Joanna Weinberg returns to her roots to perform

TALI FEINBERG

Weinberg is well-known for her role as Desdemona in Othello, opposite John Kani and directed by Janet Suzman at the Market Theatre in the 1980s. She has lived in Australia for the past 20 years.

“I tell stories about exceptional, as well as ordinary women, and the bags they use – the laundry bag, the corporate briefcase, and the doctors’ bag,” Weinberg says of her latest show.

“I sing about my grandmother’s bag, and a bag which was bought for a special occasion but was never used. There is a section where the audience is invited to tell their own stories about bags they have owned or encountered, and this is often the highlight of the show.”

Weinberg comes back to South Africa every year to visit her family, but this is the first time she is returning to perform. “I am very excited, as I studied drama at the University of Cape Town and had my first professional engagement at the Baxter Theatre Centre, playing opposite Sean Taylor in The Collector,” she says. “I have so many wonderful memories of my time at UCT’s Little Theatre and the Hiddingh campus, where I felt that I had a world-class training.” Even her mother studied music at UCT, which makes her feel as if she is “completing an ancient circle of family and bloodlines”.

Weinberg believes that growing up in South Africa made her “fiercely determined to fight injustice and bullying wherever I came upon it. My parents were leftwing musicians who embraced artists of all races,” she says.

“I feel lucky to have grown up in such a household, and to have had training from an early age in how to honour all people regardless of race and religion.

“My song-writing was heavily influenced by the innumerable rich musical cultures in South Africa. My play and musical theatre writing was immensely buoyed by the cultural boycott, which forced actors and theatre-makers to create their own work and tell their own stories. This legacy of reflecting my own environment in my work has lasted my lifetime.”

Although she was raised outside the faith, Weinberg is now a practising Jew, having been married to a Jewish man for 27 years. Their children have been raised in the Jewish faith, and they belong to a reform congregation in Sydney led by a female rabbi.

“I am not religious, but I do identify strongly with cultural Judaism. I perform at Jewish festivals in Sydney, and often write comic Jewish songs for various fundraising and charity events.

“I also sing regularly at the Montefiore retirement homes where there are several South Africans. The South African Jewish community has been a huge part of my life, having been so very supportive of all my acting over the decades of my working endeavours,” she says.

Weinberg shares what it was like working with theatre greats John Kani and Janet Suzman, and playing Desdemona in Othello: “Working with Janet Suzman was a great honour, both because she was such a brilliant communicator, and because she had a feminist view of the play.

“I had never considered Shakespeare in a feminist light before, and I found Suzman’s interpretation of Emilia, Iago’s wife, for example, extremely enlightening and liberating.

“Working with John Kani was challenging at first, because he found it difficult to trust me. In retrospect, I think he was mourning the recent apartheid-related death of his brother, and it was a big leap of faith for him to play the part in such an intimate way with a white woman. After we got over that initial caution, we had a lot of laughs actually, and we still get on really well.”

Weinberg believes that theatre still has an important role and relevance in this age of internet and social media. “Theatre is as powerful as ever in its immediacy. Young people who have never been to the theatre before are astonished when they come and find themselves in tears, or afraid, or tense, or laughing hysterically.

“Having a collective experience is an ancient ritual which taps into our deep memory, and you simply can’t have that online with a screen. Like watching sport with a cheering crowd, I think people feel happier when they attend performances together, so theatre is good for one’s health. I also think that theatre encourages group discussion rather than individual tweets, and this is good for society, to learn to have and share opinions in public rather than hiding behind a computer.”

• Pandora’s Bag runs at the Baxter Golden Arrow Studio from 23 October to 3 November, at 20:15 nightly, with Saturday matinees at 17:00. Book through Webtickets or selected Pick n Pay stores.