Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
List of Maps
Acknowledgements

Introduction: Theatre and South African Public Spheres


Chapter 1
Commemorating and Contesting Emancipation: Pageants and other enactments


Chapter 2
Neocolonial theatre and the “African National Dramatic Movement”


Chapter 3
(Anti-)Apartheid Theatre in the Shadow of Sophiatown


Chapter 4
Advance and Retreat of the Afrikaner Ascendancy


Chapter 5
Dramas of Black Solidarity


Chapter 6
Theatre as Testimony and Performance Against Apartheid


Chapter 7
Prospects and Retro-spects in Post-anti-apartheid Theatre


Chapter 8
The Constitution of South African Theatre at the Present Time

Abbreviations and Glossary
Abbreviations, key terms from South Africa’s indigenous languages; and distinctive South African variants of English words and phrases


Notes

References

Index

Promotional Information

This volume chronicles a century of theatre and other performance in South Africa and provides a transnational framework to highlight not only the country’s distinctive cultural practices but also South Africa’s changing interaction with the world, from the era of the British Empire through apartheid to the multi-lateral globalized cultural networks of the 21st century.

About the Author

Loren Kruger is a graduate of the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and Cornell University, USA and is Professor of English, Comparative Literature, Theatre and Performance Studies and African Studies at the University of Chicago, USA.

Reviews

[Loren Kruger’s] detailed discussions of colonial-era pageants, the theatre of Afrikaner nationalism and Black Consciousness, as well as the diverse experiments of contemporary dramatists responding to HIV-AIDS, gender violence, state corruption, and the massacre of miners at Marikana, make A Century of South African Theatre essential reading. Going beyond the local, Kruger insightfully places South African theatre within a transnational frame, tracing influences ranging from the European avant-garde to African American popular stage shows.
*Mark Sanders, Professor of Comparative Literature, New York University, USA*

Kruger performs the impossible. Her book provides a panoptic view of a sprawling, unwieldy and fascinating subject but there are no short cuts or bland generalisations. Instead, she moves astutely across the shifting terrain and multiple maps of theatre in South Africa, marking the tensions and contradictions of overlapping languages, cultures and authorities...Certainly, in its compelling and erudite coverage of a difficult theatrical century this is a volume not to be missed.
*Liz Gunner, Visiting Research Professor LanCSAL, School of Languages, University of Johannesburg, South Africa*

This book has done justice to the history of South African theatre and more specifically the history of performance and playwriting by African and women theatre makers. While Kruger gives the colonial/apartheid theatre its place and context in history, she deliberately foregrounds the subaltern. As an analyst, Kruger is privileged to have a working knowledge of isiZulu, which she uses to her advantage to view plays, collect data and make informed opinions on African performances. She straddles both the insider and outsider positions making her historical account balanced. This book is an excellent resource for all drama/theatre/performance departments offering an academic major in (South) African theatre or any cultural analyst with an interest in theatre studies.
*Samuel Ravengai, Associate Professor, Head of the Wits School of the Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa*

Loren Kruger has made an enormous contribution to the scholarly study of South African theatre, not only in reflecting us to ourselves, but also in placing us within the context of a world theatre. She repeatedly reveals her mastery of the rigorous tools of analysis in tracking and mining rich seams of cultural activity which she is able to filter into potent, tightly packed categories.
*South African Theatre Journal*

The views as expressed in this book should undoubtedly be taken seriously in any (re)evaluation of the role played by theatre and performance over the course of the past 100 years.
*Critical Stages*