Chekhov in post-apartheid South Africa : Reza de Wet's Three Sisters Two

Abstract EN

South African playwright Reza de Wet's play Drie Susters Twee or Three Sisters Two (1997), was originally written in Afrikaans, as a sequel to Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters (1900).

Despite the obvious parallels between post-apartheid South Africa and Russia in the post-revolution period, de Wet's play does not address the South African situation overtly.

In fact, she does not write with the intent of pursing a political agenda or reinforcing one, instead, she perceives theatre as constructing an alternative, imaginary world.

She aspires for theatre to be a transformational space in which new and alternative realities can be explored.

The aim of this paper is to examine how and to what extent de Wet is able to apply her notion of a post-apartheid theatre to the writing of her play Three Sisters Two.