Ataya: The HUMA Interdisciplinary Seminar Series
13:00-14:00 SAST 

Speaker: 
Sarah Saddler (Baruch College, City University of New York)

➤ Project/Paper: 
Saddler. Chapter 5: Performing Corporate Bodies 

Topic: This talk interrogates the genealogy of workerist performance in South Africa, tracing its evolution from the radical workers’ theatre movements of the apartheid era to its contemporary reconfiguration as industrial theatre—corporate-commissioned performances staged in mining compounds, factory floors, and office parks. It examines how these theatrical forms rework political imaginaries of collective struggle, adapting diverse aesthetic strategies to engage with the shifting terrain of post-apartheid labor reform. Drawing on archival research and performance ethnography, the talk proposes industrial theatre as a critical lens through which to examine the contradictions of a post-apartheid economy shaped by the residues of industrial labor and the influence of a global corporate restructuring of labor. I argue that industrial theatre functions as a contingent cultural form—at once a site of symbolic resistance and a mechanism of institutional reproduction—mediating a complex politics of (non)belonging, vocational training, and affective labor. Ultimately, the paper reflects on the afterlives of workerist performance as South Africa navigates the reorganization of its industrial foundations and the consolidation of neoliberal economic policy—processes that unfold within broader world patterns of economic restructuring and uneven post-Fordist transition.

About the speaker: Sarah Saddler is Assistant Professor in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at Baruch College, City University of New York, where she writes and teaches on performance, labor, and cultural economies. Her first book, Performing Corporate Bodies (Routledge, 2024), offers the first ethnographic study of theatre-based corporate training in India and its global implications. She is currently at work on her second monograph, Performance and the Global Afterlives of Work, a transnational study of how labor is performed, remembered, and reimagined from the gold mines of South Africa to the deindustrialized landscapes of the United States. Her writing can be found in outlets including Performance Research, The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, and TDR: The Drama Review.

How Ataya works: One presenter and their work – in exchange with the audience. Each Ataya session engages with selected work by the presenter (a text, artwork, performance, even food). The presenter introduces their work and grounds the subsequent discussion with the participants. For best engagement, we recommend participants to view the work (made available in advance on our website) before the session. More on the Ataya Series


For any questions: huma@uct.ac.za