For more than five decades, Sandra Prinsloo has moved between Shakespearean drama, South African theatre, television and film, taking on roles that have entertained audiences but have also, at times, unsettled them.
Now, one of South Africa’s best-known actresses is being recognised by North-West University, which will confer an honorary doctorate on Prinsloo on September at its Potchefstroom campus.
According to NWU, Prinsloo has appeared in more than 120 theatre, film and television productions. Her career has included works by William Shakespeare, Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekhov and Athol Fugard, alongside contemporary South African productions.
Born in 1947, Prinsloo studied drama at the University of Pretoria before joining the Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal (PACT), where she spent nine years.
She later worked with companies including the Market Theatre and Baxter Theatre, appearing in productions such as "Macbeth", "Hamlet", "The Seagull" and "Siener in die Suburbs".
Her screen work has included the internationally successful South African film "The Gods Must Be Crazy".
She has also worked as a television presenter and interviewer and directed more than 20 productions. Her acting career has taken her beyond South Africa, with performances in Britain, France, Germany, Scotland, Ireland, Sweden, China and the United States.
But one role in particular became intertwined with the social and political tensions of the country in which she was working.
In 1985, Prinsloo played the title role in August Strindberg’s "Miss Julie" opposite John Kani at the Baxter Theatre.
The production placed a white Afrikaner woman and a black man at the centre of an interracial relationship during apartheid. It provoked strong reactions, with audiences walking out and Prinsloo facing threats and hostility. The production later transferred to Johannesburg’s Market Theatre.
"Miss Julie" became one of the defining chapters of Prinsloo’s career, not simply because of the controversy surrounding it but because of what putting the relationship on stage represented at the time.
The Presidency later cited the role when Prinsloo received the Order of Ikhamanga in Silver in 2014 for her contribution to the performing arts and her stand against racism.
Her other honours include the ACT Lifetime Achievement Award for Theatre in 2013 and the Fleur du Cap Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022. That year, she also won Best Performance in a Revue, Cabaret or One-Person Show for her portrayal of writer Elsa Joubert in "Spertyd".
The honorary doctorate adds another chapter to a career that has continually moved between the stage and screen, while reflecting the wider history of South African performance.
bernelee.vollmer@nationalmg.co.za