Theatre formations: Rethinking theatre and its spaces in Cape Town

Abstract

Scholarship on theatre in South Africa has shown how under the Apartheid government theatrical practices were divided into different genres such as protest theatre, township theatre, black theatre, mainstream theatre etc. In many ways theatre today presents the same fractures and polarisations: community and mainstream theatre. This study investigates ways in which black theatre artists from marginalised and disadvantaged communities with and without formal training negotiate themselves within theatre spaces in Cape Town. Discussing and analyzing the works and the trajectories of two case-studies: the Ukwanda Puppet and Design Company and the Back Stage Theatre Production Company, I attempt to demonstrate how works of arts that awkwardly sits with labels such as “community” or “mainstream” theatre are emerging more and more in the Cape Town theatre scene.