Space Theatre

1972-1979 [In Afrikaans: Die Ruimte; In Xhosa: Indawo]

An enormously influential “alternative” theatre space in Cape Town founded by Brian Astbury in 1972, with the help of many people in the the Cape Town theatre scene.

Productions

Its first venue was in the premises of Sebba and Co in Bloem Street, Cape Town and was converted by was opened on 28 May with the first production of an early version of Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act, starring Athol Fugard and Yvonne Bryceland. To avoid the apartheid legislation of the times it was run as a theatre club, The Space Theatre Club, thus allowing for racially mixed casts and audiences, and the first performance of Fugard, Kani and Ntshona’s Sizwe Bansi is Dead for example was offered in October 1972, for “members only". In July 1973 the seminal production of their next play, The Hodoshe Span (The Island) took place there as well. **An art gallery was also built in the space, and in 1974 a second venue was added on the ground floor (The Outer Space, opened with Pieter-Dirk Uys’s Pity about People) . In 1976 it moved to the YMCA building in Long Street, putting on a performance of Tsafendas by William (Bill) Tanner on the evening and asking the audience to carry their chairs to the new building. Besides the main theatre, other, smaller, venues in the old and the new buildings were also utilized from time to time (e.g. The Gym, The Rehearsal Room, Upstairs at the Space). Among the other major productions were Athol Fugard’s Statements, People are Living There, Hello and Goodbye, Dimetos, Pieter-Dirk Uys’s Selle Ou Storie (1975), Karnaval and God’s Forgotten, Genet’s The Maids, Survival (1976) by Theatre Workshop ’71, Imfuduso by the women from Crossroads (1978), Fatima Dike’s The Sacrifice of Kreli (1976), The First South African (1977) and Glasshouse (1979), Geraldine Aron’s Bar and Ger (1978), Mickey Kannis Caught my Eye (197*) and Zombie (197*), Othello – Slegs vir Blankes [“For Whtes Only”], Enemy and Scarborough by Donald Howarth, **** (197*), **

Foundation for Art and Theatre

To encourage new writing the fund-raisers who had initially collected the money for The Space formed a group called the Foundation for Art and Theatre under the leadership of Kate Jowell. They organised a one-act play competition with Robin Malan, Brian Astbury and Mavis Taylor as the judges. 105 plays were submitted and these were then reduced down to ten stageable ones, of which 5 were eventually produced. (Die Laaste Middagmaal by Wilma Stockenström and It’s My Weekend, Too were tied at first place.)

Influence

Over the years it was home and training ground to numerous South African performers, directors and other theatre artists, including Yvonne Bryceland, Bill Tanner, Dmitri Nicolas-Fanourakis, Bee Berman, Pieter-Dirk Uys, Bill Curry, Fatima Dike, Barney Simon, Paul Slabolepszy, Bill Flynn, Janice Honeyman, Robin Malan, Vincent Ebrahim, Wilson Dunster, Thoko Ntshinga, James Mthoba, Jaqui Singer, Val Fletcher, Christopher Prophet, Shirley Johnston Blaise Koch, Christene Basson, Nomhle Nkonyeni, Marthinus Basson, Dawie Malan, and Grethe Fox.

It also became venue for productions by other experimental and political groups, and became the inspiration for other similar theatres, notably the Market Theatre in Johannesburg. In September 1979 it closed its doors as Astbury and his wife Yvonne Bryceland left for England. Space Theatre: In Cape Town. It was founded by Brian Astbury and his wife Yvonne Bryceland with the close involvement of Athol Fugard. Moyra Fine, one of the founding fund-raisers for The Space remained its bastion through its seven year life. It opened on 28 May 1972 with Fugard’s Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act starring Fugard, Yvonne and Christopher Prophet. Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona created The Island which was staged here circa 1973. Libby Morris offered her show Edith Piaf, Je vous aime as a fund raiser to the struggling theatre in December/January 1977/8 ****

The end

It then resurfaced as The People's Space under Rob Amato, Muriel Fine and others ***, and finally closed down in 1981.

In 1997 Cape Town celebrated the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Space and Pieter-Dirk Uys wrote his nostalgic rememberence of it in the play No Space on Long Street, performed at its successor, the Baxter Theatre, and published in the South African Theatre Journal of that year.

Sources

(See Astbury, 1979, Tucker, 1997; Kruger, 1999)

For more information

See also The People’s Space)

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