The Theatre: A Concise History
R180The essential guide the history of theatre, updated and extended to cover the key themes and shows of early twenty-first century drama
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The essential guide the history of theatre, updated and extended to cover the key themes and shows of early twenty-first century drama
From a truly groundbreaking voice in African theater, these three plays have disturbed and transported audiences in South Africa and abroad with their depictions of some uncomfortable episodes in South African history.
In his introduction to this collection, Stephen Gray states that ‘there can be no artistic grounds on which to uphold a belief that “short” implies “lesser”‘; he goes on to make the point that ‘Fugard seems naturally to be most at ease when working in compact dense forms’.
Life in exile, the poet Roy Campbell, and the world of a boys’ boarding school are the three topics explored in this, the first collection of the work of one of South Africa’s leading playwrights, Anthony Akerman.
As South Africa continues to advance towards the fulfilment of its visionary constitution, significant shifts in the mode, style, and theme of its nation’s theatre have begun to take hold. The four plays in this collection, by Lara Foot Newton, Mike van Graan, Motshabi Tyelele and Craig Higginson, offer insights into an emerging national identity.
Through five colourful characters, three of them living out their very individual lives in an unnamed public park in Johannesburg, Zakes Mda explores the plight of women and children in a patriarchal and male-dominated twenty-first century world.
Craig Higginson’s first three plays for adult audiences – collected here in one volume – represent one of the strongest debuts in contemporary South African theatre.
Two very different women meet during a long wait to buy subsidized rice and discover they have more in common than their poverty; an old man and child share a last, loving waltz; a cynical, disabled gangster learns humanity from a committed social worker; and a young girl finds her missing father and her role in the political struggle.
In his introduction to this collection, Stephen Gray states that ‘there can be no artistic grounds on which to uphold a belief that “short” implies “lesser”‘; he goes on to make the point that ‘Fugard seems naturally to be most at ease when working in compact dense forms’.
Although widely known as the Afrikaner Communist who saved Nelson Mandela from the gallows, very little is known about Bram Fischer the man. Fischer was a respected Senior Advocate at the Johannesburg Bar who chose to side with the oppressed and went underground to join the armed struggle.
Missing is the story of Robert Khalipa , an ANC Cadre living in exile, who is very senior in the Organisation but is left out of the negotiations and almost forgotten in Sweden.
On a ‘cold and starless night’ a young pregnant widow, Nandi, arrives in Tin Town, a bleak, drought-stricken place ruled by silence and fear. Little do the inhabitants know that Nandi is carrying the baby who will, in time, change all that.
Cupidity, corruption and conciliation are the themes of the three plays in this collection: The Mother of all Eating, a one-hander, with its central character a corrupt Lesotho official, is a grinding satire on materialism in which the protagonist gets his come-uppance.
Violence and tragedy lurk in this seaside town, and when Joanna’s world is shaken to its core, it is up to her to find her own brand of muti.
But how much of history is chance? And when does revenge become insanity?
Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they would navigate the girl-less sixth form together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour and wit. Maybe Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they all swore to stay friends for life.
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