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South Africa's National Theatre: the Market or the Street?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2009

David Graver  and
Loren Kruger
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Extract

The original Theatre Quarterly devoted a large portion of one issue-TQ28 (1977—78) to the theatre of South Africa. It is, of course, important to relate new developments in the theatre of that troubled nation to the context of its changing political situation – considering, for example, how far a reflection of the realities of the urban black experience is now more typical than the ‘acceptable’ face represented by the once-popular ‘tribal musicals’. Here. David Graver and Loren Kruger contrast two approaches to the theatre of anti-apartheid. The internationally known (and now relatively stable) Market Theatre of Johannesburg, they argue, today largely reaches an educated, liberal, and elite audience, and sustains what is essentially a European literary tradition: but other plays written and directed by blacks — notably since the Soweto uprising of 1976 — have developed a more appropriately African style. Often, these, have emerged from the theatre companies within the black townships, such as the Bachaki Theatre Company - whose Top Down is here the focus of analysis. David Graver is currently Mellon Fellow in Drama at Stanford University: his articles have appeared in Theatre Journal and in NTQ, and he is now completing a book on the theory and practice of the avant-garde. Loren Kruger teaches in the University of Chicago, has published in Theatre Journal and the Brecht Yearbook, and is working on a study of theatres with national aspirations in Europe and the USA.

Type
Research Article
Information
New Theatre Quarterly , Volume 5 , Issue 19 , August 1989 , pp. 272 - 281
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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References

Notes and References

1. The notion of a theatre for South Africa's majority we take from Kavanagh, Robert, Theatre and Cultural Struggle in South Africa (London: Zed Books, 1985)Google Scholar. We find this notion much more precise than terms such as ‘progressive’, ‘anti-apartheid’, and ‘political’, because it illuminates the central issues involved in establishing a theatrical alternative to the cultural offerings of both apartheid and global capitalism. While Kavanagh discusses a theatre for the majority, we are concerned with the broader theatrical practices of majority-oriented theatre — i.e., theatre genuinely concerned with the plight of South Africa's majority even when that majority (especially urban, working-class blacks) is not the audience for which the play in question is primarily intended.

2. See Kavanagh, Theatre and Cultural Struggle in South Africa, for a discussion of the contributions of whites and blacks to King Kong. Kavanagh also discusses No-Good Friday and Kente's theatrical enterprise.

3. For a critique of these tribal musicals see Akerman, Anthony, ‘Why Must These Shows Go On?’ Theatre Quarterly, VII, No. 28 (Winter 1977–1978), p. 67–9Google Scholar.

4. Mshengu, (Robert Kavanagh), ‘After Soweto: People's Theatre and the Political Struggle in South Africa’, Theatre Quarterly, IX, No. 33 (Spring 1979), p. 33Google Scholar.

5. For an account of how the government destroyed these organizations, see the International Defence and Aid Fund, ‘A New Wave of Cultural Energy: Black Theatre in South Africa’, Theatre Quarterly, VII, No. 28 (Winter 1977–78), p. 57–63.

6. For discussions of state censorship and the theatre in South Africa, see Russell Vandenbroucke, ‘Chiaroscuro: a Portait of the South African Theatre’, and Akerman, Anthony, ‘Prejudicial to the Safety of the State: Censorship and the Theatre in South Africa’, Theatre Quarterly, No. 28 (Winter 1977–1978), p. 46–57Google Scholar. For a discussion of how ‘alternative’ theatre has established itself since 1976, see Hauptfleisch, Temple and Steadman, Ian, eds., South African Theatre (Pretoria: HAUM, 1984), p. 166–70Google Scholar.

7. The Market Theatre: Policy, Objects, Activities and Organization (Johannesburg: Market Theatre Foundation, n.d.), p. 2.

8. Barney Simon, Market Theatre Policy Statement, n.d.

9. The locus classicus of the concept ‘hegemony’ as the ‘spontaneous consent’ given by the majority of the population to the social order of the dominant groups and maintained by the prestige and confidence and hence the legitimacy of that group is Antonio Gramsci. See Selections from Prison Notebooks, trans, and ed. by Hoare, Quentin and Smith, G. N. (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1971), p. 12–13Google Scholar. The most significant extension for cultural study is the work of Williams, Raymond, in Marxism and Literature (Oxford University Press, 1977)Google Scholar and, especially for the study of theatre, Culture (London: Fontana, 1983). The definitive application of hegemony in the context of South African theatre can be found in Kavanagh, Theatre and Cultural Struggle in South Africa.

10. The legitimacy of theatre as fine art or literature usually hides the ways in which the institution of theatre uses the place (usually a well-equipped theatre building rather than a multi-purpose space) and occasion (aesthetic contemplation rather than entertainment or a call to arms) to legitimate certain kinds of writing and performances for their apparent permanence, while dismissing others because they rise to particular political occasions. For a discussion of the significance of place and occasion in theatre, see Williams, Culture, p. 130ff, and for the legitimating strategies of the theatre institution, see Kruger, , ‘Staging Boundaries: Instituting Limits to Legitimate Theatre’, Proceedings of the 12th Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association (München, 1988, forthcoming)Google Scholar.

11. Kavanagh, Theatre and Cultural Studies, p. 54.

12. Township cultural activity is not only restricted by actual legislation targeting black organizations; it suffers also from a chronic lack of capital. More insidiously, the press, even community organs like the Sowetan, often pay attention to local groups only once they have been legitimated on the Market or international stage. See Maponya's, Maishe comments in interview with Carola Luther, ‘Problems and Possibilities: a Discussion of the Making of Alternative Theatre in South Africa’, English Academy Review (Johannesburg), No. 2 (1984), p. 19–32, esp. p. 19–26Google Scholar.

13. Gramsci, Selections, p. 161.

14. See Annual Report, 1987, and especially, Funding Project: the Second Decade, which focuses exclusively on the refurbishing of the building. Our point is not, of course, to deny the practical value of repairs and renovations, but merely to suggest that a theatre with ‘truly national’ aspirations should include forays into the wilds beyond the Market (place).

15. Manin, Mannie, quoted by Lieberman, Susan, ‘Jumping into Madness’, Theatre Crafts (New York), 10 1985, p. 58Google Scholar, 60.

16. Hutchison, Robert, The Politics of the Arts Council (London: Sinclair Brown, 1982), p. 99Google Scholar.

17. See comments on the Theatre in Education Project (bringing Soweto schoolchildren in for shows of educational value), Annual Report, p. 11.

18. For an interesting discussion of municipal and state theatres as civic monuments, see Carlson, Marvin, ‘Theatre as Civic Monument’, Theatre Journal, XL, 1 (1988), p. 12–32Google Scholar; for a critical reading of the ideological history of the National Theatre, see Kruger, , ‘“Our National House”: the Ideology of the National Theatre of Great Britain’, Theatre Journal, XXXIX, 1 (1987), esp. p. 44–6Google Scholar.

19. See Carlson, ‘Theatre as Civic Monument’, p. 27; also Itzin, Catherine, Stages in the Revolution: Alternative Theatre in Britain (London: Methuen, 1980), p. 268–73Google Scholar; McGrath, John, ‘Popular Theatre and the Changing Situation of the Eighties’, New Theatre Quarterly, I, 4 (1985), p. 391–2Google Scholar.

20. The Star (Johannesburg), 12 November 1986.

21. Kavanagh, Theatre and Cultural Struggle in South Africa, p. 161–95, discusses both the amateurish and elitist qualities in the PET production Shanti. We can see the contradictions as well as the strengths of a Black Consciousness conception of theatre in poet Gwala's, Pascal article, ‘Towards a National Theatre’, South African Outlook, 08 1973, p. 131–3Google Scholar. Juxtaposed with his necessary defence of an initial focus on Black identify, Gwala's hostility to entertainment suggests that for all his critique of white bourgeois culture, he is still in thrall to a narrow, elitist notion of theatre as high art, which blinds him to the popular, representative potential of township entertainment.

22. Among the chief proponents of the post-1976 black theatre are Percy Mtwa, Mbongani Ngema, Maishe Maponya, and Matsemela Manaka. See Ndlovu, Duma, ed., Woza Afrika (New York: Braziller, 1986)Google Scholar, for examples of their work.

23. For other examples of community-based theatre used to analyze and stimulate discussion of specific local social problems, see von Kotze, Astrid, ‘Workers’ Theatre in South Africa’, New Left Review, No. 163 (1987), p. 83–92Google Scholar; Kerr, David, ‘Theatre and Social Issues in Malawi’, New Theatre Quarterly IV, No. 14 (05 1988), p. 173–80Google Scholar; and Eyoh, H. Ndumbe, Hammocks to Bridges: an Experience in Theatre for Development (Yaounde, Cameroon: Bet, 1986)Google Scholar.

24. Cf. Mtwa, Ngema, and Simon, Woza Albert!; Manaka, Children of Asazi; and Ngema, Asinimali! in Woza Afrika!.

25. Cf. Kerr, ‘Theatre and Social Issues in Malawi’; Eyoh, Hammocks to Bridges.

26. One aspect which does not emerge in the Bachaki case and indeed which remains silently on the margins of most discussion of South African theatre is the situation of women. Women interested in working in township theatre face more obstacles than men. In addition to the burden of child or elderly parent care, which makes attendance at rehearsals even more difficult, they often have to face hostility from male family members. As Carola Luther remarks in ‘Problems and Possibilities’, p. 29–30, the (mostly male) playwrights’ response has often been to reduce the number of roles for women rather than to address the problem directly.

27. Although ‘hegemony’ usually refers to ruling-class supremacy by covert means, Gramsci reminds us that the advocates of the dominated class can only counter this domination through alternative hegemony. In other words, alternative cultural or political groups will challenge domination effectively insofar as the dominated class grants them what Gramsci calls ‘intellectual and moral leadership’ (Selections, p. 57).

28. Interview, Market Theatre, 22 June 1988.