Craig Higginson: Three Plays

Craig Higginson’s first three plays for adult audiences – collected here in one volume for the first time – represent one of the strongest debuts in the history of South African theatre. Although each can be seen as a variation on the theme of the post-apartheid state of the nation play, they are also engaged with realities in Zimbabwe, the Congo and contemporary Europe. Higginson’s experience of growing up in wartorn Zimbabwe and apartheid South Africa have given him a deep-rooted and potent angle from which to dramatize a dialogue between Europe and Africa, the so-called First World and the Third. As British director Jeremy Herrin has noted in his Foreword: ‘The pairing of delicate psychology and considered plot allow the plays to move beyond the realism of their settings into a bespoke theatrical landscape, a place where the contradictions and messiness of contemporary life hold themselves up for inspection.’