Greek drama in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe

Abstract

This paper was inspired by the recent Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy, if only because the chapters by Burian and Macintosh were a source of annoyance.¹ Burian does refer, almost in passing, to adaptations of Greek tragedy by the Nigerian Wole Solinka and by the South African Athol Fugard;² Macintosh, in discussing performance in the twentieth century, concentrates (understandably) on Britain, Europe and the USA, mentions Japan and Australia, but makes no reference at all to Africa. This is a serious gap, for even leaving aside the rest of the continent, a great deal has been done in South Africa. There have been numerous translations in Afrikaans, by among others van Rensburg;³ there is a long tradition of performance, in both English and Afrikaans translations, examined, for example, by Conradie,⁴ and recently the relevance of Greek drama to the new South Africa has also been studied by Mezzabotta.⁵ There does not however seem to be any previous study of the performance of Greek plays in Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia. This paper is a tentative attempt to correct that omission; it must be stressed that this study is not complete, and its findings not yet definitive.