South African poet and playwright Adam Small was renowned for the sheer brilliance of the way his plays worked to invoke not only a sense of pride within the communities forcibly removed by apartheid’s segregation laws, but also in the political controversies his writing so authentically tackled.
Teater na die mense grips viewers with Small’s historically significant efforts to mobilise those marginalised by the National Party’s Group Areas Act of 1950 through a different lens, that of the Cape Flats Players.
Teater na die mense splices together past and present in its screening at the 2023 Toyota SU Woordfees as it delves into the role that the community theatre group, the Cape Flats Players, played in the resistance struggle against apartheid. PHOTO: Supplied/Woordfees
The Cape Flats Players is a theatre company that collaborated with Small during his time as a lecturer at the University of the Western Cape.
This 39-minute documentary film, which screened at the Neelsie Cinema on 10 and 11 October as part of the 2023 Toyota SU Woordfees, not only leaves viewers with an appreciation for the art of dramatic resistance, but with the desire for a richer contextual understanding of the role played by the Cape Flats Players in the resistance movement.
‘Theatre of Nostalgia’
Playwright and director, Nadine Cloete – whose work has won awards at festivals such as BlackStar, the Durban International Film Festival and the South African Film and Television Awards (SAFTA) – delves into the archives to produce a piece that moved as well as provoked its viewers to reflect on the loss of identity felt by those affected by the communities removed from District Six.
The Cape Flats Players challenged the apartheid system through its use of theatre and language, and largely featured as a key player in the political unrest at the time.
The film intentionally unnerves its audiences through centring its narrative on that of the Cape Flats Players founder, Peter Braaf. He and his daughter, Genevieve Muller, reflect on the way that the company utilised the black consciousness movement at the time to celebrate a culture that was being stifled.
Risk and reward
Braaf takes audiences through his experience of using theatre to claim back the loss of the coloured identity, stripped and fragmented from the heart of the Cape. In doing so, he grabs at the guilt felt by those born free.
While the documentary powerfully engages with the art of resistance performance, 39 minutes is hardly enough time to fully grasp the haunting realities faced by those who were detained, forcibly removed and shunned for simply being within a society constructed to exclude them.
Rather, the documentary has the potential to work as a short series, through which the black consciousness movement, Small’s work, and those relocated to the Cape Flats can explore the role of theatre in subverting apartheid’s agenda.
- This screening is no longer available at the 2023 Toyota SU Woordfees but can still be viewed on kykNET.