Theatre for reconciliation
A concept that surfaced in the “new” South Africa, as a number of practitioners (including Athol Fugard) sought to utilize theatre and theatre techniques to heal the wounds and bridge the gaps in the society after the trauma of apartheid and the armed struggle. For many this meant an identification with the processes initiated by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of the 1995??*-2000 period, whose hearings not only constitued a highly theatrical series of events in themselves, but became both metaphor for and the material for new writing. Some of these works however, were inherently critical of the processes, and tend to be oppositional rather than conciliatory. (E.g. such varied works as Ubu and the Truth Commission and Truth Ommissions).
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