When apartheid censors first encountered The Rocky Horror Picture Show, they did not know what to make of it. Here was a film featuring a man in fishnets singing about being a “sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania”. Here was a celebration of bisexuality, gender fluidity, and hedonistic abandon that directly contradicted everything the conservative state stood for. The film’s journey from a banned subversive text to a widely celebrated stage production in 2026 reflects South Africa’s turbulent path from repression towards a more complex present.
The story begins not with the film, but with the stage production. The Rocky Horror Show premiered in London in June 1973 at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs for an audience of just 63 people. Created by Richard O’Brien, the musical won the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Musical that same year and was quickly transferred to larger venues. Within two years, the film version – The Rocky Horror Picture Show – had been produced, starring Tim Curry.
When this “late night double feature picture show” reached South Africa in 1976, it was initially released with some restrictions. The censorship board operating under the Publications and Entertainment Act of 1963 restricted it to audiences over the age of 21. Approximately 250 000 South Africans managed to see it in this brief window. However, the censors soon determined that the film was too “transgressive”. A journalist who saw the film in Pretoria recalled that it played for just two weeks before it was banned. The official justification was that the film “promoted homosexuality”. The film’s hidden detail of the old South African flag stuck upside-down on a pineapple during the “Time Warp” scene serves as a playful act of defiance – a reminder that even in the darkest times, art found a way to challenge authority and celebrate the very things the state sought to suppress.
To understand the decision, one must comprehend the era’s censorship machinery. The apartheid government, through the 1963 Act and the subsequent Publications Act of 1974, constructed an extensive system for controlling public access to media. The Publications Control Board determined what qualified as “undesirable”, banning approximately 70 films and 7 000 publications each year. Officials often scrutinised films frame by frame to remove offensive content. The film’s gender-bending presentation, celebration of sexual freedom, and defiant refrain of “don’t dream it, be it” all contradicted the apartheid regime’s rigid racial and sexual hierarchies.
The hypocrisy of the ban is striking, especially considering that at the same time, the government was sending young white men into the Angolan Bush War. The ban deemed them too young to watch The Rocky Horror Picture Show but old enough to be sent to fight in wars. Violence was permissible, but sexual expression was not.
The prohibition was not exceptional. Numerous other films suffered similar fates. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner was banned for depicting an interracial couple positively, while Cry Freedom – the biographical film about Steve Biko – was prohibited because it might “sow the seeds of revolution”.
The end of apartheid brought an end to state control over public viewing. The old censorship board was replaced by the Film and Publication Board (FPB) in 1996, and their mandate focuses on classification and protecting children rather than suppressing “immorality” or political dissent.
The FPB continues to prohibit certain works, but the targets have changed considerably. A campy musical about a transvestite alien no longer raises official concern. The first South African production of the stage show was performed in 1992, with the Cape Performing Arts Board (CAPAB) opening it at the Nico Malan Theatre. Since then, numerous productions have followed.
The new production of Richard O’Brien’s iconic rock musical, which ran in Cape Town and Johannesburg, featured an award-winning South African cast led by Craig Urbani as Dr Frank-N-Furter. The production was directed by Stephen Stead and presented by Pieter Torien Productions in association with the Luitingh Alexander Musical Theatre Academy (LAMTA). The high-voltage theatrical experience showcased unforgettable songs like “Dammit Janet”, “Hot Patootie”, and “Science Fiction/Double Feature” while audiences enthusiastically embraced the tradition of dressing up, shouted the famous callbacks, and gave themselves over to absolute pleasure. The very fact that this show – once a symbol of forbidden expression – could be performed openly and celebrated by thousands was a testament to the progressive change South Africa has undergone.
