Shakespeare in South Africa: Stage Productions During the Apartheid Era - Hardcover

Quince, Rohan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0820440612 ISBN 13: 9780820440613

Publisher: Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers, 2000

Synopsis

In 1946, Prime Minister Jan Smuts was impressed by a Coloured production of The Tempest. In 1971, President C. R. Swart nearly walked out of an Africanized Afrikaans version of King Lear. In 1975, Kwazulu Chief Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi was inspired by a Zulu Macbeth. How did Shakespeare’s plays intersect with South African history during the apartheid era? Rohan Quince briefly traces the theatrical history of Shakespeare in South Africa, focusing mainly on productions between 1946 and 1993, a period that saw first the tightening and finally dissolution of the apartheid system under the Nationalist government. Shakespeare was put to various uses to either endorse or subvert apartheid ideology. In this illuminating study, the author analyzes a number of key productions, placing them in their social, political, and historical contexts.

About this title

About the Author:

The Author: Rohan Quince, as Associate Professor of English at Georgia Southern University, returned to South Africa in 1994, where he taught at King Edward VII School in Johannesburg, South Africa, and became Head of English. He is currently Director of Sagewood School in Midrand, South Africa. He received his Ph.D. in English from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and has published several articles on drama, particularly Shakespeare in performance. He has directed and performed in numerous Shakespeare productions.

About this edition

• Publisher: Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0820440612
• ISBN 13: 9780820440613
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 164