Bantu People's Theatre (BPT)
A Johannesburg-based theatre group founded in 1936 by Dan Twala and other members of the Bantu Dramatic Society, for the “cultivation of Bantu Art and Drama” and to improve “the undiscovered talents of Bantu Art in Drama”. They modelled their constitution on that of the Unity Theatres in Britain. Their first production was O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape, with Dan Twala as Yank, directed by André van Gyseghem. It was performed at the Bantu Men’s Social Centre (BMSC) in December 1936 and at the University of the Witwatersrand Great Hall in June 1937. In 1940 the company seemed to surface again, when their work became more explicitly socialist in intention, targeting urbanized and urbanizing workers and intellectuals. They hosted a BPT Drama Festival at the BMSC, performing another O’Neill play (The Dreamy Kid), plus two new locally written plays by Guy Routh: The Word and the Act and Patriot’s Pie. In 1941 they Organised another festival which they called African National Theatre (ANT) at the Ghandi Hall, Fordsburg. This time the programme included Gaur Radebe’s The Rude Criminal and I. Pinchuk’s Tau, performed largely in Sesotho and starring Dan Twala. (Couzens, 1985; Kruger, 51ff, 74-5,) Bantu People’s Theatre: Guy Routh, a trade unionist was one of the people responsible for the formation of the Bantu People’s Theatre. Transformed into African National Theatre circa 1940. Performed Patriot’s Pie by Guy Routh circa 1940. *** (Tucker, 1997)
See also the notion of People's theatre
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