WHAT DO SOUTH AFRICAN ACTORS BRING TO SHAKESPEARE?

The theatre The writer, actor and painter Sir Anthony Sher was born in South Africa in 1949. Although much of his working life has been spent with the RSC, he has performed his solo show “Primo” in South Africa, made a documentary about murder in its cities, and toured there with a production of “Titus Andronicus” directed by his partner, Gregory Doran.

This month, Sher performs in “The Tempest” at Stratford with actors from Cape Town’s Baxter Theatre; Intelligent Life talked to him about protest and Prospero as he prepared to start rehearsals in his homeland.

In 1979 you burnt your South African passport and said it was the happiest day of your life. Why do you keep going back?
Yes, but another happy day was getting my passport back two years ago, when I got dual citizenship. I burnt that first passport in disgust at apartheid: South Africa is a different country now, and one to be proud of.

Tell us about the Baxter Theatre.
It’s become the country’s leading theatre company, rather like the Market Theatre in Johannesburg used to be. Significantly, several of the Baxter’s people came over from the Market—including one of its founders, Mannie Manim.

If the Market was so successful, why did they leave?
It had a strange problem. It had been the great protest theatre of apartheid and did an enormous amount, as far as the arts ever can, to bring about its end. Then it found itself with no clear focus. The Baxter doesn’t have the same history or responsibility: it can concentrate simply on doing really good theatre in the new South Africa.

How is Shakespeare relevant, then?
Greg and I did “Titus Andronicus” precisely because, horribly, the violence in that play—which can seem ludicrous to a British audience—is sort of normal in South Africa. The magic in “The Tempest” is similar; in the West magic is sort of cute and Disney, but in Africa it’s part of everyday life.

What do South African actors bring to Shakespeare that’s different?
They seem to act from their bellies, and from their balls. What they might not have in terms of experience of the vocal tradition they make up for with a huge, fantastic physicality.

You’ve been known as a very physical actor. Will you play Prospero in that way?
I can’t any more—too elderly. Anyway, my old physicality actually came from a sense of inadequacy I had with the verse. My journey with the RSC has been, at least partly, about learning to feel that I have a right to speak Shakespeare.

And so to stand still?
Yes—if only from necessity!

The Tempest Courtyard Theatre, Stratford, February 14th to March 14th, then touring until April 25th.

Picture Credit: FlyGuy92586 (via Flickr)