Post-1990s Verbatim Theatre in South Africa: Exploring an African Concept of “Truth”

Abstract

Michael Ignatieff claims that “human rights has become the dominant moral vocabulary in foreign affairs” during the twentieth century (2002:A29). The proliferation of personal narratives in the media and print journalism suggests an overwhelming interest in people’s personal stories. Much has been surmised about the problems with and reasons for this fascination with personal narratives (Martin 2006:9–15). Stephen Bottom suggests that “a compulsion to reportage on current events has displaced the 1990s vogue for ‘in your face’ plays of Sarah Kane, Mark Ravenhill, et al” (2006:56); others suggest that it is a response to a perceived failure in journalism. Carol Martin extends this argument to suggest that “as staged politics, specific instances of documentary theatre construct the past in service of a future the authors would like to create.” This argument proposes a fascinating relationship between traumatic lived experience and the fictional space of theatre that can offer an alternative reality in a safe space (Martin 2006:10). Within the context of these debates about the uses of personal narratives in particular social and political contexts, I want to explore the unique circumstances of documentary theatre in post-apartheid South Africa to elucidate the role of authenticity and truth in theatre that presents itself as somehow countering dominant [state] narratives. In order to do this, I must begin by exploring the notion of “truth” and the place of theatre in the South African context.