INTRODUCTION: PREMISE

It is globally known that the arts, especially theatre, have been one of the major features in the South African political struggle. From the 1970s, political theatre took a decidedly sharp critical view against apartheid. It was in the 1980s that the phenomenon of protest and resistance theatre performance was intensified within the country and exported to the international market.

This paper will focus on the way in which rhetoric in the arts was used to achieve power. I recognize that there have been some changes in other areas and that those changes are highly appreciated. Juxtaposed against the oppressed's expectation, those changes are too minuscule to warrant a celebration. I will show that while the liberation struggle recognized the role of the arts and culture, the developments since 1990 – especially since the 1994 elections – paint a different scenario in the politics of control. I will tease out questions in an attempt to elaborate on my convictions as one of the contributors to a theatre that has been and is always geared for change – a theatre that deals with consciousness – a theatre of resistance.