Theatre renamed after playwright Adam Small
THE Adam Small Theatre Complex at Stellenbosch University (SU) was officially opened at a renaming ceremony on the Stellenbosch campus.
The university’s renovated and expanded theatre complex was renamed after Small, an award-winning poet and playwright.
The university says this name change forms part of a process of visual redress and renewal of public spaces, symbols, buildings and facilities at SU.
Small, a former Cape Times columnist, received an honorary doctorate from SU in 2015.
The Adam Small Theatre complex is a multifunctional facility that includes the large auditorium in the complex (until now known as the HB Thom Theatre), a seminar room and a smaller laboratory theatre. Although the name HB Thom Theatre will no longer be used, it will be contextualised in the refurbished building, said the university.
The adjacent drama department will now for the first time functionally join the theatre complex.
Speaking at the ceremony on Friday, SU rector and vice-chancellor Professor Wim de Villiers said the renaming was about recognition, redress and reconciliation.
“We are naming this theatre complex after Adam Small to recognise him as one of our greatest thinkers and authors, to right some of the wrongs done to him and other victims of apartheid, and to heal the wounds of the past… to bring together again those torn asunder by what Adam Small himself called an ‘evil system’.”
Small wanted to study at SU, but couldn’t do so because of apartheid.
It’s to recognise him as one of our greatest thinkers, to right some of the wrongs done to him.