Sociocultural and political values in selected plays by South African playwrights

Abstract

The paper deals with the issue of values expressed in South African plays, and takes a look at representative plays from the entire spectrum of South African drama - Afrikaans, English, Black drama and alternative Theatre. Following a survey of the field, discussions are provided of selected plays in all the sections. It emerges that there is a fair amount of homogeneity right across the board in terms of sociocultural and political values. There is also a strong insistence on value linked to Black consciousness in the plays by Black playwrights, which is important in view of the fact that the Black playwrights often have an overtly didactic and propagandists intention.