When 20 000 women marched on the Union Buildings in 1956 to protest against apartheid they sang a song that would become the rallying cry of the women's rights movement in South Africa.
"You strike a woman, you strike a rock" became a phrase symbolising the fight by women to have equal rights in a social structure where they were oppressed, not only because of their colour, but also because of their gender.
From this grew the protest theatre production You Strike a Woman, You Strike a Rock, directed and co-written by Phyllis Klotz in 1986.
Cape Town-born Klotz, who now lives in Johannesburg, recently returned to the Mother City to be part of the revival of the 1986 production which was "one of the first seminal works written and directed by women in South Africa".
The production premiered at the Baxter Theatre this week with Klotz again in the director's chair, and one of the original cast and co-writers, Poppy Tsira, also performing.
Klotz said that the new production had come a long way from its humble beginnings performing at the Grahamstown Arts Festival to between five and 10 people all those years ago.
"It was a different time back then. There was a vision of democracy and we all felt that the arts had a leading role to play in keeping the spirits of the people up and showing them they were not alone in those difficult times."
She wrote the script with the three actresses in the production, but they struggled to get it staged, "because there just wasn't any money".
"If you didn't want to take money from the government and be staged at the Nico Malan (now Artscape), and you didn't want to take money from certain companies because of their political connections, it was difficult to get funding After working on the script and rehearsing for months they finally staged the pro-duction at the University of Cape Town's Arena Theatre before taking it to Grahamstown.
As "word got out" about the show, they were soon invited to perform at the Community Arts Project in Cape Town and the Market Theatre in Johannesburg before spending four years touring Europe.
Klotz said she admired the commitment shown by her colleagues during that period.
"I don't think people would work like that today. I could be wrong, but the people had a political passion and were prepared to sacrifice for what they believed in."
Revisiting the play after 20 years, she says: "I can see why people liked it - it's funny and just an everyday story.
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You Strike a Woman, You Strike a Rock tells the story of three women at a Cape Town taxi rank.
"It's just the daily life of these three women who talk about their lives, and the greater issues of the time seem to happen around them. All they are really worried about is that they haven't sold any chickens that day and how will they feed their families.
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They also talk about the men in their lives.
Klotz said the light-hearted production had always attracted laughter from the audience.
"It is very funny, people always laugh when you talk about sex.
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The production runs until next Saturday at the Baxter Theatre. For more information or bookings call Computicket or 021 680 3989.
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