Kerianne Doran
Blog Post 2
On Thursday, our class visited the Market Theatre to watch a production of the South African play Egoli. This play tells the story of men who moved to Johannesburg to work in the mines in order to support their families and analyzes the effects their career choices have on themselves and their families. The production was in a black-box theatre with only a few actors and small audience to create a more personal and vivid experience for all. This show included vibrant sound effects, harmonious singing as well as a multilingual script. The majority of our studies here have revolved around race relations, a crucial topic when discussing any aspect of South African culture. While this theme was present in Egoli, another important theme was the treatment of women and gender relations. The treatment of women in Egoli is in part representative of the culture of the miners and the country’s view on marriage and partnership. Mamphela Rampele speaks about the dynamics between women and men in her book A Bed Called Home. She discusses that the society in hostels and townships is very patriarchal despite the many responsibilities that women are given when a husband is gone. Oftentimes, women would stay with their families in rural areas and husbands would move to hostels and sometimes start their own separate families there. It was common for men to have extramarital affairs while women were expected to stay faithful and husband and family. This patriarchal society was exhibited in Egoli through the men’s discussions about prostitutes and encouragement for one another to have extramarital affairs. While this is looked down upon in American society, in the context of this play it can be seen as a method of survival. While it was clear that the women were stressed taking care of their family and lonely from being without their husbands, the same can be said for the husbands about their wives and families. Although this play did have a very small cast, I noticed that there were only two women in the entire production. I thought this was very indicative society’s view of the importance of women. While there were six male characters, only one had a wife. That one man only mentioned his daughters once even though he had four daughters and one son. These daughters were only referenced once and although there was an actress to play this man’s wife, she did not appear many times in the production. There was also a prostitute who only made one appearance throughout the entire ninety minute show. This play was noted as an important form of political resistance in An Overview of Theatre in South Africa. This text also spoke about how many works of anti-apartheid art left out certain groups of people and I thought that Egoli represented this well. While it provided great insight into the struggles of the male miners in Johannesburg and throughout South Africa, there was very little screen time for the women who were left with just as much responsibility. While I did enjoy this work and learned a lot from it, I was hoping for women to be given a greater role than they were. Another aspect of this production that I noticed was the small quantity of actors. It made me think about how hard actors must have to work in order to make a living through their passion. This connected to our experience with actor Kurt Egelhof in Cape Town. He spoke about how he had to struggle as an actor in the beginning of his career in order to be the prominent figure that he is now. The hardships of artists of all kinds are very indicative of the value of art in South Africa in two very different ways. The perseverance of these actors shows that there are individuals and groups of people who value their passion so much that they continue to strive for success despite boundaries. But, on the other hand, the very fact that their career takes a while to jumpstart could indicate that there is not enough opportunity for them. This lack of opportunity could indicate lack of value by a certain percentage of the population. Egoli, especially in combination with our other texts and experiences in Cape Town and in Johannesburg have helped me put together a fuller picture of the artistic and social culture of South Africa.
