The phrase South African Theatre may refer to two things:

South African Theatre as a descriptor or theme

This may be a general term to refer to the sum total of all theatrical events that have taken place in the country South Africa over the millennia, (including considerations of all the texts, structures, venues and people involved - whether they were South African or not.) This can include works by South African creators, done internationally. It is in this sense that the term is used in the title and text of this Encyclopaedia for example.

(In this regard, see the introductory article: South African Theatre: An Overview, as well as the entry on the notion South African)

However, a number of authors over the years have tended to draw the margins a little more narrowly and parochially, using the term to refer only to work created in South Africa by South Africans, thus normally excluding performances by visiting companies, for instance, only considering work done by local companies.

A rarer, but more specific, though somewhat contentious, version of this is latter stance occurs in cases where it is used to refer only to work created in South Africa or by South Africans, i.e. the argument for the indigenous art work. This argument, in its purist form, may even ignore local productions of plays written by non-South Africans (unless translated or adapted).

Another, possibly more radical and insidious example of this kind of parochialism occurs where some authors have co-opted the term to refer to works in only one language as "South African" (this applies to film, music, prose, poetry and theatre).

All of this is of course ultimately related to the philosophical and semantic issue of what do we actually mean by South African art and culture per se - an ongoing argument.

South African Theatre as the name of a venue

The name South African Theatre was at times applied to the African Theatre in Cape Town by 19th century journalists. See for example F.C.L. Bosman (1928).