ABSTRACT
Theatre and society in South Africa at the end of the twentieth century are not yet post-apartheid but rather tentatively post-anti-apartheid. This interregnum properly began not with the election in 1994 but with Mandela’s liberation in 1990 and may end with his retirement in 1999. It has been shaped by the sense, shared by Mandela and his generation of international activists, of history as well as the problems of redress and reconciliation, reconstruction and development, which demand an eye on the past as well as the future. Leaving summations to those writing in the next millennium, this chapter will explore plays and performances that grapple with the difficulties of transformation and that redefine the form, content, and/or institutional framework of theatre. This redefinition has not taken place at all levels at once and is unlikely to produce an orderly master-narrative of the new South Africa. Instead, an account of theatre practice in the 1990s should include practices ranging from the internationally inspired and acclaimed Faustus in Africa (1995) and other collaborations between Handspring Puppets and
director/designer/animator William Kentridge, to the functional skits performed in clinics, schools, and bus depots by health workers or voter organizers as well as by trained actors, to the role-playing at the heart of Heart to Heart (1991-96), a graphic romance-in-progress, many of which have originated outside the usual theatre venues or outside theatres altogether.
