Eventifying identity: Festivals in South Africa and the search for cultural identity

New Theatre Quarterly

Volumn 22, Issue 2, 2006, Pages 181-198

  Hauptfleisch, Temple ^a  

^a STELLENBOSCH UNIVERSITY   (South Africa)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 61249612764     PISSN: 0266464X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0266464X0600039X     Document Type: Article

References (19)

1. Much has been written about theatre as a weapon in the struggle over the years. See, for example, Temple Hauptfleisch and Ian Steadman, South African Theatre: Four Plays and an Introduction (Pretoria: HAUM Educational, 1984);
2. David Coplan, In Township Tonight! South Africa's Black City Music and Theatre (Johannesburg: Ravan Press; London: Longman, 1985);
3. Robert Kavanagh, Theatre and Cultural Struggle in South Africa (London: Zed Books, 1985);
4. Ian Steadman, Drama and Social Consciousness: Themes in Black Theatre on the Witwatersrand until 1985 (unpublished PhD thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, 1985);
5. Peter Larlham, Black Theater, Dance, and Ritual in South Africa (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1985);
6. Martin Orkin, Drama and the South African State (Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1991);
7. Liz Gunner, ed., Politics and Performance: Theatre, Poetry, and Song in South Africa (Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1994);
8. Temple Hauptfleisch, Theatre and Society in South Africa: Reflections in a Fractured Mirror (Pretoria: J. L. van Schaik, 1997);
9. and Loren Kruger, The Drama of South Africa: Plays, Pageants, and Publics since 1910 (London: Routledge, 1999).
10. I first came across the useful concept and term festivalisering in Michael Kamp's 2003 dissertation at the University of Amsterdam, where he quotes Paul Kaptein's 1996 article 'De beginperiode van het Holland Festival: Festivals en festivalisering', in R. L. Erenstein, ed., Een theater geschiedenis de Nederlanden (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1996), p. 672-80. I have translated it as festivalization.
11. This estimate is based on the most recent statistics available, which are contained in the national Arts and Culture Database compiled by NACSA (August 2004). This lists 83 festivals and festival-like events of all kinds (many having little or no 'arts' or 'theatre' content, of course). However it is still incomplete, not reflecting such important arts festivals as the Afrikaanse Woord-fees ('Afrikaans Word Festival'), the Kalfiefees ('Calf Festival'), the Volksbladfees ('Volksblad Festival'), the Suidooster Fees ('South Easter Festival'), and presumably many others. A complete count would more likely be closer to 100. A slightly earlier attempt to list the festivals was undertaken by Michael Kamp in 2003, when he undertook a survey of the festivals utilizing the Arts and Culture Handbook, ed. Mike van Graan and Nicky du Plessis (Cape Town: Article 27 Arts and Culture Consultants, 1997/8; Cape Town: David Philip Publishers, 2002-3) to list and categorize for the two periods. See his thesis, Festivalisering: Een culturele stem van het Zuid-Afrika van vandaag: in een politieke, economische, culturele en kunsten context (unpublished Master's dissertation, University of Amsterdam, 2003), Appendixes VI and VII.
12. There are many issues, of course, but much of the discussion and a number of the key complaints and points of criticism have appeared and been argued in the popular press. Two very useful internet-based forums on South African arts, namely LitNet and Artslink, have both carried open debates on the matter of festivals in recent times. In addition, every issue of the South African Theatre Journal also has a more academic review of one or more of the festivals. Particularly interesting in this regard is Herman Kitshoff's review 'Claiming Cultural Festivals: Playing for Power at the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (KKNK)' in South African Theatre Journal, XVIII, 2004. Two others, also from SATJ, are referred to later in this article.
13. Eventification refers to the process by which the theatrical performance - viewed as a normal human activity and socio-cultural process - is turned into a socio-cultural event. By framing a particular happening or event as something of social, cultural, political, or other significance, the event becomes a powerful means for framing and confronting the past, the present, and the future. And festivals are one of the most powerful eventifying mechanisms available today. The terms eventify and eventification were coined in 1999 by the author in a contribution written for the IFTR Working Group on The Theatrical Event, then reworked for the IFTR conference in Lyon in 2000. The final article, entitled 'Eventification: Utilizing the Theatrical System to Frame the Event' was published in Theatrical Events: Borders, Dynamics, Frames, ed. Vicky Ann Cremona, Peter Eversman, Hans van Maanen, Wilmar Sauter, and John Tulloch (Amsterdam: Rodopi Publishers, 2003). In this context, a life event is any social event which can be seen to have performative qualities (at a minimum, performers in a performance space before onlookers/an audience). A church service, a wedding, a baptism ceremony, a public hanging, a football match, a war, are all framed events in some way; but they are not (yet) theatrical events, though they may be framed and 'read' that way. The theories of Erving Goffman, Elizabeth Burns, Richard Schechner, and Victor Turner all utilize the notion.
14. The issues discussed here are also touched on by other writers. Among these are: August Staub, 'The Social Uses of Festival: Transformation and Disfiguration', South African Theatre Journal, VI, No. 1, p. 4-24;
15. and Peter Merrington, 'The "New Pageantry" and Performance Studies', unpublished paper read at the SASTR Conference, Stellenbosch, 11-12 September 1999.
16. The reviews utilized here are 'The Eventification of Afrikaans Culture: Some Thoughts on the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival, South African Theatre Journal, XVI (2001);
17. and 'The Cultural Bazaar: Thoughts on Festival Culture after a Visit to the 2003 Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (KKNK) in Oudtshoorn', South African Theatre Journal, XVII, 2003. They have been slightly shortened and adapted for this article, and are published with permission of the editors and publishers of SATJ.
18. See, for example, Herman Kitshoff's article 'Claiming Cultural Festivals: Playing for Power at the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (KKNK)', and his' review of the 2003 KKNK festival in the South African Theatre Journal, XVIII (2004), p. 64-80 and 235-9;
19. The useful notion of the polysystem was developed by Itamar Even-Zohar. It basically takes classical systems theory and suggests that in some cases one may have a larger system consisting of a subset of interlocking and linked smaller subsystems. The example used there is that of the literary system, the term 'polysystem' being coined for the larger system. This works well if one considers the processes of theatre making and production, and seems helpful in understanding the complex and multi-dimensional nature of the festival as a theatrical event. For more on Even-Zohar's ideas see, for example, 'Polysystem Theory' in Poetics Today, 1 (1979).