Opening this weekend at the Baxter in Cape Town is Out Of Bounds, an unusually heartfelt example of a new generation of South African theatre.

It could be described as a "one-hander", as Durban actor and comedian Rajesh Gopie does take centre stage. But what he draws you into is a world in many ways charmed, in many ways sad and yet courageous. It's South African theatre of the here and now.

Gopie has established himself as a significant figure in a new theatrical sensibility, exemplified by contemporaries such as Heinrich Reisenhofer, Oscar Petersen, Fiona Coyne and Marc Lottering.

In a sense these artists represent a generation of writers and performers who each in their own way are approaching being South African in a way that is enriched by new-found freedoms. They are exploring new ways of being and discarding a theatrical approach that relies exclusively on reacting to the past or on seeing the present purely in terms of being a victim of the past.

'Durban working-class point of view'

Much of this new, vibrant sensibility has its origins in the Cape Town theatrical milieu, but now audiences can enjoy a view of a South Africa seen from a "Durban working-class point of view", as Gopie describes the inspiration behind his play.

What do these artists have in common? They're all funny for a start. They're making us laugh at situations that often have their origins in pain, injustice, discrimination and oppression, whether imposed from without or within. The temptation is to merely see, say, Fiona Coyne as white, Marc Lottering as coloured and Gopie as Indian and risk not seeing that what binds these artists together is an inescapable South African-ness, transcending the divides of the past by turning it on its head.

Gopie and his fellow writers might be grappling with inherited prejudices and notorious parochialism, but the integrity of the artistic endeavour is what shines through, the adherence to the principles of sound story-telling and the narrative structure and theatrical finesse that make for what could be termed a "good play".

"You stay on your side of the fence your whole life and judge. It's being judgmental which is the bane of our existence. To judge assumes that you have a point which is superior. That issue comes into the play. It's just the story of a young boy growing up in working class family in Durban. That is more important than the historical references or the political undertones. It's a story about forgiveness, about coming to terms, about family and one's individual destiny, but above all forgiveness."

With generational conflict being explored in Out Of Bounds, Gopie acknowledges that generational conflict in South Africa has possibly been made more acute here because of politics, with children rejecting their parents for their compliance with apartheid or supine attitude towards it. "It does resonate," says Gopie.

Generational conflict

Out Of Bounds also reflects inequities in our theatrical establishment: "Because I am told I am Indian, because I am affirmed at each turn that I am Indian, because this determines the roles that I play, I will never be cast in Death Of A Salesman, for example, the way they cast it at the moment in this country - me and others like me have decided to do our own thing, and Out Of Bounds is a product of that."