Doing white differently? Playback Theatre and whiteness in post-apartheid South Africa

Abstract

This article explores how whiteness is enacted and negotiated from the perspective of a conductor in a Playback Theatre performance (PT). The article addresses how PT provides a stage for exercising opportunities for doing white differently in post-apartheid South Africa. It argues that Doing white differently takes place by recognising a distinction between the subjectivity of white individuals and the historic, colonial representations of whiteness in South Africa. Drawing on second-wave critical whiteness studies and agential realism, this article discusses the author’s attempt to engage in a diffractive moment related to racial identities during a performance for university students.