Vers un nouveau théâtre politique: William Kentridge et les discours transculturels

Abstract

This paper is an exploration of what seems to affirm itself as a new form of political theatre in William Kentridge’s work at the Handspring Puppet Company, based in Cape Town (South Africa). Within this framework, I will focus on those aspects of production through which theatricality finds a more silent, yet more effective way to expose the social, cultural and political landscapes of South Africa. There seems to be a link between Kentridge’s multi- and even transdisciplinary artistic approach and the south-african transculturality, which may explain some of the aesthetical, as well as the political sides of theatrical performances, such as Woyzeck on the Highveld (1992), Faustus in Africa (1994), and Ubu and the Truth Commission. These pieces will be analyzed here in order to better understand the moods, as well as the dynamics of the south-african shifting identities and their implications as a dramatic theme on the audience’s reception of what I call a silent politics. In these productions, the political discourse emerges out of the self-referential theme of identity and of its alterations, both at the formal and symbolical levels, as a subtle and effective performative act.