The kitchen as battlefield - with special reference to the award winning play, Kitchen Blues1 , by Jeanne Goosen

Abstract

Goosen takes a strong feminist stand, challenging the conventional view people hold regarding violence, war, women, sexism and the romantic hue surrounding the military. In this hour long one woman play, Goosen returns women to the kitchen, claiming that a woman's kitchen is her "memory bank", stating that the actual power base in society is located in the kitchen. The entire play is set in the kitchen which becomes the battlefield, the source of the social and political conflict.
Life/creation and death/destruction are brought into sharp focus as balancing forces. While the main character, simply called Kitchen Woman, cooks (and kills) she attempts to write (create) just one immortal sentence while a politically inspired war rages on outside the kitchen.
She is aware of the violence outside, the violence which marks a war, but it is not part of her. She slaughters, and then chops up and cooks the chicken while surveying and commenting on the most deadly weapons found in any house: the kitchen utensils.
She experiences what people in battle experience in the same manner a voyeur might, when she viciously cuts up the chicken. She has to kill to live, to survive. She is aware of the outside world, of the past, the future. Her best friend is involved in clandestine political activities which result in her death - a death which serves as the culmination of all the horror of war and is the main character's internalisation of the violence. The Kitchen Woman gives voice to the voiceless, asks all the unanswered questions people ask during times of violent conflict, takes a defiant stand against God, the ultimate patriarch, who allows, perhaps even condones, the senseless killing.

Opsomming
Goosen neem 'n sterk feministiese standpunt in, wat die konvensionele beskouing van mense ten opsigte van geweld, oorlog, vroue, seksisme en die romantiese waas wat die militere omring, betwis. In die uurlange eenpersoonsopvoering, plaas Goosen weer die vrou terug in die kombuis, met die bewaring dat 'n vrou se kombuis haar geheuebank is, en konstateer dat die werklike magsbasis in die gemeenskap in die kombuis gelee is. Die opvoering speel in die kombuis af, wat 'n slagveld word- die oorsprong van die sosiale en politieke konflik.
Lewe/skepping en dood/verwoesting word die fokus van ·ewewigsmagte. Terwyl die hoofkarakter, wat eenvoudig die Kombuisvrou genoem word, kook (en doodmaak), trag sy om een onsterflike sin te skryf (skep), terwyl 'n polities gemotiveerde oorlog buite die kombuis woed. Sy is bewus van die geweld buite, die geweld wat 'n oorlog kenmerk, maar dit is nie deel van haar nie. Sy slag, sny en kook die hoender terwyl sy die dodelike wapens, eie aan enige huis, in oenskou neem en kommentaar daaroor fewer: kombuis­gereedskap.
Byna soos 'n voyeur, ondervind sy wat mense gedurende 'n geveg belewe terwyl sy die hoender in stukke sny. Sy moet doodmaak om te lewe, om te oorlewe. Sy is bewus van die buitewereld, van die verlede, van die toekoms. Haar beste vriendin is gewikkel in ongeoorloofde politieke aktiwiteite wat haar dood veroorsaak - 'n dood wat dien as die kulminasie van al die gruwels van oorlog en die hoofkarakter se internalisering van geweld. Die Kombuisvrou gee stem aan die stemlose, vra al die onbeantwoorde vrae wat mense vra tydens tye van gewelddadige konflik, neem 'n uitdagende houding in teenoor God, die eintlike en uiteindelike patriarg, wat die sinlose slagting toelaat of dit moontlik nog goedkeur.