What Role can Physical Theatre Play in Reimagining Democracy in South Africa?

Abstract

Mamela Nyamza’s body of work is an act of performance activism that reflects and speaks back to society, making critical commentary on the slippages, gaps and moments of silencing that persist in post-apartheid democratic South Africa. This paper makes use of Mamela Nyamza’s 19-Born-76-Rebels (2014) and Pest Control (2020) as key physical theatre case studies that provide images of recalling and remembering in order to (re)build and (re)imagine democracy in South Africa. The paper, through employing Nyamza’s productions, discusses the ways in which physical theatre engages with the consolidation of democracy through dealing with complex questions about philosophies of identity, representation and expression – that are perceived politically, socially, culturally and economically in South Africa.