A Feast in Time of Plague

Synopsis
A documentary that explores the artistic responses made by state-funded theatre-makers to the apartheid state. The film focuses on those who worked in the Cape Performing Arts Board (CAPAB) between 1970 and 1990, and uses interviews, archive material and music to probe themes such as the implementation of apartheid legislation within the arts council, forms of subversion in Afrikaans theatre, and the effect of censorship on theatre-makers. Ultimately, the documentary explores the shifts and transitions that South African theatre-makers made in response to their environment during the last two decades of the Performing Arts Council era. Key productions from both the 1970s and 1980s are employed as case studies, some of which include: August, August, August (1969), Titus Andronicus (1970) , Kanna hy kô Hystoe (1974), Bacchus in Die Boland (1975), Die Plaasvervangers (1978), Christine (1986), Anatomie Titus: Fall of Rome (1986), Quartet (1988), Piekniek by Dingaan (1989) and Kinkels innie Kabel (1989). Interviewees include Pieter Fourie, Marthinus Basson, Johan Esterhuizen, Pieter-Dirk Uys, Percy Tucker, Robin Malan, Albert Maritz, Royston Stoffels, Liz Dick, Marina Albertyn and Mike van Graan. This documentary film was created by Amber Fox-Martin and Philip Theron, in association with the Stellenbosch University History Department. The copyright of the original thesis documentary rests with Stellenbosch University.