DID SOMEbody SAY MURDER?

Mia Ham

Palesa is an annual theatre festival hosted by KuKo, where Stellenbosch University communities can showcase their acting and performance talents. Nerina teamed up with Dagbreek this year to deliver a truly showstopping performance. Nerina and Dagbreek (Nagbreek if you will) performed a play-within-a-play, that was both a hilarious comedy and a rather genius parody.

Scene 1 depicted the House Committee meeting of the newly formed Nagbreek Residence, with some sharp commentary on the university’s proposition of turning men’s residences into co-ed ones During the meeting, which mainly concerned complaints regarding the new co-ed living arrangements, the upcoming theatre festival was debated upon, and an interesting compromise was reached: Nerina and Dagbreek would practice their own plays separately and meet a day before the competition to join the two performances.

Scene 2 was the result of Nagbreek’s arrangement: a mixture between Sherlock Holmes and Snow White, based on The Play That Goes Wrong by Henry Lewis, Henry Shields and Jonathan Sayer. The scene opens with the discovery of the murder of the prince (Snow White’s husband). Sherlock Holmes soon arrives to investigate the murder. As in The Play That Goes Wrong, yo guessed it; everything goes wrong. The stretcher mean to carry the prince off, breaks, Snow White is knocke unconscious by a door after her affair with Clumsy th dwarf is revealed, and Queen Anastasia keeps entering o the wrong cue. Ultimately, once Sherlock Holmes accuse Queen Anastasia of the murder, the whole stag backdrop comes crashing down, leaving the stagehand helplessly staring at the audience.

Everything that “goes wrong” during the play was of course planned and practiced, but it was quite a convincing performance and makes one wonder whether the actual play was not put together a day before the competition. However, as any person involved in the making of the play can assure you, it took many long hours of practice and preparation to achieve the final product.

Nagbreek qualified for the final round of the theatre festival and although Simonsberg ultimately took the crown, none could say they were not amused by the hilarious performance. The company, led by Vianke Herbst and Waldo Pienaar, can definitely regard their project as a huge success.

How did you know?

Mia Ham

June is international Pride month. This month commemorates the Stonewall riots and celebrates love in the queer community The month also raises many questions among people curious about themselves and the community. One of the most common questions queer people get asked, is: “How did you know?”. Whether you’re questioning yourself or just curious about people’s perspectives, you might have wanted to ask that question before. So I asked a few lovely ladies to share their experiences:

"I think going to a girls' school makes it hard to differentiate between 'I want to be her', and 'I want to be with her', but my tell-tale sign was when I started changing my walking pattern just so I could see one of the girls in the year above me. That was the first time I felt the abovementioned difference. That was when I knew something was up, lol."

"I didn't really realize until last year, actually. I met this girl and I thought I was just interested in getting to know her, and making a new friend, since she was so 'cool' (and also beautiful, but that's besides the point) I kept going out of my way to bump into her and have a reason to talk to her. I would get super nervous and couldn't think of anything interesting to say, so every time I just ended up looking like an idiot. That was frustrating since I kind of wanted to impress her (lol). I continued being in denial even when I wrote an entire song about her (it's not very good). The moment I figured out I liked her more than a friend was only when I found out she was already taken, and I was confused as to why I was so irrationally upset about it. Turns out I was jealous, and slightly heartbroken, but we move. Took a while for me to get over it; I've never met anyone quite like her. She's still an important person to me, and I care about her, even though I have gotten over my crush "

"I was standing on the field during a PE practice and I saw a girl (who would soon become my girlfriend) wearing a button down shirt with rolled up sleeves My heart at that moment fluttered a little just looking at her. I remember thinking to myself 'hmm maybe not everyone feels this way about girls'. And that’s when I knew or at least started to get the vibe that I was queer."

Coming from a very conservative school, I only really started questioning in matric One day my one friend looked up at me while we were eating lunch and something in her eyes just made me feel weak. It felt like I was melting on the inside. It was super confusing. A few months later that same friend took my hand as we were walking back from dinner with another friend. I couldn’t sleep at all that night, just thinking about her hand in mine. It was when the thought of my name with her surname popped into my head, that I realized this might not be just a phase. I could imagine a future with a girl, which I never thought possible. Nothing happened between us, but she’s still my friend and I am grateful to her for helping me discover that part of myself.