“To Bewitch an Audience”:  Theatricalised Historiography as “Witchcraft” in Reza de Wet’s Breathing In

Danie Stander

doi:10.25159/1753-5387/20720

Authors

Danie Stander Stellenbosch University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25159/1753-5387/20720

Keywords:

Reza de Wet , Breathing In, South African War Drama, South African women’s drama

Abstract

This article is catalysed by a dual aim: It (1) names a yet unidentified canon of South African War Drama and (2) spotlights Reza de Wet’s subversively feminist contribution to this canon with her drama Breathing In. To this end, I draw on performance theory, enhanced by feminist theatre studies, and research on (South) African women’s drama and/or feminist dramaturgy that evokes conceptualisations of metadrama/-theatre. While I caution against the pitfalls of moralisation (by way of justifying/valorising the protagonist’s abusive and murderous actions), I interpret De Wet’s creation of this character as a feminist strategy to stage women’s largely overlooked agency and inventive self-assertion in South African history—dramaturgically and otherwise.

Author Biography

Danie Stander, Stellenbosch University

English Department, Stellenbosch University

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