Essays and Articles
Many of these essays, articles, book chapters and reviews in journals listed here are available via Academia.edu and ResearchGate:
https://rhodes-za.academia.edu/AntonKrueger
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anton_Krueger/publications
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles and Book Chapters
(2019) "Betty, Zorg & Me – Sex, Freedom, Art", January 2019, English Studies in Africa 62(1):81-89
DOI: 10.1080/00138398.2019.1636529
This essay reminisces about the author’s encounters with Betty Blue at three different stages in his life. It reflects on stylistic elements of the film (as exemplar of Jean-Jacques Beineix’s Cinéma du look) as well as its portrayal of gender, sexuality, artistic aspiration and the concept of freedom. The essay also ruminates on the concept of having favourites and the synchronicity required to make a magical movie.
(2018) Revolutionary Trends at the National Arts Festival 2017 (an overview), South African Theatre Journal, 31:2-3, 202-210, DOI: 10.1080/10137548.2017.1407025
These are restless times. There’s a friction between those eager for change, and those afraid of losing what little stability still seems to exist. The much-mooted buzzword of ‘transformation’ has gained the currency of a grand narrative, required to contain all the many fragile hopes for healing and reconstitution in these troubled times. It felt as though there was a buoyant mood, particularly among enthusiastic young black theatre-makers. I met many who were upbeat, saying that this was a great time to be making theatre in this country, that there were issues that mattered, that there were things that needed to be addressed. There was an expectant energy in the air, an eagerness to fight for a just cause, ready to right wrongs and do battle against racism, inequality and gender violence.
(2017) “Performing Mindful Creativity: Three South African Case Studies”, Performance and Mindfulness. 1(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.5920/pam.2017.05
This essay is grounded in the practical experience of three South African theatre practitioners who have all had some experience of mindfulness. It’s based on interviews conducted with a performer (Andrew Buckland), a director (Janni Young), and a designer (Illka Louw). The aim of my conversations with these three was to explore ways in which mindfulness continues to enhance artistic practises, seeing our dialogues as a springboard to exploring intersections between creative practise and theories about mindfulness. To assist me in this process, I also interviewed Rob Nairn – co-founder of both the Mindfulness Association (UK) and Mindfulness Africa (RSA) – about key issues highlighting convergences between creativity and mindfulness. Some of the issues which are addressed include: the artist’s relationship with fear, differing definitions of the value of conceptualisation, as well as whether or not the monkey mind (that is, the wandering mind) might hamper or help creativity. (PDF) Performing Mindful Creativity: Three South African Case Studies.
(2015) Whose Voice is it Anyway? Implications of Free Writing, Current Writing: Text and Reception in Southern Africa, 27:2, 103-110, DOI: 10.1080/1013929X.2015.1086195
This essay surveys a number of different interpretations of the metaphor of “voice”. It begins by exploring the use of free writing exercises as a means of nurturing the emergence of physical (audible) voice in creative writing classes before assessing some of the ramifications and implications of the trope, both diachronically and synchronically. A key issue of this discussion is whether voice is regarded as individual or social.
(2014) "A Heritage of Violence Paradoxes of Freedom and Memory in Recent South African Play-Texts". In book: Syncretic Arenas. Essays on Postcolonial African Drama and Theatre for Esiaba Irobi. Diala, Isidore (ed). Rodopi: Netherlands.
DOI: 10.1163/9789401211802_020
I would like to touch on a few recent play-texts that enter into a debate about South Africa's troubled past, and that contribute to a discussion of current struggles to be free. In particular, I would like to centre this discussion on a publication called At This Stage – Plays from Post-Apartheid South Africa (edited by Greg Homann, 2009). This anthology in-cludes four texts considered as being representative of new playwrighting in South Africa (Reach, Shwele Bawo!, Some Mothers' Sons, and Dream of the Dog).
(2014) “It’s just changed color?” – Clowning with Parodies of Religion, Race and Nation in Woza Albert! and Woza Andries. Editors: Nadine Holdsworth. In book: Theatre and National Re-Imaginings. Routledge: London. DOI: 10.13140/2.1.1935.1684
(2012) The implacable grandeur of the stranger: ruminations on fear and familiarity in Die Vreemdeling, South African Theatre Journal, 26:3, 303-310. DOI: 10.1080/10137548.2013.799798
South Africa is a nation of strangers, an uneasy mishmash of heterogeneous economic groupings, cultures and languages, a nation of marginalised minorities awkwardly pasted together. Numerous attempts have been made by its government to define and bolster a sense of nationalism and to create a sense of cohesion; however, a shadow side of this appeal for national identity has been the rise in xenophobic violence precipitated by the steady influx of refugees into the country. The title of this article is drawn from Albert Camus’s introduction to his disarming novella of dislocation, L’Etranger (1942), and I would like to explore some of the philosophical implications of representing strangers in different ways. Drawing on works by Zygmunt Bauman, Georg Simmel and Julia Kristeva, I will consider ambivalences towards the stranger represented in Magnet Theatre’s production (2010) of Die Vreemdeling [The Stranger], and pose a few questions about our relationship with the unknown. Attempts to familiarise the constituents of various communities with aspects of each other’s strangeness is a project which has typified much South African theatre in the past; and yet this is an approach which stands in sharp contrast to the importance granted processes of defamiliarisation first proposed so succinctly by Victor Shklovsky in 1917. Instead of attempts to harness and explain the unfamiliarity of others in order to communicate diversity, a celebration of the grandeur of the stranger may provide a more enriching alternative.
(2012): Part II: Zef/Poor White Kitsch Chique: Die Antwoord's Comedy of Degradation, Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Studies, 13:3-4, 399-408. doi: 10.1080/17533171.2012.715484
Extended version in book: Performative Inter-Actions in African Theatre 3: Making Space, Rethinking Drama and Theatre in Africa. Editors: Kene Igweonu, CSP: Newcastle
(2011) Die Moderne Self as Toneelpop in Woyzeck on the Highveld. Literator 32(2). DOI: 10.4102/lit.v32i2.12
The modern self as puppet in Woyzeck on the HighveldThis article undertakes a semiotic investigation of identifications of the self in terms of a specifically South African modernism, via an exploration of an adaptation of Georg Büchner’s “Woyzeck”. William Kentridge’s production of “Woyzeck on the Highveld”(1992; 2009) marks at least three intersections of modernist and modernising discourses. Firstly, it uses as its principal source Georg Büchner’s protomodernist text, with its description of an individual alienated from his social context. Secondly, in making use of the puppets of the Handspring Puppet Company for its central characters, the play employs a style commensurate with modernist aesthetics, in terms of the objectification of subjectivity and the mechanisation of the subject. Thirdly, by re-contextualising Büchner’s German soldier as an African mineworker, the production deals with aspects of modernisation by examining the clash, confusion and concomitant syncretism of rural and urban cultures. The article concludes by identifying the all too human desire to be more than a puppet, more than machine, and the potential consequences of the fragmented modernist self on conceptions of identity and freedom.
(2011) A white man in exile: the failure of masculinity in Athol Fugard's Sorrows and Rejoicings, South African Theatre Journal, 25:2, 119-128, DOI: 10.1080/10137548.2011.636974
This article explores intersections between understandings of masculinity and nationalism. Etymologically, ‘patriotism’ refers to a love for a fatherland and a patriarchal order; it includes notions of loyalty, honour and a range of qualities often associated with conceptions of masculinity. But if gender remains fixed to these normative constructions, what happens to one's sense of masculine identity when the national state changes? My interest lies in exploring how white South African men have been repositioned in terms of a shift in their gendered identification, with a reflection on the possibly tragic consequences of maintaining an overly rigid gender role identification. As long as masculinity is embedded within nationalism, it will be caught up within a defensive reactive mode which can turn self-destructive. In order to explore these ideas the article employs as its central metaphor the character of Dawid Olivier, who is the protagonist of Athol Fugard's Sorrows and Rejoicings (2002).
(2010) Keeping it in the family: incest, repression and the fear of the hybrid in Reza de Wet’s English plays. Literator, Vol 31, No 2. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/lit.v31i2.46 | Reza de Wet has more than once referred in interviews to the syncretic relationship she sees as existing in the “long history” between Afrikaner and black cultures. Due to its close association with black African cultures, she claims that Afrikaner culture has fused a belief in mythologies and “magical thinking” with a “European consciousness” (Solberg, 2003:180). This article investigates ways in which some of De Wet’s English translations – as well as her play “Concealment” (De Wet, 2004) – demonstrate the consequences of a fear of this amalgamation; a dread of hybridity. Concurrent with this anxiety is the danger inherent in a repression of desire. In a number of De Wet’s plays it seems that what is cloistered and protected within the purity of family (possibly a metaphor for the Afrikaner people) conceals an incestuous perversion.
(2010) Celebrating the Spirit of Tragedy - Brett Bailey Overview (Book Chapter) In book: Positions [Positionen / in German]. Editors: Peter Anders, Matthew Krouse. Steidl: Hamburg
(2010) Fashionably ethnic: Individuality and heritage in Greig Coetzee's Happy Natives, Current Writing: Text and Reception in Southern Africa, 22:1, 43-58, DOI: 10.1080/1013929X.2010.9678333
This essay highlights a shift in South African literature towards ideals of individualism and explores some of the paradoxes inherent in the competing claims of individuality and heritage. The characters created by Greig Coetzee in Happy Natives are examined as examples of identities constructed in terms of tradition, function and indoctrination. The comic potential of these incongruent identity constructions is then elaborated by means of Henri Bergson's description of the humour arising from an inability to adapt to changing fashions. Ultimately, appeals towards tradition and individuality begin to look like similar proposals.
(2007) Performing transformations of identity: ‘Ethnic’ nationalisms and syncretic theatre in post-apartheid South Africa, English Academy Review, 24:1, 51-60, DOI: 10.1080/17535360712331393468
This article explores some of the ways in which questions of identity are caught up in issues of performance. It describes the emergence of two distinct traditions in this regard – one which considers the enactment of a ‘self’ in terms of performance as a kind of deception; and another which considers all descriptions of identity to rely on representations of performance. It goes on to examine representations of nationalism and ethnic identity in post-apartheid theatre, and contrasts these with attempts at a syncretic theatre which avoids concretising identity in terms of ethnicity. Finally, the article discusses the theatre as an ideal site for investigations into the cultural negotiations required in the delineation and transformation of identities, with reference to a number of recent South African plays.
(2007) Performing transformations of identity: ‘Ethnic’ nationalisms and syncretic theatre in post-apartheid South Africa, English Academy Review, 24:1, 51-60, DOI: 10.1080/17535360712331393468
This article explores some of the ways in which questions of identity are caught up in issues of performance. It describes the emergence of two distinct traditions in this regard – one which considers the enactment of a ‘self’ in terms of performance as a kind of deception; and another which considers all descriptions of identity to rely on representations of performance. It goes on to examine representations of nationalism and ethnic identity in post-apartheid theatre, and contrasts these with attempts at a syncretic theatre which avoids concretising identity in terms of ethnicity. Finally, the article discusses the theatre as an ideal site for investigations into the cultural negotiations required in the delineation and transformation of identities, with reference to a number of recent South African plays.
Clare Stopford & Anton Krueger (2006) Intuition / Intellect—Sex / Sensibility, South African Theatre Journal, 20:1, 233-251, DOI: 10.1080/10137548.2006.9687835
Working with Intuition 'Permit yourself what you know' Barney Simon In contrast to the vast array of books which deal with the craft of acting and stage-management, there seem to be far fewer books which attempt to describe what directors do. The most common contemporary approach seems to be to present a collection of interviews, such as In Contact with the gods? Directors talk theatre (edited by Maria M. Delgado and Paul Heritage, 1996) and On directing (edited by Gabriella Giannachi and Mary Luckhurst, 1999). A possible reason for the dearth of material on directing techniques could be the fact that different directors' styles and approaches vary drastically. Exceptional directors seem to be characterised more by their personal idiosyncrasies than by their adherence to a specific methodology. It may seem paradoxical to favour intuition over intellect in the current forum of an academic publication, but the strange territory which drama traverses between speech and writing, between performance and text, has never been an easy domain to quantify in academic terms. The word 'drama' arises from the Greek word 'to do' (Fortier, 1997:5), and staging a work requires a continuous process of pragmatic choices made in terms of very specific constraints. It hardly seems possible to formulate a general theory which can be used to describe a particular style of directing. For this reason, this essay will rather attempt to illustrate Clare Stopford's motivations by means of practical references to her actual productions, which will serve as historical examples of the types of choices she has made when confronted by specific conditions.
(2003) The Drama of Hunting and Healing: Interpreting the rituals of the San, South African Theatre Journal, 17:1, 65-78, DOI: 10.1080/10137548.2003.9687763
In Schechner's ground-breaking work he examines a wide range of religious and aesthetic rituals and practices which he reads as performative, or dramatic, activities. This essay adds another "anthropological" activity to the many diverse practices he has already explored, and speculates about one of the very earliest forms of drama. It considers the transformative rituals of hunting and healing which have been practised by the San (who are also referred to as "Bushmen") for possibly as long as 30 000 years. These rituals have been used both as instruments of individual transformation, as well as means of maintaining their culture and tradition, and may well constitute the very earliest form of dramatic activity.
(2000) Imprisoned by conviction, Scrutiny 2, 5:2, 59-62, DOI: 10.1080/18125440008565970
Extended Academic Book Reviews and Interviews
(2020) Anton Krueger (2020) A Century of South African Theatre, South African Theatre Journal, DOI: 10.1080/10137548.2020.1716515
(2019) Woza Albert! (student editions), South African Theatre Journal, DOI: 10.1080/10137548.2018.1560975
(2017) Reader in comedy: an anthology of theory and criticism, South African Theatre Journal, 30:1-3, 82-85, DOI: 10.1080/10137548.2017.1409523
(2015) The politics of interweaving performance cultures: beyond postcolonialism, South African Theatre Journal, 28:1, 94-99, DOI: 10.1080/10137548.2015.1014170
(2013) Gazing at Exhibit A: Interview with Brett Bailey. Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies Vol. 9, No. 1, February 2013 ISSN: 1557-2935 <http://liminalities.net/9-1/pi.pdf>
(2006) On the wild, essential energies of the forest: an Interview with Brett Bailey, South African Theatre Journal, 20:1, 323-332, DOI: 10.1080/10137548.2006.9687844
(2006) On being bad: Interview with Aryan Kaganof, Scrutiny2, 11:1, 143-144, DOI: 10.1080/18125441.2006.9684451
(2003) Theatre in South Africa — ‘an endangered species’: interview with Anthony Akerman, Scrutiny2, 8:2, 60-65, DOI: 10.1080/18125440308566006
Many of these essays, articles, book chapters and reviews in journals listed here are available via Academia.edu and ResearchGate:
https://rhodes-za.academia.edu/AntonKrueger
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anton_Krueger/publications
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles and Book Chapters
(2019) "Betty, Zorg & Me – Sex, Freedom, Art", January 2019, English Studies in Africa 62(1):81-89
DOI: 10.1080/00138398.2019.1636529
This essay reminisces about the author’s encounters with Betty Blue at three different stages in his life. It reflects on stylistic elements of the film (as exemplar of Jean-Jacques Beineix’s Cinéma du look) as well as its portrayal of gender, sexuality, artistic aspiration and the concept of freedom. The essay also ruminates on the concept of having favourites and the synchronicity required to make a magical movie.
(2018) Revolutionary Trends at the National Arts Festival 2017 (an overview), South African Theatre Journal, 31:2-3, 202-210, DOI: 10.1080/10137548.2017.1407025
These are restless times. There’s a friction between those eager for change, and those afraid of losing what little stability still seems to exist. The much-mooted buzzword of ‘transformation’ has gained the currency of a grand narrative, required to contain all the many fragile hopes for healing and reconstitution in these troubled times. It felt as though there was a buoyant mood, particularly among enthusiastic young black theatre-makers. I met many who were upbeat, saying that this was a great time to be making theatre in this country, that there were issues that mattered, that there were things that needed to be addressed. There was an expectant energy in the air, an eagerness to fight for a just cause, ready to right wrongs and do battle against racism, inequality and gender violence.
(2017) “Performing Mindful Creativity: Three South African Case Studies”, Performance and Mindfulness. 1(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.5920/pam.2017.05
This essay is grounded in the practical experience of three South African theatre practitioners who have all had some experience of mindfulness. It’s based on interviews conducted with a performer (Andrew Buckland), a director (Janni Young), and a designer (Illka Louw). The aim of my conversations with these three was to explore ways in which mindfulness continues to enhance artistic practises, seeing our dialogues as a springboard to exploring intersections between creative practise and theories about mindfulness. To assist me in this process, I also interviewed Rob Nairn – co-founder of both the Mindfulness Association (UK) and Mindfulness Africa (RSA) – about key issues highlighting convergences between creativity and mindfulness. Some of the issues which are addressed include: the artist’s relationship with fear, differing definitions of the value of conceptualisation, as well as whether or not the monkey mind (that is, the wandering mind) might hamper or help creativity. (PDF) Performing Mindful Creativity: Three South African Case Studies.
(2015) Whose Voice is it Anyway? Implications of Free Writing, Current Writing: Text and Reception in Southern Africa, 27:2, 103-110, DOI: 10.1080/1013929X.2015.1086195
This essay surveys a number of different interpretations of the metaphor of “voice”. It begins by exploring the use of free writing exercises as a means of nurturing the emergence of physical (audible) voice in creative writing classes before assessing some of the ramifications and implications of the trope, both diachronically and synchronically. A key issue of this discussion is whether voice is regarded as individual or social.
(2014) "A Heritage of Violence Paradoxes of Freedom and Memory in Recent South African Play-Texts". In book: Syncretic Arenas. Essays on Postcolonial African Drama and Theatre for Esiaba Irobi. Diala, Isidore (ed). Rodopi: Netherlands.
DOI: 10.1163/9789401211802_020
I would like to touch on a few recent play-texts that enter into a debate about South Africa's troubled past, and that contribute to a discussion of current struggles to be free. In particular, I would like to centre this discussion on a publication called At This Stage – Plays from Post-Apartheid South Africa (edited by Greg Homann, 2009). This anthology in-cludes four texts considered as being representative of new playwrighting in South Africa (Reach, Shwele Bawo!, Some Mothers' Sons, and Dream of the Dog).
(2014) “It’s just changed color?” – Clowning with Parodies of Religion, Race and Nation in Woza Albert! and Woza Andries. Editors: Nadine Holdsworth. In book: Theatre and National Re-Imaginings. Routledge: London. DOI: 10.13140/2.1.1935.1684
(2012) The implacable grandeur of the stranger: ruminations on fear and familiarity in Die Vreemdeling, South African Theatre Journal, 26:3, 303-310. DOI: 10.1080/10137548.2013.799798
South Africa is a nation of strangers, an uneasy mishmash of heterogeneous economic groupings, cultures and languages, a nation of marginalised minorities awkwardly pasted together. Numerous attempts have been made by its government to define and bolster a sense of nationalism and to create a sense of cohesion; however, a shadow side of this appeal for national identity has been the rise in xenophobic violence precipitated by the steady influx of refugees into the country. The title of this article is drawn from Albert Camus’s introduction to his disarming novella of dislocation, L’Etranger (1942), and I would like to explore some of the philosophical implications of representing strangers in different ways. Drawing on works by Zygmunt Bauman, Georg Simmel and Julia Kristeva, I will consider ambivalences towards the stranger represented in Magnet Theatre’s production (2010) of Die Vreemdeling [The Stranger], and pose a few questions about our relationship with the unknown. Attempts to familiarise the constituents of various communities with aspects of each other’s strangeness is a project which has typified much South African theatre in the past; and yet this is an approach which stands in sharp contrast to the importance granted processes of defamiliarisation first proposed so succinctly by Victor Shklovsky in 1917. Instead of attempts to harness and explain the unfamiliarity of others in order to communicate diversity, a celebration of the grandeur of the stranger may provide a more enriching alternative.
(2012): Part II: Zef/Poor White Kitsch Chique: Die Antwoord's Comedy of Degradation, Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Studies, 13:3-4, 399-408. doi: 10.1080/17533171.2012.715484
Extended version in book: Performative Inter-Actions in African Theatre 3: Making Space, Rethinking Drama and Theatre in Africa. Editors: Kene Igweonu, CSP: Newcastle
(2011) Die Moderne Self as Toneelpop in Woyzeck on the Highveld. Literator 32(2). DOI: 10.4102/lit.v32i2.12
The modern self as puppet in Woyzeck on the HighveldThis article undertakes a semiotic investigation of identifications of the self in terms of a specifically South African modernism, via an exploration of an adaptation of Georg Büchner’s “Woyzeck”. William Kentridge’s production of “Woyzeck on the Highveld”(1992; 2009) marks at least three intersections of modernist and modernising discourses. Firstly, it uses as its principal source Georg Büchner’s protomodernist text, with its description of an individual alienated from his social context. Secondly, in making use of the puppets of the Handspring Puppet Company for its central characters, the play employs a style commensurate with modernist aesthetics, in terms of the objectification of subjectivity and the mechanisation of the subject. Thirdly, by re-contextualising Büchner’s German soldier as an African mineworker, the production deals with aspects of modernisation by examining the clash, confusion and concomitant syncretism of rural and urban cultures. The article concludes by identifying the all too human desire to be more than a puppet, more than machine, and the potential consequences of the fragmented modernist self on conceptions of identity and freedom.
(2011) A white man in exile: the failure of masculinity in Athol Fugard's Sorrows and Rejoicings, South African Theatre Journal, 25:2, 119-128, DOI: 10.1080/10137548.2011.636974
This article explores intersections between understandings of masculinity and nationalism. Etymologically, ‘patriotism’ refers to a love for a fatherland and a patriarchal order; it includes notions of loyalty, honour and a range of qualities often associated with conceptions of masculinity. But if gender remains fixed to these normative constructions, what happens to one's sense of masculine identity when the national state changes? My interest lies in exploring how white South African men have been repositioned in terms of a shift in their gendered identification, with a reflection on the possibly tragic consequences of maintaining an overly rigid gender role identification. As long as masculinity is embedded within nationalism, it will be caught up within a defensive reactive mode which can turn self-destructive. In order to explore these ideas the article employs as its central metaphor the character of Dawid Olivier, who is the protagonist of Athol Fugard's Sorrows and Rejoicings (2002).
(2010) Keeping it in the family: incest, repression and the fear of the hybrid in Reza de Wet’s English plays. Literator, Vol 31, No 2. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/lit.v31i2.46 | Reza de Wet has more than once referred in interviews to the syncretic relationship she sees as existing in the “long history” between Afrikaner and black cultures. Due to its close association with black African cultures, she claims that Afrikaner culture has fused a belief in mythologies and “magical thinking” with a “European consciousness” (Solberg, 2003:180). This article investigates ways in which some of De Wet’s English translations – as well as her play “Concealment” (De Wet, 2004) – demonstrate the consequences of a fear of this amalgamation; a dread of hybridity. Concurrent with this anxiety is the danger inherent in a repression of desire. In a number of De Wet’s plays it seems that what is cloistered and protected within the purity of family (possibly a metaphor for the Afrikaner people) conceals an incestuous perversion.
(2010) Celebrating the Spirit of Tragedy - Brett Bailey Overview (Book Chapter) In book: Positions [Positionen / in German]. Editors: Peter Anders, Matthew Krouse. Steidl: Hamburg
(2010) Fashionably ethnic: Individuality and heritage in Greig Coetzee's Happy Natives, Current Writing: Text and Reception in Southern Africa, 22:1, 43-58, DOI: 10.1080/1013929X.2010.9678333
This essay highlights a shift in South African literature towards ideals of individualism and explores some of the paradoxes inherent in the competing claims of individuality and heritage. The characters created by Greig Coetzee in Happy Natives are examined as examples of identities constructed in terms of tradition, function and indoctrination. The comic potential of these incongruent identity constructions is then elaborated by means of Henri Bergson's description of the humour arising from an inability to adapt to changing fashions. Ultimately, appeals towards tradition and individuality begin to look like similar proposals.
(2007) Performing transformations of identity: ‘Ethnic’ nationalisms and syncretic theatre in post-apartheid South Africa, English Academy Review, 24:1, 51-60, DOI: 10.1080/17535360712331393468
This article explores some of the ways in which questions of identity are caught up in issues of performance. It describes the emergence of two distinct traditions in this regard – one which considers the enactment of a ‘self’ in terms of performance as a kind of deception; and another which considers all descriptions of identity to rely on representations of performance. It goes on to examine representations of nationalism and ethnic identity in post-apartheid theatre, and contrasts these with attempts at a syncretic theatre which avoids concretising identity in terms of ethnicity. Finally, the article discusses the theatre as an ideal site for investigations into the cultural negotiations required in the delineation and transformation of identities, with reference to a number of recent South African plays.
(2007) Performing transformations of identity: ‘Ethnic’ nationalisms and syncretic theatre in post-apartheid South Africa, English Academy Review, 24:1, 51-60, DOI: 10.1080/17535360712331393468
This article explores some of the ways in which questions of identity are caught up in issues of performance. It describes the emergence of two distinct traditions in this regard – one which considers the enactment of a ‘self’ in terms of performance as a kind of deception; and another which considers all descriptions of identity to rely on representations of performance. It goes on to examine representations of nationalism and ethnic identity in post-apartheid theatre, and contrasts these with attempts at a syncretic theatre which avoids concretising identity in terms of ethnicity. Finally, the article discusses the theatre as an ideal site for investigations into the cultural negotiations required in the delineation and transformation of identities, with reference to a number of recent South African plays.
Clare Stopford & Anton Krueger (2006) Intuition / Intellect—Sex / Sensibility, South African Theatre Journal, 20:1, 233-251, DOI: 10.1080/10137548.2006.9687835
Working with Intuition 'Permit yourself what you know' Barney Simon In contrast to the vast array of books which deal with the craft of acting and stage-management, there seem to be far fewer books which attempt to describe what directors do. The most common contemporary approach seems to be to present a collection of interviews, such as In Contact with the gods? Directors talk theatre (edited by Maria M. Delgado and Paul Heritage, 1996) and On directing (edited by Gabriella Giannachi and Mary Luckhurst, 1999). A possible reason for the dearth of material on directing techniques could be the fact that different directors' styles and approaches vary drastically. Exceptional directors seem to be characterised more by their personal idiosyncrasies than by their adherence to a specific methodology. It may seem paradoxical to favour intuition over intellect in the current forum of an academic publication, but the strange territory which drama traverses between speech and writing, between performance and text, has never been an easy domain to quantify in academic terms. The word 'drama' arises from the Greek word 'to do' (Fortier, 1997:5), and staging a work requires a continuous process of pragmatic choices made in terms of very specific constraints. It hardly seems possible to formulate a general theory which can be used to describe a particular style of directing. For this reason, this essay will rather attempt to illustrate Clare Stopford's motivations by means of practical references to her actual productions, which will serve as historical examples of the types of choices she has made when confronted by specific conditions.
(2003) The Drama of Hunting and Healing: Interpreting the rituals of the San, South African Theatre Journal, 17:1, 65-78, DOI: 10.1080/10137548.2003.9687763
In Schechner's ground-breaking work he examines a wide range of religious and aesthetic rituals and practices which he reads as performative, or dramatic, activities. This essay adds another "anthropological" activity to the many diverse practices he has already explored, and speculates about one of the very earliest forms of drama. It considers the transformative rituals of hunting and healing which have been practised by the San (who are also referred to as "Bushmen") for possibly as long as 30 000 years. These rituals have been used both as instruments of individual transformation, as well as means of maintaining their culture and tradition, and may well constitute the very earliest form of dramatic activity.
(2000) Imprisoned by conviction, Scrutiny 2, 5:2, 59-62, DOI: 10.1080/18125440008565970
Extended Academic Book Reviews and Interviews
(2020) Anton Krueger (2020) A Century of South African Theatre, South African Theatre Journal, DOI: 10.1080/10137548.2020.1716515
(2019) Woza Albert! (student editions), South African Theatre Journal, DOI: 10.1080/10137548.2018.1560975
(2017) Reader in comedy: an anthology of theory and criticism, South African Theatre Journal, 30:1-3, 82-85, DOI: 10.1080/10137548.2017.1409523
(2015) The politics of interweaving performance cultures: beyond postcolonialism, South African Theatre Journal, 28:1, 94-99, DOI: 10.1080/10137548.2015.1014170
(2013) Gazing at Exhibit A: Interview with Brett Bailey. Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies Vol. 9, No. 1, February 2013 ISSN: 1557-2935 <http://liminalities.net/9-1/pi.pdf>
(2006) On the wild, essential energies of the forest: an Interview with Brett Bailey, South African Theatre Journal, 20:1, 323-332, DOI: 10.1080/10137548.2006.9687844
(2006) On being bad: Interview with Aryan Kaganof, Scrutiny2, 11:1, 143-144, DOI: 10.1080/18125441.2006.9684451
(2003) Theatre in South Africa — ‘an endangered species’: interview with Anthony Akerman, Scrutiny2, 8:2, 60-65, DOI: 10.1080/18125440308566006
Additional essays not available online
Cultures of Change: Challenges in Mapping Revolutionary Literary Eras (Ethnic Publishing House, Beijing: 2001) | |
File Size: | 945 kb |
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Three Men, Three Manifestoes: Comparing criteria demanded by Wilde, Hemingway and Kerouac in light of Lyotard's critique of legitimation (Proceedings from Mother Tongue / Other Tongue international conference, 2004) | |
File Size: | 514 kb |
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