Performative Identities: Race, Sexuality and Gender in Colleen Craig’s Crossing the Line (1989) and Apart (1995)

Abstract

This essay focuses on identity categories as instruments of regulatory regimes, whether as normalising categories of oppressive structures or as rallying points for a liberatory contestation of that very oppression, with reference to two texts by Canadian playwright, Colleen Craig. Crossing the Line (1989) and Apart (1995) are considered in terms of feminist theatre in the context of South African dramatic literature. A close analysis in relation to race, sexuality and gender is undertaken via the ‘performative’, ‘performance’ and ‘literary’ aspects of the texts. The essay also demonstrates that Craig seems to be working towards an intercultural theatre.