Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-788cddb947-tr9hg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-10T21:32:01.047Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

‘A world elsewhere’: Shakespeare in South Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2007

Peter Holland
Affiliation:
Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham
Get access

Summary

Between 1945 and 1957 every English-speaking theatrical union in the world agreed to a boycott of the South African stage in response to the outrage of apartheid. This move was officially ratified in 1969 by the United Nations, which requested its member states to suspend 'cultural, educational, sports and other exchanges with the racist regime'. A consequence of this was that many South African actors were forced abroad to find work, though most left willingly to distance themselves from the political situation in their homeland. Two such actors are Janet Suzman and Antony Sher. Suzman left at 22 to attend LAMDA in 1959 and Sher followed a decade later, aged nineteen, to study at The Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.

Both actors came from wealthy, middle-class Jewish backgrounds in Johannesburg (Suzman) and Cape Town (Sher). Both have since become pillars of the British theatrical establishment, assimilated completely in terms of accent, training and their participation in an explicitly English acting tradition. Both chose in early middle age to return to South Africa to stage productions of the only two Shakespearian plays to feature characters of colour (Moors in both cases) in leading roles. Both subsequently wrote at length of their experiences. Suzman talked of directing Othello in several articles, particularly 'South Africa in Othello'. Sher co-wrote Woza Shakespeare! with his partner and director Gregory Doran - an account of producing Titus Andronicus.

Type
Chapter
Information
Shakespeare Survey
An Annual Survey of Shakespeare Studies and Production
, pp. 271 - 284
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×