An Examination of The Significance of The Choice of Dramatic Techniques in Fugard’s Sizwe Bansi is Dead

Abstract

In their creative works, African writers usually deal with issues concerning their various societies. They talk and discuss social, political, economic and many other problems that affect their immediate societies. For many dramatists, exploring different techniques to discuss issues of utmost importance to them is a big problem. The reason is that the techniques define the success or otherwise of the play they write as far as literary style is concerned.  Athol Fugard and his co-writers Winston Ntsona and John Kani lived and wrote the play Sizwe Bansi is Dead during the era of apartheid in South Africa.  They witnessed many of the injustices that happened during the apartheid era. In steering their play to a conclusion that leaves their readers and theatre audience feeling extremely satisfied that they had enjoyed the play, Fugard and his co-writers adopt techniques in drama to create a virtual realism that sends the audience wondering whether or not they were in the centre of the action when it all happened. This paper uses the textual analysis method to explore how these techniques including flashback, alienation effect, minimal set and simple props, small cast; humour and comic elements and the story-within-a-story technique are stylistically used by Fugard and his co-writers in the play to drive home their thematic message to their readers and audience. The study concludes that the major themes of racial discrimination and identity are successfully developed by these dramatists with their careful and appropriate usage of these dramatic techniques to achieve verisimilitude.