Introduction/Definition
Barney Simon (1936–1995) is best known as the founding director of Johannesburg’s Market Theatre, perhaps the most prominent antiapartheid cultural institution of its time, but he began working in theatres at home and briefly overseas in the 1950s, and writing for publication as well as for the stage in the 1960s and 1970s, before the Market opened in 1976. In addition to leading the theatre as artistic director in tandem with Mannie Manim as manager, Simon also played the role of animator of collectively created workshop plays that dramatized contemporary life in Johannesburg led by South Africans of diverse backgrounds, and addressed gender as well as racial identities.
Early Collaborations
Growing up with Yiddish-speaking parents in Kensington, a...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Clay, Patti, and Glen Griffiths. 1982. Hillbrow. Cape Town: National Books.
Du Plessis, P.G. 1971. Siener in die suburbs. Cape Town: Tafelberg.
Gevisser, Mark. 1995. A different fight for freedom: Gay and lesbian organizations from the 1950s to the 1990s. In Defiant desire: Gay and lesbian lives in South Africa, ed. M. Gevisser and Edwin Cameron, 14–86. New York: Routledge.
Graver, David, and Loren Kruger. 1989. South Africa’s national theatre: The market or the street? New Theatre Quarterly 19: 272–281.
Kruger, Loren. 2013. Imagining the edgy city: Writing, performing and building Johannesburg. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kruger, Loren. 2019. A century of South African theatre. London: Bloomsbury.
Manaka, Matsamela. 1980. Egoli. Johannesburg: Ravan Press.
Maponya, Maishe. 1995. Doing plays for a change. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.
Pam-Grant, Susan. 1993. Curl up and dye. In South Africa: Plays, ed. Stephen Grey. London: Nick Hern.
Pickard-Cambridge, Claire. 1989. The greying of Johannesburg. Johannesburg: South African Institute of Race Relations.
Schwartz, Pat. 1988. The best of company: The story of Johannesburg’s Market Theatre. Johannesburg: Ad Donker.
Simon, Barney. 1974. Jo’burg, sis! Johannesburg: Bateleur Press.
Simon, Barney. 1986. Hey, listen! In Market plays, ed. Stephen Gray, 109–133. Johannesburg: Ad Donker.
Simon, Barney, and Market Theatre cast. 1984. Cincinatti (1977). In South African theatre: Four plays, ed. Temple Hauptfleisch and Ian Steadman, 166–235. Pretoria: HAUM.
Simon, Barney, and Market Theatre cast. 1986. Born in the RSA. In Woza Afrika! ed. Duma Ndlovu, 129–176. New York: Braziller.
Simon, Barney, and Market Theatre cast. 1997. In Born in the RSA: Four workshopped plays, ed. Pat Schwartz. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.
Slabolepszy, Paul. 1994. Mooi Street and other moves. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.
Stephanou, Irene, and Leila Henriques. 2006. In The world in an orange: Creating theatre with Barney Simon, ed. Lionel Abrahams and Jane Fox. Cape Town: Seven Stories Press.
Themba, Can. 1985. In The World of can Themba, ed. Essop Patel. Johannesburg: Ravan Press.
Further Reading
Morris, Alan. 1999. Bleakness and light: Inner city transition in Hillbrow. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Kruger, L. (2020). Barney Simon’s Johannesburg. In: Tambling, J. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Urban Literary Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62592-8_277-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62592-8_277-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-62592-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-62592-8
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities