![]() I would like to offer an overview of South African theater and its historical context before and after June 1976 which includes observations about changes in structure and style of performance, the organizations and theater practitioners themselves, and the changes in South African theater after February 1990.įirst, what is South African theater? The question evokes the response: what is theater? This simple question is central to even a cursory examination of the performance traditions of South Africa. Building on a theatrical practices of autonomy, accommodation, and opposition that had developed by the time of the Soweto rising, a theater of resistance and revolution flourished until February 1990. A similar fate befell Solly Ismael and Sadeque Variava of the People’s Experimental Theatre (PET) - leading to the company’s disintegration.Ian Steadman, one of the leaders in contemporary South African theater research, writes that "the events of 16 June 1976, when black schoolchildren crystallized generations of black discontent by turning protest into active resistance, were symptomatic of radical developments in political and cultural relations and make that a watershed year in many ways." This uprising of children in South Africa's black townships took place in a context of cultural resistance that had developed over the preceding decade and a half. Strini Moodley, founding member of the Theatre Council of Natal (TECON) was arrested in in 1974 and convicted under the Terrorism Act, spending six years imprisoned on Robben Island, in the same cell block as Nelson Mandela. The mounting state-control and police action of the 1970’s meant troupes were frequently silenced or disbanded. Students and artists began to favour black material relevant to their experience. The theatre, and its association with the BCM was considered a serious threat by the apartheid government and many key players were harassed, arrested, detained and even tortured. ![]() They also urged black self-reliance and self-respect and stressed the political importance of artistic activities. The Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) provided the people and theatre with both the rhetoric and organizing principles for protest. This theatrical politicisation mirrored what was taking place in the lives of those in the townships. ![]() These ensured that Afrikaans was the only language to be used in secondary schools for blacks - an incendiary policy that led to the Soweto uprising of 1976. Presenting the story of a dustman, desperate to save enough money for his son “Africa” to stay in school, it tackled issues that were increasing important to the vast majority of South Africans and coincided with the National Party’s laws of 1974. First produced in Soweto (South Western Townships outside Johannesburg) in late 1973 it marks a clear turning point for Kente, and highlights a new direction for township theatre. Popular stereotypes such as gangsters and hookers, making mischief in shebeens (an illicit drinking establishments) were brought to life by the fusion of text, music, dance and song. Instead they focussed on dramatised versions of every-day life love, adultery, alcoholism and crime, showing the consequences of apartheid without challenging it. His early plays like Manana, the Jazz Prophet and Sikalo were indicative of their time and did not explore overtly political themes. He honed his skills working for Union Artists, before breaking with them to form an all-black production company in the early 1960’s having decided that “black-produced, black-acted shows for black audiences were the only viable direction for black theatre to take”. Born in 1932, Kente was raised in Duncan Village, a township in South Africa's Eastern Cape.
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