ABSTRACT
This chapter surveys a number of the significant Shakespeare productions in South Africa between World War II and the first democratic elections in 1994, in order to question this assumption. From the early nineteenth century until the end of World War II, Shakespeare productions remained largely the domain of English-speaking whites. The second development, running through the 1970s, was the introduction of consciously subversive Shakespeare. As the decade progressed, Shakespeare productions started consciously to illustrate both the fatigue of maintaining the apartheid system and the inevitability of its demise. Over the years, Shakespeare in the theatre led and followed, prompted and commented on, the turbulent evolution of contemporary South Africa's social and political landscape. These white liberals determined to demonstrate, through Shakespeare, that 'coloured' people were ready to be accepted into the fold of civilization. In 1968, the first Indian Shakespeare production, The Comedy of Errors, was performed at the University of Durban-Westville.
