Kunapipi Volume 4 Issue 1 Article 7 1982 The comic theatre of Stephen Black in South Africa Stephen Gray Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons Recommended Citation Gray, Stephen, The comic theatre of Stephen Black in South Africa, Kunapipi, 4(1), 1982. Available at:https://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi/vol4/iss1/7 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library:
[email protected] The comic theatre of Stephen Black in South Africa Abstract Stephen Black's comic theatre has vanished from contemporary South Africa as effectively as its tangible appurtenances: the elaborate Edwardian theatre buildings, the palimpsests of improvised scripts, the photos and other documents, its living performers and even its audiences. There are cultural-historical reasons for this. Time passes; ways of entertainment die; aspirations change. But Black, a master entrepreneur of the colonial heyday, should not have been so forgotten. This journal article is available in Kunapipi: https://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi/vol4/iss1/7 STEPHEN GRAY The Comic Th.eatre of Stephen Black in South Africa Stephen Black (dramatist), 1880-1931. Stephen Black's comic theatre has vanished from contemporary South Africa as effectively as its tangible appurtenances: the elaborate Edwardian theatre buildings, the palimpsests of improvised scripts, the photos and other documents, its living performers and even its audi ences. There are cultural-historical reasons for this. Time passes; ways of entertainment die; aspirations change. But Black, a master entrepreneur of the colonial heyday, should not have been so forgotten.