Patterns of change; audience, attendance, and music at the 1994 Grahamstown festival

The fact that the 1994 Grahamstown Festival was the first to take place in the ‘new’, democratic South Africa, provides the context for Dudley Pietersen's comments on the increasing presence of women as writers, producers, and directors of contemporary SouthAfrican plays. In this report, written immediately after the 1994 Festival (the first festival totake place after the elections), Pietersen argues that South African women's plays arespeaking out more and more, and with authority, on issues relevant to women and to the
structure of a newly ‘free’ society. He also shows how both the contents and style of women's plays are addressed and represented at the festival and in the press. In analysingthe racial composition of audiences and patterns of attendance throughout the festival,Pietersen offers a valuable source and critical resource. Jazz and Reggae music shows are singled out as the only genres capable of drawing truly ‘representative’ (racially mixed)
audiences. Finally, Pietersen comments on the scope and size of 1994's festival, and implications for the representation of women's work and black theatre work more generally.