Patisserie Femme
Physical theatre
Written and Directed by Jessie DIEPEVEEN | Performed by Liphelo MATTHEWS and Nomfundo SELEPE | Stage Managed by Sinezile MATUTU | Production manager Thato MOSIUOA | Poster design by Ellen HEYDENRYCH
16+
DEBUT PRODUCTION by new kids on the block Three Pillars Productions. Patisserie Femme is based in a bakery in the heart of Cape Town amidst an array of mouth watering confectionaries. The performers take on a mockumentary, meta-theatre style of performance where they explore a bakery dedicated to selling not pastries, not cakes, but women. We witness interesting employee interactions as well as funny, heart wrenching confessions of key ingredients that live in a bakery pantry...let's hear it for The Cherry On Top and Yeast! This piece is performed by two women who are constantly switching between characters, and even playing the characters of inanimate objects - everything that one sees in this piece is created solely by the performers’ bodies. Patisserie Femme tackles issues of society pushing certain conventions onto the bodies of women and references many a sexual innuendo. From sugar babies to buns in the oven, this play is a satire that is sure to make its audience think, laugh and most importantly, talk.
ARTIST BIOS
Jessie Diepeveen is a graduate of the University of Cape Town, where she received a distinction in her Theatre-Making degree. She is a deviser, performer, director, and lover of bringing stories to life. In a professional capacity, Jessie has experience in acting for television and commercials. Her most recent work includes a lead role, Candice, on SABC2’s Signal High 2 (2021) directed by Vincent Moloi, as well as a lead in the short film, Around Again (2022)
Liphelo Matthews is a 23 year old performance artist from Cape Town. In 2022, she completed her honours degree in Theatre and Performance specialising in Acting at the University of Cape Town. She was then awarded a full scholarship to attend the South African Lessac Kinesensics intensive, where over the course of 3 weeks she received extensive voice training with participants and facilitators from all over Africa and the world. Recent productions include Love of the Nightingale directed by Mbongeni Mtshali and Mwenya Kabwe and Isikhalo sika Nandi directed by Zamah Nkonyeni in collaboration with the ICA. Liphelo’s theatre making impulses draw from her interests in the (re)representation and (re)imaging of the Black body in performance in post apartheid South Africa.
Nomfundo Selepe was born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa. Her innate passion for performance lead her to the National School of Arts (2013-2017), where she trained in acting and matriculated as the Overall Best Drama Student and Dux scholar. In March of 2023, Nomfundo will graduate with an honours in Theatre & Performance studies, majoring in acting, from the University of Cape Town. She has made her professional debut as Hermia in Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.
Thato Nolwazi Mosiuoa is a young and black performance maker, actress and dancer. She is a graduate of the University of Cape Town who studied a BA in Theatre and Performance, majoring in Performance Making. The performance making stream is geared towards producing performance makers with directing, acting, script writing, costume design and sound and lighting design skills required to make their own work professionally. Her theatre and film works include sebo ke lefa la ho ngola bocha (2020), 24 Hours(2021) and White Noise (2022). Amongst others, by the age of 22 she is a co-founder of Three Pillars Productions, a National Eisteddfod of South Africa award winner, FEDA award winner, Commonwealth cup dance championships award winner, GIBS Spirit of the Youth graduate, Yale Young Global Scholars graduate, an Allan Gray Orbis Foundation candidate fellow, and content creator.
Sinezile Matutu is an Honors Graduate who majored in Theatre Making at the University of Cape Town. For the duration of her degree, she worked vigorously to obtain skills such as directing, set design, costume, acting, lighting, sound, and scriptwriting. She has a deep passion for story telling that brings forward injustices against women and people of colour, through different forms and mediums of art. She is currently a part of the reviving of the Maynardville Festival 2023. Matutu is also a co-founder of the theatre collective, Three Pillars Productions. She wishes to one day produce and direct for television and film. In her spare time, she is a content creator which utilizes her certificate in Digital Marketing.