What: 32 Lavender Close Where: Toyota Stellenbosch Woordfees When: October 2 at 1pm, October 4 at 10am and October 6 at 4pm Where: HMS Bloemhof Skoolsaal Tickets: https://woordfees.co.za/en/program/32-lavender-close/ Writer and director: Andi Colombo Cast: Grace Matetoa and Christie van Niekerk Set designer: Ntobeko Ximba Co-sound designer: Kanya Viljoen Created under the Theatre Arts Emerging Theatre Director’s Bursary |
Andi Colombo’s 32 Lavender Close is on at the 2024 Toyota Stellenbosch Woordfees on October 2, 4 and 6 (see box for details). I saw this excellent new play in June (2024) at Theatre Arts in Cape Town. Colombo received the Theatre Arts Emerging Theatre Director’s Bursary which enabled her to create this play. There was a lot going on in June and the production pics were not ready and I did not put up a review but I raved on social media. This is your sign to put this on the must-see list for 2024 Woordfees.
The play, written and directed by Colombo is a coming-of age of two twenty something women and tracks their trajectory as roommates. The narrative unspools in a bathroom and Colombo has tagged the play’s genre as a bathroomedy – a drama in a bathroom. Colombo uses the bathroom – an old style Cape Town bathroom with aging fittings and finishes to beautifully frame the dynamics between two young women, Melo and Carly (Grace Matetoa and Christie van Niekerk) as they go from not knowing each other – flatmates who have hooked up on the internet – to an intimacy of closeness. I am not going to plot spoil. There is a captivating narrative arc. The play is a beautiful evocation of young adulthood, searching for identity, friendship and love. The one character immerses herself with collage – placing things next to each other and this play echoes this leitmotif – how placement and configuration can alter and shift how we perceive things.
The stunning set (Ntobeko Ximba) is like an installation, the nest where Melo and Carly feel safe and wrapped in a warm embrace of the cocoon of underwear hanging down (lavender, lilac, pinks, blues). The bath becomes hidey hole, portal and womb where Melo and Carly hold each close. In the bathroom, they are in their undies, stripped down from the outside world, without artifice. The physical movement is extraordinary as the characters loop around each other and the writing crackles with vigour and conjures up a vivid portrait of young women living in Cape Town, now and loving it. The humour is terrific and the dialogue is laced with zestiness of being young in Cape Town.
32 Lavender Close is a love letter to Cape Town, friendships and being intimately tuned into each other. The performances by Grace Matetoa and Christie van Niekerk are a knockout. It is rare to see a new play which is fully cooked from get-go. 32 Lavender Close is one of the most vital and exiting New South African plays that I have seen in a long time – seamlessly intertwining story, performance and design. Bravo to Colombo as writer/director and her creative team for creating this vibrant new play.
Watch the video interview with Colombo here https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMrdqhtHf/ and read the interview on the TCR: https://thecaperobyn.co.za/stage-interview-andi-colombo-talks-about-32-lavender-close-a-bathroomedy/


✳ 32 Lavender Close by Andi Colombo, starring Grace Matetoa and Christie van Niekerk. Pic: Lindsey Appolis. Supplied.