Browsing by Author "Williams, Candice Lynn"

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    Staging the criminalised society : contemporary South African theatre's response to the social insecurity caused by violent crime in South Africa over the past decade (2002 - 2012)
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2016-03) Williams, Candice Lynn; Prigge-Pienaar, Samantha; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Drama.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The potential to fall victim to violent crime is an ever-present threat in contemporary South African society that many South Africans have resigned themselves to. It is also one of the few aspects of South African society that is common to all races, genders, cultures, locations, and socio-economic backgrounds. It is a popular topic of public debate and violent crime regularly features in all forms of news media. However, this prevalence is not mirrored in the original theatre productions that have been created since the crime wave began in the early 1990s. The aim of this study is to investigate and find ways to categorise the South African plays that have been created in response to the crime problem. It will highlight patterns in this body of work that could be used by theatre-makers and scholars to understand this subject matter, how it is being received by South African audiences and how theatre-makers have approached the creative process of generating work responding to this theme thus far. This research study primarily makes use of empirical information collected from a combination of watching the selected plays, reading their scripts and reading reviews of these productions. This study also makes use of information obtained from various publications in the fields of criminology, psychology and sociology, as well as information gathered from newspaper articles and the statistics released by agencies such as the Institute for Security Studies and Stats SA. In order to discuss how portrayals of violent crimes are choreographed and how these portrayals affect viewers/ consumers. Through an analysis of the data on the South African crime wave that emerges from these various sources, a picture begins to emerge of a generally misunderstood phenomenon that is unique to South African society; crime rates are undoubtedly high, but the ‘crime wave’, appears to have more to do with perceptions than with rising incidences of violent crime. This is reflected in the theatrical engagement with the crime wave thus far; it is as diverse as are the perceptions of the prevalence of violent crime in South Africa.