Review: Please, don’t call me moffie, brave and important play

I teared up, watching Please, don’t call me moffie at the first performance on April 30 in Cape Town, at the 2025 edition of Suidoosterfees. Written and directed by Zubayr Charles, performed with tenderness and grace by Anzio September, this is brave and important play which has the power to spark spirited conversations in the safe space of theatre. I hope that this play will be staged at other theatres and seen by school going audiences.

The narrative excavates “the lives of five Coloured and Cape Malay queer men in their late 20s as they reflect on identity, religion, and belonging in Cape Town, South Africa” in the wake of “a viral video of a brutal homophobic attack in an unnamed Arab country” which “shocks them into confronting their pasts and present realities”. The men are Musheeq, Abdullah, Zayn, Eesa and Haroon and we are there witnessing their journeys as they confront toxic masculinity, bigotry, intolerance and all the rest. They want, like all of us to love and be loved.

September is magnificent in his multi-nuanced performance as he conjures up the protagonists. In an interview, Charles reflected that “although the characters are fictional”, during the development of the play, he realised that they are all based on him. “I realised the distinct characters actually represented different versions of me.” It comes across as a deeply personal work and not an issue play which it could so easily have been. Initially Charles set out to unpack “problematic queer archetypes found in literature, film and media: “tragic gay”; “straight guy character” (not to be confused with sexuality); “promiscuous gay/gym rat”; and “flamboyant gay” but as the narrative developed, the protagonists began to transcend archetype, with their own unique voices.” [https://thecaperobyn.co.za/interview-please-dont-call-me-moffie-a-gaze-on-the-difficulties-faced-by-queer-coloured-men-in-cape-town/]]

This is as I say a brave play. Let’s face it: The major mainstream religions are not exactly tolerant of sexual expressions which differ from dogma and scripture. “We are against the sin, not the sinner,” is what one hears being liberally canted out, across religions. If you veer from the path, then you are a deviant, an aberration. The pain in this play is palpable. It is a lament and howl, to be accepted and embraced in the fold of community, not to be tossed out and expelled. Herein lies a central leitmotif in the play – the quest for identity in a community.

Please, don’t call me moffie is shredded with grief. It is a jittery play on the edge. This is underscored by the lighting plot which is strident and jarring, with flashes as scenes shift, with lots of blue and red. I got a sense of a photographic dark room, lit by intense controlled light which will not ruin photos during the process of developing them. The dark room is light sensitive. The wrong type of light will ruin the images during the developing process. In the play, it is as if we are looking through the prism of the dark room – at five individuals who are revealing themselves – to us the audience. They are shrouded and protected by the dark, safe from those who may want to harm them because of their sexuality. It is an intimate and safe space in this dark room,

I asked Charles whether my interpretation of a dark room makes sense. He says that the construct of a dark room wasn’t part of his design concept but that it rings true in terms of the lighting plot which he has created for the play:  “For the beginning scene with the dark blue and transitions. I did want the lighting to be darker in the sense that queer individuals can’t really be ‘in the light ‘or don’t show their true self. I also wanted each character to have their own colour to match the different personalities and the problematic queer archetypes in literature, film and media…”  I love the way, the light flashes on and off, jolting us. Yes, Charles says, “that was intentional and the changing of red lights during the physical and sexual assaults — but perhaps some might think it’s on the nose.”

I would like to see the lighting developed even further in future productions as it visceral, non-verbal and transcends language. Beyond the compelling text, for me the lighting design becomes a non-verbal character, a body in the narrative, aesthetically and theatrically. Bravo to Charles and September and the team.

✳ Anzio September in Please, don’t call me moffie, written and directed by Zubayr Charles. The play premiered at Artscape Theatre, ATKV Rep Theatre as part of the 2025 Suidoosterfees. Pic: Supplied.