Shakespeare in South Africa

the long version

"In 1946, Prime Minister Jan Smuts was impressed by a Coloured production of The Tempest. In 1971, President C. R. Swart nearly walked out of an Africanized Afrikaans version of King Lear. In 1975, Kwazulu Chief Minister Magosuthu Buthelezi was inspired by a Zulu Macbeth. How did Shakespeare's plays intersect with South African history during the apartheid era? Rohan Quince briefly traces the theatrical history of Shakespeare in South Africa, focusing mainly on productions between 1946 and 1993, a period that saw first the tightening and finally the dissolution of the apartheid system under the Nationalist government. Shakespeare was put to various uses either to endorse or to subvert apartheid ideology. In this study, the author analyzes a number of key productions, placing them in their social, political, and historical contexts."--BOOK JACKET.