CRITICAL ARTS A Journal for Media Studies Alternative Performance in South Africa July 1981 Vol2 No 1 CRITICAL ARTS July 1981 EflMOfS* Keyan G Tomaselli John van Zyl bftorial •oard: Eve Berteken Tim Couzens Peter Horn David Maughan Brown Robert Stam lanSteadman LesSwitzer Overseas Organisers: London: Susan Gardner USA East Coast: Peter Davis USA West Coast: David Mesenbrihg Sao Paulo: Ismail Xavier Parts: Patrice Pa vis Published by: Critical Arts Study Croup Printed by Central Printing Unit University of the Witwatersrand 1 Jan Smuts Avenue 2081 Johannesburg, South Africa Distributed by: JL l f « w is Critical Study Group ySftgftu BflWTO IllSdS Crahamstown 6140 K—"-a South Africa Rhodes University P O BOX 94 Copyright is vested with Editors and individual authors. PREFACE This is the second volume of Critical Arts to deal with drama, theatre and performance in South Africa. Although more articles were submitted than were published, the lack of interest and apathy on the part of Departments of Drama of local universities and, in some cases, their active (perhaps defensive) anti-intellectual and anti-academic stance, suggests that this issue w i ll not be read by the majority of incumbents in those departments. No matter. The Journal's -.message w i ll get through in other ways: via students of anthropology, sociology, history, politics and numerous other disciplines. While we obviously have a vested interest in our own individual disciplines, the study of drama, theatre and performance can only benefit from the absorption of knowledge from related disciplines. This synthesis is fundamental if performance studies are to progress. This issue , for example, shows how the contributions of the intellectual and proletarian (as, for instance in worker theatre) can be synergetically synthesised into performances which could not otherwise exist. To be anti- intellectual practico-social, the everydayness of l i f e, while intellectual determine form and future, positive or negative. Critical Arts seeks above all to identify process f i r s t, and how that process relates to form, second. for theatre has its roots in the is to be anti-theatre; interventions Entitled "Alternative Performance in South Africa", this issue is Guest Edited by Ian Steadman who has, in his Editorial, outlined editorial policy with regard to performance studies. Future issues w i ll build upon this and t ry similarly to present a less eclectic collection of studies in whatever, area is under consideration. We should like to thank the Editors of Thp Black Scholar for permission to reprint Ve Ve Clark's a r t i c l e. As with Patrice Pavis' paper on semiology in a previous issue, we believe this paper to be of great importance to the study of theatre in South Africa. Keyan G Tomaselli Cover design by Paul Roumanoff C o n t e n ts Guest Editor: Preface MAJOR ARTICLES Ian Steadman voi. 2 NO. 1 juiy i98i i 1 14 34 - 1. 2. "Editorial: Culture and Context: Notes on Performance in South Africa" "The Semiotics of Alternative Theatre in South A f r i c a" Ian Steadman - Keyan G Totnaselli 3. "The Archaelogy of Black Theatre" - Ve Ve Clark 4. "Stephen Black and Love and the Hyphen (1902-1928) - Stephen Gray 51 BIBLIOGRAPHY 5. "Performance Research: A Select Bibliography" - Ian Steadman 60 BOOK REVIEWS 6. The Semiotics of Theatre and Drama by Kier El am Reviewed by Patrice Pavis 7. Ndilapa Nkosi by Orde Levinson Reviewed by Jane Bennett 8. The Living World of Shakespeare: A Playgoer's Guide by J Wain 9. On Aristotle and Greek Tragedy by John Jones 10. F i r st Things Last by David Halouf 66 72 74 76 Reviewed by Don McLennan 77 Notes on Contributors Ian Steadman is a lecturer in the School of Dramatic Art, Univ. of Witwatersrand. Keyan Tomaselli lectures in the Dept of Journalism and Media Studies, Rhodes University, Grahamstown. Ve Ve Clark is attached to the Dept of African and Caribbean Literature, Tufts University, Boston, USA. Stephen Gray is Associate Professor of English at Rand Afrikaans University. Patrice Pavis lectures at Institute de Theatral, Paris. Jane Bennett and Tony Parr are lecturers in the Dept of English, UCT. Don McLennan is senior lecturer, Dept of English, Rhodes University.