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Tshepang: The third testament
Notes on Tshepang: The third testament
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Tshepang: The Third TestamentWritten by: Lara Foot Newton
When: 2005
The playwright
- resident director and Dramaturg at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town
- directed 25 premieres of new South African works
- 2004 – Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative Award in the theatre
category
- Her mentor was Sir Peter Hall
- She and Gerhard Marx collaborate under “duckrabbit”
Context
Post-Apartheid South Africa 11 years after the end of Apartheid
General impacts of Apartheid
- Social
- Economic
- Cultural
- Unemployment
- Poverty
- Education
- Alcoholism
Dewaal, they say, is very clever. Apparently he got a distinction in matric for
mathematics. [pauses to reflect on the impossibility.]”
-pg 23
“But de Villiers doesn’t pay with money, he pays with vaalwyn. The dop system.
All the wine that is too kak to sell, de Villiers gives it to the workers as payment.
It’s been happening for years. My father’s father was paid like that, and so was
my father.”
- pg 28
“Wake, wipe, eat, drink, naai, sleep. I know, because I also used to be like that.
Sometimes you can leave out the wipe, or maybe the naai, but never, ever, the
drink.”
-pg 28
, Title
Tshepang: The Third Testament
- The latter part perhaps refers to now: we are living in the 3 rd testament
- 2nd testament is Jesus coming/ 3rd is a continuation
- Society we are shown – a degenerative society but miracles still within
this: someone survives this brutal rape
- Positive aspect of the title perhaps is in the first section
- Tshepang meaning ‘hope’ / ‘saviour’ and significantly it is first
- Come to help the world
- Miracles – bible
- A testimony, to witness, provide evidence
- Failure of conventional religion to meet needs
Costumes and setting
- Poor home
- Outskirts of a small town – hill looking down
- Pile of salt, animal skin, RDP houses with attached sticks, newspapers and
glasses, rustic bed, nativity carvings
- Shows economic bracket of society
- Reveals idea of poverty
- Poor theatre style – actor centered
- Flexibility and non-specific to certain event
- Dry, barren, hot – reinforces difficult and oppressive living conditions
- RDP houses – economic bracket
- RDP houses are small – distance, not live amongst community
- Sticks and glasses with newspapers - non-realist commentary device
- Glasses – see more clearly – all eyes judging, watching, media
- Costumes – poverty, torn, holey, worn out shoes
- Ruth – bare foot with blanket – vulnerable – emotional state
Louisvaleweg
- Isolated
- Extreme temperatures
- Impoverished township
- Unemployment
- Dop system – poor prospects
- Abandoned by new regime
- Abuse is rife
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