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August is Women's Month and the twenty twenty five Antscape Women's Humanity Festival is back with a strong message, piece in action, working together among a powerful lineup of events. One performance is already generating some buzz. It's called I Want to Call You Daddy. It's a raw, intimate, wo woman play written and performed by Marcia Underwood, a Cape Town based artist who blends music, poetry and storytelling. And she joins me on the line now to tell us
about the play. Good to have you with us, Thanks so much for coming through on the line.
Good to be here, Good to be here, Siah, Thanks for having me.
Yeah, an absolute pleasure.
Let's start a little bit with your background. You're not just a writer and performer, but also a singer. We've had you on, maybe not this show for a while, but certainly when I was doing the late night show. Tell us little bit about your journey as a performer.
Well, it's an interesting one, and I think the audience and my followers will certainly be surprised by what I've put together. So you're quite right, I mean I started out straight after high school studying opera at U c T. I live that direct directorship of Virginia David, Professor Virginia David. So yes, some some some giants, uh that have come my way and really assisted me on my journey. And I yeah, after I studied opera, then went into exploring
other genres. So yeah, the likes of I guess, jazz and contemporary styles. Uh. And for a long time yea, even up until the day, I still feature doing some yeah friendly jazz gigs. I'm gonna put it like that. And this is a lot different to that.
It's a striking title. I want to call you, daddy. What inspired you to write this piece?
Well, you know, when I was studying, literally almost slap bang in the middle of my journey, I had my daughter and yeah, so I mean I went back to complete my studies, but it really took me on a
different journey. And this story is exactly that journey of single parenthood, of single motherhood and the struggles that come with it, and just having gone through it, you know, for close to ten years, so it's been quite a journey and I thought now is the time to tell it and using my creativity and my poetry that I've been writing all along through my career, a fifteen year career poetry song, and I've added a movement just to bring it all together. Yes, I mean I have. I
don't want to give too much away. I want the listeners to come through, but it does give the good the bad, and I won't say ugly, I'd say interesting
parts of the journey through narratives and song. So it's it's a lot more serious and people may be surprised, but it's a story that needs to be told, and it's you know, I think my mum always says, you know, if there's one person that you can inspire in the audience that connects with your story, with your song, with your poem, then you've done what you've needed to do. And it is so true. You know, one needs to tell your story because it's always somebody that's shares that
same story. You know, none of ours stories are are set apart in that way. It's just unlocking, unlocking it for the next person and saying it's okay.
Why is it important for you to tell the story as a one woman show?
Particularly?
I think as I was writing it and I took a bit of a performance break, one could say, last year. You know, I didn't put myself out there to do any gigs. I just sat down over a couple of nights, very many nights, a few weeks, and I sat down and I thought, okay, you know, as a singer, which direction would I like to go into? And typically one would write songs, you know, you'd write your own original songs. But I've got this burning, you know, desire for I
guess lyrics, but also poetry. And when you write poetry, you know so much like yourself with writing books, you know you're putting you want to put out something original, but also something so close to your heart. And I thought, let me start here, you know, let me start with Yeah, my first, real, painful and a challenging story. And I wrote that during last year. So it was important for me to go becker and say, what's my voice really about? You know? Is it in song? Sure? But I need
to dig a little deeper. And even in the writing of it, it was quite quite interesting, you know, putting pink to pep pen, saying okay, you know, how raw are we going?
And how raw do you go? Because I mean the writing process.
You know, I know this is that the the right You might think that you have dealt with a certain issue or healed or whatever it processed, whatever word you might want to use, and then, as you say, the minute you put pen to paper and actually have to put it into words in a way that makes it connectible and relatable to a potential audience that can then shine a light on parts of it that you hadn't perhaps processed.
So what was that experience like for you?
It was certainly interesting, you know, me being a very particular performer, you know, when I stand up and I sing a very you know, as in tunes that other people have written, you know, in the jazz genre or let's say poper contemporary, you know, people are most likely to clap, you know, they like the song. Then they've heard the song before, you know, and I'm laughing and I'm smiling, and it's enjoyable music. But when I was writing it, you quite write, I had to dig deeper
but also realize that people may not clap. You know, the story as you're telling it is, you know, my particular story. So it is whether the audience claps or not, whether they connect or not. I just have to be willing to put it out there. So it was really going deep to say, this is my story and I'm going to tell it. You know, whether the audience uh likes it. Yeah, they may not like it, you know, whether they clap. Sure, if they do, great, that means
they've enjoyed it. But I was preparing myself for Yeah, it really has to go raw, you know, and people may not like the fact that I'm going a very raw into my story of single parenthood, you know, looking at a child from the mother's perspective and their child's longing for the second parent, you know. So I had to really get deep, get in there and get the story going.
So yes, online actually say not not to give not to give too much away, but too much away I'm fascinated by. I'm fascinated by some of the themes that are likely to come to come up, you know. I I know the single parenthood had journey and there's a lot of stuff that comes up.
And as you say, very very raw. What are some of the what a some of.
The feelings and experiences that have come up for you that perhaps you explore. Are you exploring issues around guilts? Are you exploring issues around overwhelm what are some of the themes that we might see in the piece.
Absolutely, I'm exploring a number of topics. And one could say, you know, when I went through single period, I was not only you know, raising a child alone, but I was also living alone. So you know, you're also having to deal with a lot of questions when you just buy yourself and of course having I haven't come from a single parent myself, so I was also doing a lot of yeah, soul searching, you know, looking at the world through my own child's eyes, you know, and thinking great, okay, fine,
we are we are weak with us, you know. And it's a daily things. It's a complete daily journey and topic. So there are themes that are being explored, and it is of course single motherhood, but also the challenges around the justice system. So and that was my initial debut. I had a little insert at the Albisarch's Conference at u c T and that was under the topic of children justice, children's rights, and that particular topic came through or comes through in this play. So yeah, I mean,
there are certainly challenges at the our maintenance courts. I mean, one needs to to put it out there and I do go through that, yeah, and it's a very real factor.
The play features as part of the Women's Month Humanity Festival. Why is that such a.
A great vehicle for the piece specifically?
Well, were I'll be positioned is in the arena, and that's fantastic because it's one hundred and twenty nine seats and the show spans over three days, so from the sixth till the eighth, and then on the ninth in the afternoon at two o'clock, So then that's also part of the festival. But that intimate space is exactly what
this play, you know, our leverages off. And it's incredible because with that intimate space, I'm able to then connect directly with the audience in close proximity, you know, with the movement and the sound and the poetry. So it's going to be one for the books.
Do you have any plans to sort of outside of the festival for the piece?
Is it something that.
You'd like to perform elsewhere?
What?
What do you think that I suppose a crude way of saying it is, has it got legs?
Absolutely? Absolutely? Yeah. I've been part of a number of other festivals, you know, abroad and I thought about that too, you know. So it will be recorded video recorded as part of my submission to other festivals. So I look forward to featuring it that you know. The topic is uh, it's international, you know, there are no a few single appearance in one corner of the earth is Yeah, we
spread for far and white for sure, for sure. So it's going to again, it's going to move, you know, and I look forward to it.
I don't know how old your your daughter is. How can I ask cow old she is?
Absolutely well, she'll be thirteen.
Okay, yeah, so's she's at the age I mean, has she said will she see it?
Does she?
I'm fascinated to know because.
I mean she perhaps is the one audience member whose response means most to you.
What are her thoughts?
Absolutely well, without giving too much away, Yes, she was not far from me when I was physically writing the play, you know, she was right there. And yeah, I mean I listened to her you know in so many yeah, in so many ways. And the play, Yeah, it features definitely a raw material from her mind and her soul.
Do you think it's something in a few years time or even you know, when she's in a twenties thirties, she might be able to look back on and it and it be something that explains a lot to her, almost.
Like a gift to her.
Absolutely it is, you know, I think naturally as an artist, you know, every little bit of music that one puts out, you know, every gig, every performance, and over the years, you know, the very many times that she's been to my gigs and seeing me, it's always just been you know, for her. You know, as our kids look at us, it's to achieve for them, you know, once you have children, it's to achieve for them. And even this piece, it's to honor her. You know that she's not alone. You know,
I certainly wasn't alone in this journey. There were other single parents around me, but I've always let her know, you know, she's not alone. You know, even though she may feel alone, there are other little boys and little girls out there feeling the same thing, you know, feeling that sense of abandonment, not knowing, you know. So it is definitely to honor her feelings and to honor her journey. And she's in her own way strength and buy it
and enlightened by it. And I'm just so proud of her as well, So yeah.
The play runs from the sixth to the ninth of August. How can people get tickets?
So we're tickets that's where the tickets are being sold. Yeah, looking forward to it. From the sixth to the eighth. It will be running every night at seven pm and then on the ninth at two pm in the afternoon.
So ye, yeah, looking forward to seeing it.
It is called I Want to Call You Daddy, and it's an intimate one woman play written and performed by Marseille Underwood at Cape Town based artist Make sure that you get your tickets for that and head to the Artscape to find out more about the full program from the twenty twenty five Women's Humanity Festival.