ARCHIVES: NEW FRAME: Matthew Krouse’s anti-authoritarian past lives again
These days Matthew Krouse can usually be found in the bookshop he runs upstairs in the David Baillie Gallery at Victoria Yards in Lorentzville, Johannesburg. With his usual, self-deprecating and dry sense of humour, Krouse seems a little bemused at the fuss being made about things he did in his 20s. Back then, he was living the life of a gay drama student newly arrived in Johannesburg from the East Rand town of Germiston, where he was born to a Jewish mother and an Afrikaans father in 1961.
He was also the target of envy because he had school colours for “art stuff” while his schoolmates were “fascist superheroes on the sports field, killing themselves for colours. I was chain-smoking with filthy fucking hands and nails, my clothing was always scrubby, I was cruising all the boys… I was real suburban trash, but I had colours for acting.”
Krouse now admits that perhaps Weekend Theatre was hamstrung by the fact that “we were severely apolitical, and that was the result of the admiration that we were giving to British and American performance culture and their performance art scene”.Krouse’s plans for theatre glory were dealt a crushing blow in 1984, when “I fucked out at Wits. Andrew got the Fulbright and left for America [to study film at the University of California] and I bummed out and had to leave.
Matthew Krouse and Robert Colman perform the banned play Famous Dead Man at the Black Sun cabaret theatre in Hillbrow, 1986. Image: courtesy of Matthew Krouse Keen to develop an idea he’d had while in the army for “a Rat Pack cabaret” based on the life and assassination of apartheid architect Hendrik Verwoerd, Krouse sought out his former theatre collaborator Robert Colman. Together they developed the playwhich they performed to the enthusiastic mirth of white, progressive crowds at The Black Sun in Hillbrow.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
New music Friday: Master KG shares clip of new songFrom 'Skeleton Move' to 'Jersualema' Master KG's new smash hit is brewing just in time for the festive season.
Read more »
Lives made easier for pets through new initiative by SPCAPets can now taste and choose their own food
Read more »
All-new AMG developed Mercedes-Benz SL revealedAfter nearly a decade, the all-new 2022 Mercedes-Benz SL has been revealed as the first iteration ever to be made in-house by AMG.
Read more »
New ways of dreaming with iwalewabooks - The Mail & Guardianiwalewabooks offers artists, cultural workers and academics a roving space to explore aesthetic and intellectually rigorous modes of publishing.
Read more »
Everything you need to know about the new 2022 Mercedes-AMG SLThe fading popularity of two-seat roadsters caused Mercedes-Benz to recently cull its SLC (formerly the SLK), but the German marque has decided to soldier on with the larger SL, albeit as a more practical four-seater for the first time
Read more »
Hamilton finding new sense of purpose in diversity driveLewis Hamilton says his drive for social justice, and campaigning for diversity, has given his life a real purpose while also helping prolong his record-breaking Formula One career.
Read more »