Research Articles (Drama)

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Reflecting on analogue faces and digital masks through mission : impossible (1996-2023)
(Deakin University, 2024-04) Broodryk, Chris Willem
This article uses the idea and practice of the mask and masking technology in the popular Mission: Impossible film franchise to critically consider the tensions between digital and analogue. In the Mission: Impossible films, the masks are a core component of the films’ intrigue, and they serve the plot dynamics of each franchise entry while also revealing ever-sophisticated diegetic film technologies that make these silicone-based masks increasingly hyper-realistic in spy-craft and antisurveillance deception. This article demonstrates how the mask is an identity technology that qualifies the persona as potentially deceptive and duplicitous as it relies on a convincing presentation of a character’s self that does not accurately reflect the interiority of this character, and on a betrayal of trust of the affective investment of a particular micro-publics. As such, the viewer reflects on facial representation not only in terms of verisimilitude, but also veracity. Within a context of techno est ubique, the mask has evident transformative capacities as a temporary interface with the world and as a remediation technology. However, the mask is also a precarious technology because it is highly visible and needs monitoring for proper presentation and error. It is a seamless technology, which evokes further reflections on photorealism and deepfakes. Additionally, digital comes to denote ‘dead’, and the digital mask of especially the later Mission: Impossible films – identifiable by its skeuomorphic qualities – challenges the continued existence of the analogue (organic face) as mask and related appearance replication technologies come to replace human faces and bodies entirely.
There Is no heaven to go to, because we’re in it already. We’re in hell, too. They coexist : place-making and the television western series 1883 and Yellowstone
(Unisa Press, 2024-08) Broodryk, Chris Willem; Bester, Lelia; chris.broodryk@up.ac.za
This article explores the idea and articulation of place in Taylor Sheridan’s western series 1883 and Yellowstone. Through narrative and genre analysis, we critically compare these two series to demonstrate that genre semantics combine in a particular series-specific syntax to articulate place differently. Our thinking on place and adjacent concepts of trails and knots, inhabiting and occupation, as well as the differentiation between place as object and place as event, is primarily informed by the scholarship of Tim Ingold. We argue that these series’ specific and gendered articulations of place are meaningfully linked to each series’ protagonist, Elsa Dutton and John Dutton respectively. Finally, we suggest that the two series generate an additional western-genre binary that we base on Ingold’s work: occupation (particular to Yellowstone) vs. inhabiting (specifically in 1883). The Yellowstone character Beth Dutton notably reifies this binary. Yellowstone, here framed as post-heydey western, postwestern and post-Western, articulates place as nostalgic and static compared to 1883’s more expansionist and dynamic iteration of place.
Displacement in when rain clouds gather
(Unisa Press, 2024-11) Meintjies, Frank
In this article, I examine the representation of displacement in Bessie Head’s When Rain Clouds Gather (1969). Head not only features displaced characters but also depicts, through her protagonists, the struggles that arise from displacement. I draw on the work of prominent scholars to explore and apply concepts such as “home” and belonging, which are central to any discussion of displacement, as well as to explore the integration challenges faced by, for example, a displaced person vis-á-vis a settled community. Through a close reading of the text, I demonstrate how Head uses this work to generate important insights into displacement.
Rolspel (role-taking) in die praktyk
(South African Association for Language Teaching, 1987-09) De Kock, Thea
Aanleiding tot die keuse van die verbeeldesituasie vir hierdie besondere drama-in-die-onderwysles was die volgende sillabusinhoude (St. 8 Afrikaans moedertaal) wat volgens die konvensionele bekende onderrigmentodes gehanteer is.
Theatre practitioners as unionists : art workers in post-independence Zimbabwe’s theatre sector (1980–1999)
(Routledge, 2023) Sibanda, Nkululeko; nkululeko.sibanda@up.ac.za
This article attempts to frame and examine the structuring of labour struggles from the precarious subject position of theatre workers, without isolating these struggles into the occupational sector of the creative industries in the Zimbabwean context between 1980 and 1999. In this article, I frame theatre practitioners as ‘art – workers’ and collectives such as the NTO and ZACT as mobilising and organising agencies operating within the postcolonial Zimbabwean theatre industry. On the one hand, the NTO controlled and administered purpose-built theatres, provided funding as well as organised affiliates into a unity. On the other hand, ZACT organised multi-racial Zimbabwean theatre groups into a collective, providing and mobilising financial and organisational support towards the creation of a ‘national theatre’ narrative. Deploying resource mobilisation and rational choice theories, this paper submits that NTO and ZACT mobilized and coordinated their stakeholders towards addressing the precarious work conditions in the sector. This paper argues while attempts, through theatre associations, have been undertaken to organise the creative sector, this paper submits that the precarious nature of the work, employer-employee non-distinction, lack of legal rights knowledge and fierce inter-and intra-organisational competition complicates the process of re-mobilising and organising creatives in Zimbabwe.
Our decolonial conversations with performance voice training in higher education in the South African pluriverse
(Routledge, 2024) Lemmer, Karina; Munro, Marth; Maseko, Isana
This article shares conversational thinking around the complexities present in the vocal development of the actor-in-training in a multilingual, multicultural training context, specifically referring to South African higher education. It is framed from the authors’ lived experience and discusses the pedagogical constructs present in the pluriverse where voice is central in the performance of identity. Organic congruencies, humans as multimodal bodyminded beings and embodiment are discussed as points of departure. The interlinked relationship between voice and language is considered. Searching for a humanizing pedagogy, translingualism, and embodied learning, among others, are offered as possible means to engage human congruencies in the multilingual, multicultural setting. Certain principles of Lessac Kinesensics are engaged with in this on-going project contributing to a decolonial approach to performance voice training in higher education.
A theatre experiment : a research paradigm with applications for second language learning?
(Taylor and Francis, 2023-04-29) Ulbricht, Natasha Janzen; Kruger, Marlene
Research on performative teaching has expanded in recent decades. This growth has been accompanied by interest in evidence-based practice and evaluation. However, experimentation is complex and classroom-based researchers must carefully and responsibly negotiate many obstacles. Despite challenges inherent in this endea-vour, many practitioners are genuinely interested in how and why theatre supports learning. In this article we explore experimentation in the second language classroom and outline a conceptual framework which embeds qualitative data collection within an experimental design. These ideas can be regarded as an extensive case study that combines and furthers the work of teacher artists and scientific practice.
Training strategies towards performing emotions on film : an integrated approach
(Routledge, 2023) Bester, Lelia; Munro, Marth; lelia.bester@up.ac.za
South African film budgets do not allow for extensive preparation and rehearsal periods. South African film actors prepare their portrayal of emotion as part of their performance scores in isolation and are expected to present their already crafted performances while the camera is rolling. However, the actor must be able to produce an emotion at will. They must navigate the onset and conclusion of the emotion whilst effectively portraying it to the camera that is capturing the moment on film. The (film) actor’s physical manifestation of the character’s emotion is the means through which audiences gain insight into characters (Baron and Carnicke [2011]. Reframing Screen Performance. Michigan: The University of Michigan Press, 174). The actor needs to embody these elements to signify the character’s emotions (Gosselin et al [2005]. Components and Recognition of Facial Expression in the Communication of Emotion by Actors. In: P. Ekman, and E.L. Rosenberg, eds. What the face Reveals: Basic and Applied Studies of Spontaneous Expression Using the Facial Action Coding Systems (FACS), 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 243–270) quickly, upon demand, and with the required filmic verisimilitude. This article offers a five-phase process, that draws on various embodied performance pedagogies (such as Emotional Body, Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies and Lessac Kinesensics), as well as from relevant scholarship in the field of Emotion. This process facilitates and brings forth required embodied emotions in actor to character development in a way that reinforces verisimilitude and can be effectively strategised away from the actual filming moment. It is structured to be safe in its approach, effective in the emotionally embodied delivery, and acknowledges both cultural and idiosyncratic diversity in the actors in the service of the character to be portrayed.
Maintaining the consent-bubble : an intimacy coordinator’s perspective on touch in performance training
(Taylor and Francis, 2023) Haarhoff, Emil Ernst; Lush, Kate
This article sets out to argue that purposefully consenting to touch constructs a metaphorical ‘consent-bubble’ in which only those invited into its parameters (often not including the IC, facilitator or teacher) may engage in touch, considering they comply with its uniquely constructed rules and boundaries. To do so, emphasis is laid on the intricacies, processes and importance of communication and consent within the scope of touch and performing arts training. In addition, it is argued that the lack of such consent results in embodied self-preservation and tension activation strategies that halter effective learning. Finally, practical strategies (from an IC perspective) are devised to construct and maintain the consent-bubble, ensuring that touch can be utilised safely, efficiently and consensually in training.
Touch and consent : towards an ethics of care in intimate performance
(Taylor and Francis, 2023) Coetzee, Marie-Heleen; Groves, Kaitlin; marie-heleen.coetzee@up.ac.za
Our personal experiences as women working in the performing arts and entertainment sector indicate to us that there is a need for actron-training that includes articulated pedagogical framework and methodological approaches that engage with the performance of intimate content and professional touch. Women’s behaviour and communicative acts are often gendered through socialisation and gender hegemony that at times, are covertly upheld by the culture of a work context. Gender hegemony and perceptions about gender uphold and legitimize practices that do harm, impacting women’s physical, mental and emotional safety. For women actrons, this is exacerbated by expectations of what they should consent to in service of their work, including touch and intimacy. We argue that using a feminist ethic of care as pedagogical framework together with intimacy coordination as resonant methodological approach might offer an approach to actron-training that might further women actrons’ agency in giving meaningful consent with regards to professional touch, whist cultivating a broader imperative of care.
Touch as a feedback loop : exercising the leap from inertia to activation
(Taylor and Francis, 2023) Johnstone, Kristina
This article critically reflects on the facilitation of embodied practice in virtual spaces of teaching, learning and creation, specifically looking at ways of facilitating touch within the broader context of decolonising dance and movement practices in South Africa. When working without the touch of another (human)being, I explore how the affordances of environment and surfaces can offer a feedback loop for the sounding body in motion. The article draws from experiences of facilitating movement and physical theatre courses at the University of Pretoria to suggest how touch may become an embodied technique that structures practice in spaces of isolation and inertia and in times where notions of continuity and discontinuity are ruptured. I explore how walls, surfaces and objects become secondary affordances that offer an external force onto the body through tactility. Reading discourses of embodiment and decoloniality through one another, I further argue that using touch to re-initiate motion offers political possibilities to exercise the leap from inertia to activation, and trouble the colonially formed category of human.
The post-heroism of Stuur groete aan Mannetjies Roux and Verraaiers
(Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Assosiasie, 2023-05-08) Britz, Danielle; Broodryk, Chris Willem
There is much scholarship on the linkages between Afrikaner nationalism and South African (Afrikaans-language) filmmaking. Within the context of a sustained post-apartheid renegotiation of Afrikaans or Afrikaner nationalism in the popular imagination, in this article we argue that two feature film historical dramas from the production company Bosbok Ses Films, Stuur groete aan Mannetjies Roux (2013) and Verraaiers (2013), resonate thematically and aesthetically with Thomas Elsaesser’s notion of post-heroic cinema. While a number of pre-1994 Afrikaans-language films celebrated Afrikaner nationalism as personified in the figure of the hero, this article positions and uses Elsaesser’s post-heroism as a critical lens through which to demonstrate the ways in which these two films call attention to a post-hero whose actions and behaviour (often inadvertently) renders a productive renegotiating of the hero figure within a post-apartheid cinematic context. To supplement Elsaesser, we also draw on Johan Degenaar’s writing on political pluralism. In this article, we find that an Elsaesserian post-heroic approach to the two films allows the following constitutive components of post-heroic cinema to surface: atemporality as opposed to linear narrative time, parapraxis (productive failure) as opposed to traditional iterations of heroic acts and valour, and conceiving of the film screen as a surface in flux as opposed to the screen as a mirror. The article’s contribution to existing scholarship on contemporary Afrikaans-language cinema is three-fold: it is the first to utilise an Elsaesserian approach to Afrikaans film and as such to foreground and investigate the figure of the post-hero, it provides a critical account of two independently-made feature films that remain underresearched in current South African film scholarship, and it contributes to discourse around the ways in which popular media inform and respond to the renegotiation of Afrikaans (or Afrikaans) identity.
Slow beauty : refocusing Oliver Hermanus's Skoonheid through a slow cinema lens
(Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Assosiasie, 2023-04-24) Wanyonyi, Emmanuel S.
Oliver Hermanus's Skoonheid is often read as a representation of South African queer realities and political progressiveness both during and since the dissolution of apartheid. Consequently, Hermanus's contribution to the aesthetic of slowness in Skoonheid has gone largely unnoticed in the broader context of slow cinema. In this article, I examine how Hermanus, through the slow cinema conventions, urges the viewer to contemplate issues of crucial importance to human behaviour, thereby putting Skoonheid's meditative qualities on display. Drawing on Ira Jaffe's concept of expressive minimalism, Emre Çaglayan's poetics of slow cinema, and Thomas Elsaesser's observations on the virtues and demands of slow cinema, I analyse the narrative and aesthetic strategies deployed in Skoonheid within the purview of slow cinema and beyond a representation of queer sexuality. This analysis reveals that Skoonheid represents a mode of narrative-formal expressiveness distinct from, yet in dialogue with, slow cinema in its emphasis on contemplation. Principally, Hermanus finds a way to testify to some of the most urgent concerns in contemporary society through the film's contemplative approach, which draws the viewer's attention to the mystery and ambiguity of human experience. Skoonheid's contemplative approach is informed by the film's processes and experiences of alienation, incommunicability, and existentialism.
New Afrikaans-language cinemas
(Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Assosiasie, 2023-04) Broodryk, Chris Willem; chris.broodryk@up.ac.za
No abstract available.
Redemption in the South African west : violence, colonialism and oppression in Five Fingers for Marseilles (2018)
(Routledge, 2021) Broodryk, Chris Willem; Joynt, Shaun; chris.broodryk@up.ac.za
In the South African Sesotho-language Western Five Fingers for Marseilles (2018), Tau flees his hometown of Marseilles in the aftermath of a violent incident. Returning after apartheid ended, Tau finds his hometown in ruins at the hands of some of the very individuals—his childhood friends—who were supposed to protect it. Tau seeks to save Marseilles from those who corrupt it and seeks redemption for himself and the town in the process. In this article, we demonstrate that the film borrows genre conventions and iconography from the Western to tell its story of redemption, and in telling this story the film invokes a general disillusionment with contemporary South African politics. Tau’s quest for redemption is as much political as his self-forgiveness is personal, and this redemption is made possible through an atonement for the past to halt the intergenerational violence that characterises South Africa and Marseilles in the post-apartheid era. Marseilles can only be a life-sustaining, generative community in the absence of the violence of colonialism and corruption.
The South African live events, technical and production services industry’s market position and COVID-19 funding implications
(Routledge, 2022) Roux, Therese; Coetzee, Marie-Heleen; marie-heleen.coetzee@up.ac.za
COVID-19 has had a significant economic impact on a global scale. The national lockdown, enacted through the Disaster Management Act 57 of 2002, disrupted multiple economic activities, including that of the Creative and Cultural industries. In the performance and celebrations domain, under which live events (.i.e., theatre and performance) and technical production services (i.e., technical support and services for theatre and performance) resort, the postponement or cancellation of events in the face of the pandemic had a devastating effect on lives and livelihoods. An initiative called #LightSAred, initiated by the South African Communications Industries Association (SACIA) and the Technical Production and Services Association, was one of the private initiatives aimed at extending financial relief to those who earn a living in the technical production and live events industry. However, the lack of reliable data about the industry's market and the impact of COVID-19 was a significant challenge in resource development and allocation. In response, the Sun Circle Group, a media company that services the live entertainment and professional audio-visual industries in South Africa, conducted an extensive online survey of businesses in this industry. For this study, permission has been obtained from the Sun Circle Group to analyse the secondary data set. Situated within the literature on the creative economy, analysing the secondary industry data in this article offers an understanding of the market position and perceived financial implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Live Events, Technical and Production Services industry. The results of this research support advocacy for a long-term national strategy to secure livelihoods and the sustainability of not only the Live Events, Technical and Production Services industry, but the CCIs as a whole.
The theatre of development : dramaturgy, actors and performances in the ‘workshop space’
(Routledge, 2023) Shutt, Helen E.; Martin, Laura S.; Coetzee, Marie-Heleen
This article explores performance within development spaces. Dramaturgy, a concept deriving from theatre studies, can be understood as an analytical lens that examines the various roles and performances of different ‘actors’ in particular social spaces. While there is literature exploring the use of the arts, such as applied theatre and dance, in development interventions, this article looks at the roles, performances and actors in development spaces. By analysing the subtle yet explicit composites of workshop spaces in development, in particular those engaging with arts-based methodologies, we can see how multiple and simultaneous performances converge. These performances are insightful in their own right and represent and enact a theatre of their own. Using a workshop in Sierra Leone as a case study, we explore the various dynamics at play within the ‘workshop space’ of development. We illustrate how these frequently overlooked and subtle elements in development are critical to understanding the perceptions and embodiment of what constitutes and enacts the theatre of development.
Embracing aporia : exploring arts-based methods, pain, “playfulness,” and improvisation in research on gender and social violence
(Oxford University Press, 2022-10) Forcer, Stephen; Shutt, Helen; Martin, Laura S.; Coetzee, Marie-Heleen; Ibrahim, Aisha Fofana; Fitzmaurice, Susan
This article explores the role of play and playfulness—as both methodological and analytical tools—in research on social violence. While play may seem antithetical to both discussions on methods and to studying social violence, we found that actually paying attention to such elements was in fact very productive. This article draws on a series of participatory workshops that engaged theater, dance, and comedy, which were held in Sierra Leone in 2021 that explored various social dimensions of sexual and gender-based violence in rural communities. The “fun” components that are so frequently dismissed in favor of more flat and binary research helped us better understand the complex, and often painful, emotions of women in these communities. We pay particular attention to how singing, which was not originally part of the research plan, became critical to engaging these women on discussions of social violence. We argue that researchers should be more aware and open to the prospects that “play,” “fun,” and improvisation have to offer in research processes, and how such components can themselves be absolutely critical to how we conduct and analyze research, as well as engage with participants, even in relation to sensitive subject matter.
Navigating dissonance : bodymind and character congruency in acting
(Pretoria University Law Press, 2022) Haarhoff, Emil Ernst; Munro, Marth; Coetzee, Marie-Heleen
This chapter sets out to create an embodied approach for responsibly navigating actor-character dissonance in performance. Actors attempt to enflesh characters in performance. Enfleshment is the subjective, deliberate and in-the-moment embodiment of the performance intent in context. Characters are constructed through clues in the playtext, the craft of acting, the conventions and aesthetic vision of the production, as well as the multi-modal, bodyminded sense of self shaped by and through the lived experiences of actors. To deliver and maintain congruent, nuanced, and consistent performances, actors need to make embodied shifts. These shifts can be explained by Zarrilli’s concept of the four bodies in/of performance, namely, (i) the surface body; (ii) the recessive body; (iii) the aesthetic inner body; and (iv) the aesthetic outer or performance body.1 These bodies necessarily intersect and are simultaneously present in, and navigated, during performance. This embodied navigation requires heightened awareness. The first three bodies relate to the actor’s bodyminded self. The fourth body enfleshes the character in performance. Optimally navigating the shift between the third and fourth bodies creates congruence between actor and character. This navigation results in the perceived believability of the character. Non-congruence results in actor- character dissonance. This dissonance impacts on effective character representation and can impact actors’ well-being if not managed responsibly.
Productive docile bodies in Zimbabwean dance training : the African body in classical ballet training at Afrikera Arts Trust
(Routledge, 2021) Zhuwawo, Alina; Sibanda, Nkululeko
In this paper, we deploy Foucault’s theories of power to interrogate body politics in ballet training in Zimbabwe. To achieve this, we critically examine instances of ballet-related discourse-induced docility occurring in the Afrikera Professional Dance Training (APDT) students’ bodies during training. From a Foucauldian perspective, we interrogate how a ballet dancer’s body that has been timeously ‘subjugated’ to a standard of expected behaviour by the society and has acclimated to a normalized African body posture which is conditioned to become ‘ideal’ through APTD’s ballet training. Through the intensive case study examination of the Afrikera Professional Dance Training ballet process, we observe possible shortfalls in Foucault’s theories of bio-power in social and community development advocacy.

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