Up-and-coming playwright and director Zubayr Charles is actually up and already here.
You could say the same about the lead in his latest play, this bra’s a psycho. Charles opens the production with a young man bathing in the faint stage lighting in nothing but his underwear, something familiar to those who saw Charles’s previous play, Please, don’t call me moffie. Whether it’s becoming something of a signature for the director or not, it’s effective in introducing an immediate intimacy in his work. We see his characters facing unvarnished queer experiences, left unpalatable – expecting rather than asking for the audience’s compassion – in an authentic portrayal of queerness on stage.
“People need to see themselves portrayed in all art forms – this is how we as a society grow,” says Charles. “I did not identify with the characters in literature or on my TV screen. If there happened to be queer characters or storylines, they were told from a Westernised or Eurocentric lens. As a coloured, queer male, navigating life in Cape Town, it is important for me to bring light to these stories, so that the next generation does not struggle like I do.”
The opening night of this bra’s a psycho at the Artscape Women’s Humanity Festival on 28 July had industry professionals, all kinds of media people and some of Charles’s closest supporters in stitches, hollering baffled shock and puzzling together the pieces of this cat-and-mouse comedy-thriller. The dangers of the queer hook-up scene are at the heart of this psychological thriller, and as it unravels, the audience bears witness to how a case of sexual assault inspires a Grindr serial killer.
Charles made a good call in putting his play in the hands of the very capable and compelling James Stoffberg, expertly supported by Anzio September’s chameleon-like versatility on stage. The titular character, The Bra (played by Stoffberg), encounters an array of different queer archetypes, or gay men of different tribes, like The Discrete Bra or The Nerdy Bra, all while being pursued by The Policeman (all played by September). The audience at the opening night was vocal about their vicarious vindication at The Bra’s psychotic revenge on those who had had any part in the evening that led to his sexual assault. this bra’s a psycho is a campy Jekyll and Hyde-like plot, but queer and Kaaps. What’s not to love?
September stuns when it comes to inhabiting starkly different characters within consecutive scenes; he goes from dominant and hypermasculine, wearing khaki shorts and shades, to flamboyantly flailing his wrists in an exaggeratedly effeminate air. He and his counterpart code-switch to showcase their skills, but also demonstrate how masculinity itself is malleable and negotiable under different circumstances or in front of different people – a performance. This two-hander fills the whole stage much more easily than one would expect.
“Anzio September is more than an actor to me; he is my creative muse,” says Charles. “He and I work so well together because we have a shared lived experience, which makes our art more authentic.” For Charles, working with September is second nature. Stoffberg was a welcoming addition, according to Charles, one that grounded the duo with a fresh perspective and an unbiased approach to the process.
The technical team decidedly deserved their part of the standing ovation. Their work sharpened the performance of the actors on stage with timely screen projections and sound effects that saw Grindr text messages unabashedly displayed against the Artscape walls. The team also effortlessly transformed the minimalist scenography into a booming nightclub where The Bra meets one of his first sexual exploits. The sound design and lighting complement this layered performance by making equal use of delicious bubblegum pop and ominous, suspenseful droning underscored by police sirens and flashing lights.
Charles opted for metaphors to depict his onstage murders to entertaining effect. A masochistic strangulation gone wrong, for example, happens without the two characters ever touching. The murderer’s necktie, in this case, simulated his hands on the body of the victim. Charles shared after the showing that he was deliberate in making use of this device to save the production from over-the-top murder scene choreography, and to see if he could do it better than the unnamed play that had inspired the idea.
Charles’s growing experience in writing relatable yet outrageous theatre is evident in this bra’s a psycho. The young Cape Town-based talent’s plays have graced the stages of both the Baxter and the Artscape for arts festivals including the Teksmark and the Zabalaza and Women’s Humanity Festivals. In 2019, he was part of a musical theatre workshop under the mentorship of South African theatre legend David Kramer. He was also selected for the LitNet and Jakes Gerwel Foundation 2020 Kommadagga short fiction writing programme under the mentorship of essayist and playwright Rachelle Greeff. He is an alumnus of the 2023 Suidoosterfees Stemme Projek and the 2024 Artscape Theatre’s New Voices programme.
Charles’s first poetry collection, the sad boy’s starter pack, will be published this October, and his debut novel, Haram, is set for publication early next year. Keep an eye out for this writer; he has his finger on the pulse of what a queer coming-of-age in Cape Town looks like today.
- Photographs provided.