sunday Dresses an worthwhile production to experience. 

• Directed by Mdunyiswa Kweyama
• Written by Zakes Mda
• Featuring The Fire’s Burning Company: Awethu Hleli and Tamzin Daniels