Stage interview: Andi Colombo talks about 32 Lavender Close, a bathroomedy

What does one tag the genre of a drama set in a bathroom – with elements of drama and comedy? How about a bathroomedy, muses Andi Colombo about her new play, 32 Lavender Close which is making its debut from June 5-9, 2024 in Cape Town, at Theatre Arts, ahead of its run in Makhanda at The National Arts Festival. For those obsessed with Chappell Roan, the play is lashed with a “… fun, feminine, pink aesthetic.” However, this is not just a story about young women in bathrooms. “It’s a celebration of the central space of the bathroom and how it brings all sorts of different women together in moments of vulnerability and connects them.” Colombo talks about 32 Lavender Close, winning the Theatre Arts Emerging Theatre Directors Bursary 2024, which has enabled her to take the play from page to stage:

TCR: 32 Lavender Close is a two hander is set in a bathroom, in “a corridor of an old flat in Cape Town” Was it inspired by an actual bathroom. Did you live in that flat in a Lavender Close or is it an amalgamation of bathrooms?

Andi Colombo: This play is set in a bathroom that didn’t really exist, but it definitely was inspired by an amalgamation of old bathrooms in flats that I’ve lived in, or visited, in the past 10 years. It’s a familiar old bathroom – with pink and green finish. There is peeling paint, some scuff marks and a single broken tap that drips and a stained shower curtain with mould creeping slowly towards the rings that suspend it above the ceramic surface. The bathroom is a reminder of a long-forgotten time, and holds the memories of every person who’s passed through the space over the years.

TCR: Are the two protagonists based on you or people you know? Is the play fictional or is it biographical or a combo?

AC: The protagonists are a combo of fictional and real-life people, as most of my characters are. I was really trying to capture a feeling, and to show a familiar relationship that highlights the intimacy that women experience when they are living together.

TCR: What triggered this play? Was there an incident, a catalyst for this story?

AC: I really wanted to write a play that showcases and highlights the second coming-of-age that people experience in their 20s. I think it’s a really beautiful and significant time for people and this play is really an attempt to capture that.

TCR: Can you talk about the bathroom as a space – physically and emotionally- for connection, undressing, getting dressed, female conversation, bodies compressed, a place where women hold each other close, confessional and altar to put on makeup, dress up – and how you use this in the play?

AC: The bathroom is really the emotional centre of the play. I really wanted to highlight the resonance and poignancy of the bathroom and what it represents for women and womanhood. We find ourselves and each other in the bathroom, and grow in these intimate and vulnerable experiences that we share in there. The bathroom, for me, is the centre of vulnerability, and this is really what we are exploring in the show. How do we learn to be vulnerable with one another and how does this help us to grow into new versions of ourselves? How does being vulnerable with others allow us to learn to love ourselves?  How do we unfold and become vulnerable with others as an act of self-love?

TCR: Insights into design, lighting sound? Bathroom tend to be enclosed and reading about this play, I think of privacy and also voyeurism. We the audience will be given a peek into something very private and intimate? Comments?

AC: The show really centres the coming-of-age of two women and so aesthetically we have been working quite closely with soft, feminine colours and textures. Our set designer Ntobeko Ximba and his assistant Siphiwe Gumede have been working with particular colour palettes to really signify both femininity and to signal the recognisable older bathroom in Cape Town blocks of flats. The work aims to be vulnerable, and soft, and raw and open and so in that way, the design is geared towards a feeling of “looking in” on a reality happening between two characters.

TCR: Bathroom as a genre? Can you talk about that? I think of Tennessee Williams Hotel Plays. I cannot think of a play set in a bathroom. Your thoughts?

AC: Women connect in bathrooms, over shared lipsticks and life advice and tampons slipped under the bathroom stall door. We find solace there, between taps and tiles and turmoil. We laugh and overshare and paint our nails over the sink. For me, a bathroom is a central place where I became the woman I am today, because of the input of other women. And yes, the trope of supportive women in bar bathrooms being the best friends you’ve ever had is true. This is not just a story about young women in bathrooms. It’s a celebration of the central space of the bathroom and how it brings all sorts of different women together in moments of vulnerability and connects them.

Bathrooms are a really vulnerable space, I think. We really unpack a lot of shame in the bathroom and in a way, sharing space with someone like a flatmate really highlights the importance of the bathroom. Knowing someone’s bathroom habits is knowing someone well. And so, as the characters get to know each other, we see that play out in the ways they relate to one another in the bathroom, and how they get more comfortable with one another. It’s a difficult space to work in for theatre, because realistically you need a lot of set items to make a realistic bathroom, which is often expensive. I’ve just been lucky to have the resources and a set design team to make that possible.

But I think more shows should be set in a bathroom! It’s such a pivotal space for us all; as in, we use this space every day and there is so much material that plays out in a bathroom that is great for theatre-makers to explore.

We’ve been chatting about the name for this new bathroom genre and we’ve decided on bathroomedy. So this is 32 Lavender Close: a bathroomedy.

TCR: The aesthetics of the play, you say is very Chappell Roan – the music artist who had such a meteoric rise to fame. Can you talk about that?

AC:  Yes, her aesthetic is really similar to the show’s aesthetic. It’s a fun, feminine, pink aesthetic. It forms the basis of our colour palette and also is a big inspiration energetically. She is fun and cheeky and honest in a way that really resonates with the work.

TCR: Can you talk about the Theatre Arts Emerging Director Bursary and you choice to write your own play and direct it rather than take an existing text and work with that? It is a lot to tackle a new play and direct it?

AC: I am so excited to have won this bursary! This bursary really will change the course of my career and it has already done so. It’s an immense honour and privilege to be part of the cohort of Theatre Arts Emerging Theatre Director Bursary Winners. There are so many incredible makers who are a part of that group that I have always looked up to and admired, so I’m humbled to be part of it. It was a natural decision for me to write my own work. I am a writer-director and because that’s always been a part of my process before, it felt like a good opportunity to hone and grow that craft under a wonderful mentor (Neil Coppen) and with the support of Theatre Arts and Woordfees. It’s been an incredible journey to be able to deepen and grow my making practice with so much support. I’ve learned a lot.

In a lot of ways, writing and directing a new work is a lot to tackle, but in other ways it feels like a natural choice. I’ve been wanting to make this work for over three years, and it’s great that the bursary has been the platform to finally get this piece on stage after a long period of conceptualising and writing it.

TCR: Insights into the process of taking this play from page to stage? Were there aspects that were devised in rehearsal with the cast and has there been feedback from Caroline Calburn of Theatre Arts and others?

AC: This work has been created in a team effort, as all theatre is. We came into rehearsals with a script, and the actors and I have been amending it as we go. The actors and I have been working collaboratively to detail the script, and add more depth to the story. My lovely mentor Neil Coppen has also been a source of much wisdom over the process, and we are having showings and notes sessions with selected industry professionals and colleagues.

TCR: Insights into the sound design and co-designing the sound with Kanya Viljoen?  I am curious about the sound design for this play: Taps dripping, screech of shower door, flushing of a toilet, a key in the lock – so much conjured in terms of noises – and silence – in bathrooms – your comments?

AC: This play is so much about capturing a feeling, rather than a concept or dialogue. I think so much of that lies in the performance, but also in the way we work with sound, the lights and the set. We are working so delicately with all these elements to try to communicate a feeling of vulnerability and openness. In terms of the sound, we are working with both real-life sound effects, of which there are many in the bathroom, and also an emotional soundscape, which reflects the characters’ journeys through the play. It’s been wonderful to work collaboratively with Kanya Viljoen, in this way. We’ve worked together a lot before, first on Like Hamlet, and then I designed lights for her show Agulhasvlakte, and most recently I production-managed Droomwerk, but this is our first time co-designing sound together. Although we used to play in a band, so I think we are on the same page about sound. Kanya is obviously an incredible creative, so it’s lovely to also have her perspective as an art-maker on the show, and we work really well together. So it’s a pleasure to revisit our creative partnership in a new way.

TCR: Anything else to add about the Bursary, creative team and the cast?

AC: I’d really like to commend Theatre Arts and Woordfees for continuing the tradition of this bursary. It’s a career-shaping opportunity for so many creatives, myself included. Big thanks especially to Caroline Calburn and the whole Theatre Arts team, who keep that wonderful space running and keep providing platforms for emerging makers.

I’d also like to spotlight my wonderful actors, Grace Matetoa and Christie Van Niekerk, who have really poured their hearts and souls into this process, and who have trusted in the show from the very beginning. Yaaseen Barnes for coming in to assist with voiceover work, and who made my script funnier than I could possibly write it. My delightful set design team, Ntobeko Ximba and Siphiwe Gumede, who listened to my weird fever-dream idea for the set and made it better than I could have imagined, and my dear friend, Kanya Viljoen, who came on board to design some beautiful sound. My mentor Neil Coppen, who perpetually comes out with the wisest anecdotes and who has been an incredible support, and theatre icons Philip Rademeyer and Tiisetso Mashifane wa Noni who are lending their time and expertise to giving notes on the show.

Making new theatre is such a challenge, and as a writer-director it’s a super vulnerable place to be in, but I am beyond blessed to have the support structure that I do, and although I won the bursary, this show is a team effort, through and through. So thank you to the 32 Lavender Close team.

✳ Grace Matetoa and Christie van Niekerk in 32 Lavender Close, written and directed by Andi Colombo, Theatre Arts Emerging Theatre Directors Bursary 2024.