CONTEMPORARY SOUTH AFRICAN THEATRE
PROTEST THEATRE
- Described as “the mouthpiece for the masses”
- Gave words to people afraid to express themselves
- People were able to voice their anger and frustrations in a sensitive and emotional
manner
- Contains strong messages
- Covered political and topical societal issues
- Is a disagreement and reaction against the Apartheid government
Topics covered in productions
- Harsh realities of life in Apartheid South Africa
- Impact of restrictive Apartheid laws
- Censorship and poverty
Themes
- Dehumanisation of people
- Negation of self worth, loss of identity and disenfranchisement of black South Africans
- Appealing to the conscience of the audience
→ Causing one to reflect and re-evaluate previous opinions and behaviours
→ An emotional response will trigger change
Aims
- Raise awareness and prick the conscience of the audience
- Expose the injustices in Society
→ Suggest how society can improve
- Didactic
→ Educate,instruct and bring about reform
→ Confrontational creating an intimate actor-audience relationship
Style
- The message is the most important aspect
→ Plot,characters and set are secondary to the goal of motivating and inspiring change
- Performance
→ Strong,visual and symbolic
→ Placards,posters and signs to amplify the message of resistance
→ Physical and demanding acting style
- Utilises Jerzy Grotowski's principle of poor theatre
→ staging and physical actor exercise in the form of minimal stage space
- Music,singing and dancing
→ heighten emotion
- Ambiguous characterisation
PROTEST THEATRE
- Described as “the mouthpiece for the masses”
- Gave words to people afraid to express themselves
- People were able to voice their anger and frustrations in a sensitive and emotional
manner
- Contains strong messages
- Covered political and topical societal issues
- Is a disagreement and reaction against the Apartheid government
Topics covered in productions
- Harsh realities of life in Apartheid South Africa
- Impact of restrictive Apartheid laws
- Censorship and poverty
Themes
- Dehumanisation of people
- Negation of self worth, loss of identity and disenfranchisement of black South Africans
- Appealing to the conscience of the audience
→ Causing one to reflect and re-evaluate previous opinions and behaviours
→ An emotional response will trigger change
Aims
- Raise awareness and prick the conscience of the audience
- Expose the injustices in Society
→ Suggest how society can improve
- Didactic
→ Educate,instruct and bring about reform
→ Confrontational creating an intimate actor-audience relationship
Style
- The message is the most important aspect
→ Plot,characters and set are secondary to the goal of motivating and inspiring change
- Performance
→ Strong,visual and symbolic
→ Placards,posters and signs to amplify the message of resistance
→ Physical and demanding acting style
- Utilises Jerzy Grotowski's principle of poor theatre
→ staging and physical actor exercise in the form of minimal stage space
- Music,singing and dancing
→ heighten emotion
- Ambiguous characterisation
