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Barbara Loots
PIECES OF ME, written and performed by Bo Petersen along with accompanist Christopher Petersen, under direction of Royston Stoffels, is currently onstage at the Baxter Theatre. The play invites audiences on a journey with Petersen, as she explores her family history, an exploration that eventually led to a discovery that her father lived most of his life as a chameleon, hiding his heritage.
The play turns on the choices made by her father, Benjamin Petersen, to hide himself in plain sight, passing as white, even becoming a civil servant, to protect his nuclear family. Petersen grew up thinking that her father was an orphan with no close relatives or friends. Her father disassociated himself from his past at great personal costs, being torn away from his larger coloured family whom he could not openly associated with out of fear of discovery and prosecution under the racially discriminatory laws in the time of apartheid.
Petersen never new anything about her father’s life before he married her mother, until a discovery made as to a possible paternal relation during her time at university. She grew up not once suspecting the huge impact apartheid had on the concept of family as she knew it. Finding out the truth about her heritage after the fact now calls on her to rediscover and renegotiate who she is and where she comes from. As such, PIECES OF ME, is an autobiographical play about Petersen’s search for truth and identity through an exploration of secrets.
The play is somewhat more educational in parts than expected: Part South African history lesson, part personal revelation. At a stage Petersen rather factually takes the audience through a timeline of slavery, colonialism, and apartheid with mention of how these time stamps overlap with key moments in her family’s history. It is important for us not to forget the past, for the scars and trauma caused are still clearly reflected in our society today. Those consequential scars and trauma are where the potential for an emotional connection with an audience would be strongest in recounting a personal tale in a play format, as it amplifies the human interest elements. One runs the risk of minimizing this connection if you get too educational about the historical context of a play. I do think there could have been a better way to incorporate the key historical moments within the text as part of the dramatised portion of the play without requiring Petersen to break the fourth wall for a TED Talk styled interlude to indicate important years in the evolution of the evil that still causes rifts in families. The laminated pages as props in this portion of the play also feels out of place in the intimate, minimalistic setting that Petersen creates onstage when stepping back into character. The educational theatre elements break the rhythm of the play, when one could include historical context into a straight play to create a seamless flow.
Delving into the dramatic elements of the play, there is definitely a story that intrigues. You meet her chameleon father mainly through Petersen’s childhood need to be “daddy’s girl”, to be truly seen by him, a need that catapulted Petersen into her acting career. This intertwines with the discovery of the truth behind the classification of Petersen’s father as white, and the sheer emotional impact that secret had on his broader coloured family who could only dare meet him under the cloak of night is heartbreaking. You glimpse this suffering of a family forcibly divided through three character studies by Petersen of two aunts and her paternal grandmother.
The manner in which the story is told left me wanting to know more about the part of her family that was forced to silently look in from the periphery, only occasionally stealthily peeking into the life lived by their son or sibling, a life they were forbidden. It left me wanting to know how this revelation of her father’s truth impacted on Petersen herself, how she felt in the moment of realisation and how she has since adjusted her perspectives. The play however stops short of going into those hidden emotional corners of the child who wanted to be “daddy’s girl”, knowing now that she did not really fully comprehend who “daddy” was. There is heartbreak and sadness that reverberates under the surface of this play that begs to be allowed to shout its truth to the world. PIECES OF ME hints at the emotional scars through brief, selective memory-flashes, a window into Petersen’s family as she knew it as a child and as she discovered it after her father’s passing.
This story begs to be fully told without breaking the rhythm by hiding behind educational theatre tricks. Sequentially, the way the play is structured also minimises its impact. Petersen gives away too much too soon. The reveal of a once unknown family member involved in the production would dramatically be better served at the end of the play, after the audience has been on a journey of discovery with her, instead of right up front when she introduces herself to the audience alongside her cousin.
All the choices made in the production are clearly intentional and that intent is well executed. Petersen’s character performances welcome you into the moment with each woman and provides an understanding of their different relationships with her father, revealing to some degree how racial classification robbed them all of something others take for granted all too often: togetherness. PIECES OF ME is a very personal production for Petersen, and therefore it is understandable that the heartache revealed in the current production is selective, as far as she is willing to share this emotional story at present. That is her choice and rightfully hers to make.
I do hope that somewhere on her journey of discovery, perhaps her father’s voice can come out even stronger as a warning that the stroke of a legislative pen can destroy lives to a degree beyond comprehension. This realisation in itself makes PIECES OF ME a brave personal reflection for Petersen to share with the world.
You have until 27 July 2024 to see PIECES OF ME onstage at the Baxter Theatre, with a one-off performance at the District Six Homecoming Centre on 20 July 2024. Tickets for the Baxter run can be booked online through Webtickets, while bookings for the Homecoming Centre performance is through Quicket.
Audience members will be treated to Q&A sessions after select performances:
16 July: Jonathan Jansen, Author and Distinguished Professor of Education at Stellenbosch University.
18 July: Nadia Kammies, Author and Occupational Therapist.
23 July: Quanita Adams, Actress.
25 July: Laurie Nathan, Professor of Mediation at the University of Notre Dame in the USA.