The Troupe Theatre Company was a Cape Town-based experimental theatre-making company.

Not to be confused with the London based Troupe Theatre Company/Troupe Productions Ltd.[1]

History

The UCT phase

Fiona Ramsey in Theatre Lives explains that Troupe Theatre Company was used as the name for the UCT Drama student productions of East in 1978, and Total Eclipse in 1979. Most of the founding members were Drama students at UCT at the time.

Founding members include Fiona Ramsay, Richard E. Grant, Sean Taylor, Neil McCarthy, Fred Abrahamse.

The professional phase

In 1980, by which time the key founding members had graduated, the company staged its first professional production, which was Fanshen at the People's Space in January/February 1980.

Actors and directors who joined with them also included Henry Goodman, Bryony Mortimer, Penelope Lorimer, Ian Roberts, Graham Hopkins, Michael O'Brien, Hilary Jones, Charles Whaley, Chas Unwin, Thoko Ntshinga, Joko Scott, Lammie Shoba, Grethe Fox and Brumilda van Rensburg. Technical support for productions came from artists such as Richard Grant, Nicholas Fine, Birrie le Roux, Denise Newman.

Based at the People's Space and working between there, the Baxter Theatre and the Market Theatre for two years, they were initially drawn together by a common interest in communal working methods and a desire to do a type of theatre that deviated from the traditional commercial fare. Everyone got paid the same and they all collaborated using as many of the company’s skills as possible in the direction, design, and acting of a variety of productions. Having to rely on each other and work together as a team was an unforgettable and invaluable formative experience.They had no funding or administration of their own, being purely a performance group and dependent on sponsoring managements such as the People's Space.