The Academic in the Archive:
Tracing the Workshopping Process of Oedipus at Colonus #aftersophocles
More often than not, theatre historians have limited resources to piece together a picture of the performance, interpretation, and especially, the creation, of a particular play. Scholars of classical reception on the South African stage frequently encounter a major obstacle: limited archival material.
Historically, much has not been documented in the archives, due partially to apartheid’s marginalisation and indeed criminalisation of all but the ruling white minority’s theatrical activities for the better part of the 20th century. Moreover, the dismantling of state-maintained archives at the end of apartheid has meant that many collections have not been relocated or made publicly available, and the biases of state-supported and state-supporting newspapers, and, not least, the lack of resources available to maintain thorough archival work, has resulted in some of the most interesting productions of classical reception leaving scant traces in the archive. Often, all that remains is an isolated script, a single newspaper review, or the title of a production. As Cheryl Thompson puts it, the archive is ‘not innocent’. Rather, the archive is ‘an ongoing site of struggle between the dominant culture — the remembrance, preservation, and dissemination of national (and local) narratives — and historically marginalized and racialized groups’ (Thompson 2019: 34).
Very rarely are we as researchers afforded the opportunity to be a ‘fly on the wall’ during the creation process. This opportunity offered by the ReTAGS rehearsal archive gives the academic a unique insight into the shaping of a piece of classical reception, the very aspect about which the archive is usually silent.
Focusing on the character of Theseus in Oedipus at Colonus #aftersophocles, as portrayed by Faniswa Yisa, this exhibit investigates the deconstruction of the Greek tragic character by the actress, director, and creative team, exploring the workshopping process that re-situates the character in his new African context. How does this insight into the creative process aid the scholar of classical reception in understanding the re-imagination of Greek tragedy from the Global South? What difference does this make in comparison to researching historic productions which have left only a script and a handful of production reviews in the material archive? What can a glimpse into the rehearsal process reveal about the way that tragedy is shaped by the real-time experiences and contributions of those workshopping the production? How do the quotidian tragic realities of the postcolony bleed into the rehearsal room and suffuse the tragedy with new meaning?
Oedipus supplicates Theseus.
