So You Want to be a Trophy Wife?
Theatre / Victoria Theatre

In a world awash with “influencers” and “blessers”, poor old Marie is swamped! Feeling invisible and desperate, her only hope, it seems, is to find herself a rich husband. But that is easier said than done. She'll also need to make a few changes in order to attract said rich man. Can mutton really be dressed up as lamb? Does it want to be dressed up as lamb?

Written and performed by Sue Diepeveen, with direction by Wynne Bredenkamp and Greg Karvellas, this production has toured around South Africa to great acclaim.

Audiences and critics have called So You Want to be a Trophy Wife? “funny, poignant, different” and “a lovely, crispy bit of social commentary that slips between the chinks of popular discourse and comes with its own fresh and feisty character”.

Laugh along with Marie as she explores her options in a world with unbelievable expectations, where success and happiness are mercurial. Through trying to reclaim her youth, Marie's eyes are opened to how ridiculous these expectations can be.

Production Credits

Writer - Sue Diepeveen

Performer - Sue Diepeveen

Director - Wynne Bredenkamp

Additional direction - Greg Karvellas

Producer - Faeron Wheeler

About the Artists

Sue Diepeveen – Writer and performer

Sue is a Cape Town based film, television and theatre actress. Her recent camera work includes Honey 3, Killer Instinct, DPO Training, American Monster, Cultured and The Deprived. Sue is an accomplished voice actor who relishes the challenge of accent-based work.

Her self-written solo show So You Want To Be A Trophy Wife? (2015) saw her return to the stage. Sue performed in 2019’s Vday performance of The Vagina Monologues. 2018 saw her on stage with Dario Fo’s A Woman Alone directed by Margot Wood. In 2019, she performed in Mike Van Graan’s Two To Tango, which had successful runs at the National Arts Festival and The Hilton Arts Festival.

As the owner of a theatre space in Somerset West (The Drama Factory), Sue is heavily involved in mentoring programmes for young actors and is committed to ensuring a safe and affordable space for new work to see the light of day. She runs a drama school specialising in LAMDA examination work and spends a great deal of time adjudicating various Eisteddfods and competitions.

In 2019, Sue directed Your Perfect Life for F Creations, which won two Standard Bank Ovation Awards at The National Arts Festival - for its live debut in 2019 and for its online presentation in 2021. In addition to directing Thirst for the Cape Town Fringe (2016) under the Sugar-Daddy Production house, she has directed the acclaimed Blueberry Toast (2018), which completed two successful Cape Town runs. As a writer, she has written five plays for large casts for children.

Sue is also the writer, director and producer of several current children’s shows. These include a series of puppet shows based on Aesop’s Fables – What Did the Fox Say? – and a new adaptation of The Emperor’s New Clothes.

Wynne Bredenkamp – Director

Wynne is a University of Cape Town graduate with distinction in a BA in Theatre Making and performance. In her final year of study, she co-won the Most Promising Student Writer award for being part of UCT’s student production Behind Every Yawn is a Silent Shout in the National Arts Festival. Writing, directing and producing her own work, Wynne attended the NAF the next year and won a Standard Bank Ovation Award for her first professional production, Salt, as well as a PANSA New Writing Award. Since then, she has
written two plays: Warrior Green, a post-apocalyptic tale of young eco warriors for children and At the Edge of the Light, which came to life under the Theatre Arts Admin Emerging Director’s Bursary and the mentorship of Tossie Von Tonder. At the Edge of the Light was then chosen to be part of the 2018 National Arts Festival Main Stage.

Other direction highlights include The Woman Who Would Be King by Esosa Edosomwan, Why Not Socialism? by Brent Meersman, and assistant director to Greg Karvellas on Clybourn Park by Bruce Norris at the Fugard Theatre and Sue Pam Grant’s Curl Up and Dye.

In addition to being a theatre writer and director, she has been a casting director, art director and is now a part-time Live Performance tutor at AFDA, Cape Town, and have directed year-end work such as Reza De Wet’s Good Heavens, Aeschylus The Oresteia: Agamemnon, Dario Fo’s The Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Martin Crimp’s The Misanthrope and Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.

  • Venue: Victoria Theatre
  • Location: Victoria Girls' High School
  • Ticket price: ZAR 70.00
  • Programme type: The Fringe
  • Genre: Theatre
  • Duration: 50 min
  • Ages: 12+

There are no performances for this show.