Abstract

Pale natives is one of the gems in Slabolepszy’s dramatic repertoire.  The play focuses on the surviving clan of white males in South Africa, with South Africa’s imminent changeover of government as a backdrop. With typical machismo, Rabelaisian (Rabelaisian humour refers to vulgar use of bodily (scatological), sexual humour through exaggeration and suspension of disbelief (Walter-Barden, October 6:2010; accessed on 31 May 2012: http://voices.yahoo.com/rabelaisian_humor-7058140.htm) and comic humour, Slabolepszy relates the personal angst of his five forty-plus male characters facing and handling their lives, in a turbulent South Africa. By poignantly combining pathos, satire and comic humour, Slabolepszy enables us to empathise with them.  The positive note on which the play ends suggests hope for the future, but this hope is ambiguous. The comic mirror Slabolepszy holds up to his audience ultimately questions the fate of present-day South Africa’s disillusioned “pale natives”.

Key words: Comedy, South Africa, imitation.