Metro, from Run-DMC reissues to skin flicks such as 1972’s Deep Throat, is the rage these days. That, coupled with South African theatre-goers’ predilection for all things raunchy, would probably explain why Debbie Does Dallas: The Musical is currently drawing huge audiences at the Johannesburg Civic Theatre.
Night after night since mid-January, white couples have been sitting arm in arm, guffawing to inane dialogue and banana blowjobs.
The play is an adaptation of a 1978 porn movie of the same name, about a high-school girl in middle-America who needs to raise money to join the Dallas ‘Cowgirls”, the cheerleader squad of the famous Texan grid-iron team. In the process of fundraising, she discovers the power of the pink, running circles around the sleepy town’s pervs together with her mates.
Despite its middle-class setting, the play is a send-up of an adult flick, raising some commonplace issues around sexuality that girls the world over can identify with.
Last Saturday, the Mail & Guardian took Caroline (15) and Thandi Mashele (17), sisters from Alexandra township, and Obie Pelo (17) and Thabi Zwane (17), friends from Kelvin, north of Johannesburg, to watch the show. As a group, their misgivings were mainly about what they perceived as the musical’s misogyny and its explicit sexual references, which contrasted with the show’s PG rating.
What was your impression of the play?
Obie: It was kind of like a porn movie, but with clothes on and everything. Other than that, it was quite funny.
Thabi: It wasn’t a show that I would go and see by choice. I have seen porn but I try and keep away from it.
Thandi: They put too much effort into making it look like it’s seriously porn and that’s not my type of theatre.
[When we got out] didn’t you say it was normal, everyday stuff?
Thandi: A 10-year-old knows what porn is. Like, seriously, hey. But it’s just wrong.
Caroline: Children like me are supposed to be concentrating on their schoolwork, not porn.
Do you think it represented girls’ ‘coming of age” realistically?
Thabi: I have a lot of friends who are into sleeping around. I don’t judge them because they are my friends. I don’t see myself doing that. Not at my age.
What do you think, in essence, the show was about?
Thandi: It’s about following your dreams, but I wouldn’t go to extremes to follow my dreams. I wouldn’t sell my soul.
What do you mean by ‘selling your soul”?
Thandi: I believe that virginity is the ish (the thing). The fact that I have a dream and I need the cash, I wouldn’t just go sell my virginity to somebody who’s willing to give me the money.
How is having sex with someone equal to selling your soul?
Obie: In the Bible it’s basically like that. Your virginity is like everything to you and your body is like a temple. Losing that over money is like selling your soul to evil, in a way.
Thabi: I have lost my virginity, like when was it? Four years ago. (Brief silence followed by awkward laughter.) I didn’t lose my soul but the outcome of that, the things I had to deal with afterwards, it made me think like, ‘Okay, is this the way I want to live my life?” I’m worth more than that. That’s why I decided to change the way I was thinking.
Do you know girls like any of the girls in the show?
Thandi: A lot of people go through what was in the play. I mean some of them have temptation they can’t resist.
Have you ever been in a situation where someone in a position of power is coming on to you?
Thabi: A man double my age came on to me. For me it’s like, ‘Hang on a minute. You’re interested in someone who’s half your age?” It didn’t sound right. You’re basically dating your dad.
Were there any scenes that stood out for you for any particular reason?
Caroline: Ja. When they were having an orgy in the shower. That was unexpected. I never thought they’d show them like that.
Obie: I think that they made it a point to shock you. I think that was the whole point of the play. I found the shower scene kind of awkward but funny at the same time. And when the lead actress did something sexual with her teddy bear, that was hilarious.
What do you think it was saying about women?
Thabi: They made it seem like it’s easy for us to change our minds. Like we’re very gullible.
Obie: But in a way it was the same thing with the guys. They made it seem like all a guy ever wants is to get with a chick.