Facing the stranger in the mirror: Staged complicities in recent South African performances
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Date
2011
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Routledge
Abstract
The staging of complicity has developed into one of the most prevalent trends in
recent South Africa theatre. The audience may become aware of their own
complicity in injustice, or complicity may feature as a subject to be explored in the
play. I will argue that one can identify three broadly defined performance
modalities which shape current engagements with complicity. These modalities
are identified by the adjectives, 'thick' (as in densely layered, complex, deep),
'reflective' (as in reflecting upon as well as revealing), and 'hard' (in the sense of
direct, uncompromising, difficult to penetrate). Rather than signifying distinct
categories, these terms are attributed to a cluster of performance dynamics.
Description
Keywords
Aesthetics, Complicity, Performance, South African theatre, Post-TRC, Post-apartheid
Citation
Flockemann, M. (2011). Facing the stranger in the mirror: Staged complicities in recent South African performances. South African Theatre Journal, 25(2): 129-141