Description
Book SynopsisPresents a collection of several examples of the styles, subjects, and purposes of theatre in South Africa. This anthology features seven plays, which depict life in post-apartheid South Africa. It also provides helpful introductions to each of the seven plays, as well as a glossary of foreign terms and phrases.
Trade ReviewGraver presents seven plays from the years when apartheid was falling apart. At that time, both the public and playwrights began noticing previously neglected social problems such as the oppression of black women, depicted in the plays in Kathy A. Perkins's anthology Black South African Women (CH, Sep'99). Graver casts his net wider and begins with Junction Avenue Theatre Company's Sophiatown (1988), a play treating one of apartheid's most odious evils, forced relocation. The plays that follow treat such subjects as abuse of women, poaching, and mindless bureaucracy. Particularly moving are Paul Slabolepszy's Mooi Street and Other Moves, about strangers in the big city who lose each other just when they begin to accept each other as fellow humans; Reza De Wert's Crossing, which reminded this reviewer of an Ingmar Bergman movie and is a haunting drama about ordinary people who are trying to bring some semblance of order to a chaotic world, though with mixed results; and Brett Bailey's Ipi Zombi, a powerful portrayal of how fear of witchcraft can overtake a community, overpowering both the victims and the aggressors. Recommended for libraries collecting in theater arts and studies, as well as in African literature and culture.June 2000
-- B. K. Beynen * Des Moines Area Community College *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction
Sophiatown (1986) by Junction Avenue Theater Company
Horn of Sorrow (1988) by Nicholas Ellenbogen
And the Girls in their Sunday Dresses (1988) by Zakes Mda
Mooi Street Moves (1992) by Paul Slabolepszy
Purdah (1993) by Ismail Mahomed
Crossing (1994) by Reza de Wet
Ipi Zombi? (1998) by Brett Bailey
Glossary
