ABSTRACT
The Theatre Upstairs, London, June, 1971: Athol Fugard worries about the 'naturalistic or "documentary" production of Boesman and Lena', especially the transformation of the 'metaphor of the "rubbish"' into the 'geographical specifics of the play'. The spectator's relationship to event and actor in film is quite different. The indexical relationship of the photographic image to the material world foregrounds a realist, representational mode, especially in location shooting; on the other, both location and actor are always caught in the interstitial, fetishistic space of presence and absence. The film's key addition to the play, a prelude showing the eviction and demolition of the shanty town inhabited by Boesman and Lena, is not merely an opening out of the play but a foregrounding of the political realities of the day and their impact on human lives. The main movement of the film focuses on the thrust and parry of the protagonists, Boesman's increasing self-exposure and Lena's increasing ability to assert herself.
