Capetonian writer and director Zubayr Charles recently debuted his latest work, this bra’s a psycho, on the Artscape stage as part of the 2024 New Voices programme. Along with engaging with and confronting challenging themes such as sexual assault, revenge, and queer and coloured identity, he achieves a dark, twisty psychological thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat up until the very last line.

The story follows a nameless character, “The Bra” (played by James Stoffberg), as he tries to grapple with hazey memories of being sexually assaulted. His attempts to reconnect with various men (played by Anzio September) through dating apps, in the hopes of finding love, takes a dark turn when his pain turns into rage, sending him on a vengeful killing spree. As he grows more brazen in his crimes, he becomes blind to the police investigation that is hot on his heels.

When looking in popular film and media, Charles found that the topic of sexual violence towards men was almost always framed in a comedic light—just think about nearly any reference to a man going to prison. It’s a pervasive punchline that appears in beloved comedies, such as 21 Jump Street, and even a disturbing number of children’s movies and shows. The trivialising and ridiculing of such a traumatic event has been so normalised,  making the topic one rarely explored with sincerity and discouraging so many male survivors from speaking out.

Charles set out to write a cat-and-mouse crime thriller that centred a serial killer, drawing initial inspiration from the 2020 “rape-revenge” film, Promising Young Women. “I thought the film approached the subject matter in an interesting way,” he says. “I wanted to tackle the rape-genre but add a Capetonian twist, a male twist and a queer twist.”

In both his writing and direction, Charles shows carefully considered restraint, with the dialogue of the play having been stripped down to only what is necessary. Having previously written work with several characters, long monologues and extensive dialogue, he wanted to challenge himself when writing this bra’s a psycho. “I wanted to see what I could do to keep the writing crisp and as to the point as possible” he says. By doing so, the writing manages to clearly convey the purpose of the line while maintaining a sense of subtlety and space for interpretation. The result is a quick-paced story that doesn’t allow the audience a moment to catch their breath before the next twist in the story line.

The sparse nature of the text, however, does not compromise the complexity of both the story and the characters. Both Stoffberg and September complement the text’s subtlety with their own nuanced physicality and delivery, creating three-dimensional characters who, despite their actions, manage to get the audience on their side.

The dialogue’s structure and minimalism is also a nod to the laconic exchanges common on dating apps such as Grindr, which has a leading role in the play. Much of the play’s action is propelled forward Grindr, with it being what connects The Bra to the other characters. For Charles, the inclusion of the app was an important part of portraying the queer experience, particularly the experience of The Bra. In the play and real life, dating apps serve as both an affirming, sex-positive platform for making new connections, while also having the potential to isolate and demoralise users.

Charles’ restraint in his directing is evident in his staging, particularly of the more violent scenes. “I generally don’t like symbolism,” says Charles. “But I thought, firstly, the staging of violence can look quite jarring or be too much for an audience,” says Charles. “Even for myself. It often disconnects the audience. That was the main reason for using it. But I also felt that, for any of the violence, how do you stage it to make it believable without being corny?”  In clever contrast to his direct writing, each murder that The Bra commits is done so through suggestive actions, like the tearing of pages or knotting of a tie, rather than blatant violence.

This staged reading of this bra’s a psycho is only the beginning as Charles is working towards it being picked up for a full run. “You can’t just knock on certain theatres’ doors and be like, ‘hey what do you think of this?’” he says. “There is a lot of red tape when it comes to trying to get your script out there.” New Voices provided this valuable opportunity for him to bring the work to light and to a diverse and engaging audience. The programme not only provides a platform for writer’s to stage their work, but also opens the floor to the audience to share their insight with the writer.

“It’s heartwarming to see people who don’t necessarily seek out theatre attend, engage and make insightful comments and appreciate the story. We need to unlearn this, that there is only a niche group of people who are going to come to the theatre. If we can get more people into theatres, it will be beneficial to everyone.”