At This Stage

As South Africa continues to advance towards the fulfillment of its visionary constitution, significant shifts in the mode, style, and theme of its nationas theatre have begun to take hold. The four plays in this collection, by Lara Foot Newton, Mike van Graan, Motshabi Tyelele and Craig Higginson, offer insights into an emerging national identity. The primary themes explored in the four texts-reconciliation, matriarchy, justice, accountability, corruption, truth, memory, and violence-reflect on the challenges and questions South Africans are confronted with in their nascent democratic state.
In the two essays that complement this anthology, theatre director Greg Homann argues that South African theatre and her playwrights have surfaced into a new period, one that signals new themes and challenges.