Journey through the heartbeat of Johannesburg’s theatre scene, as we trace its transformation from a tool of resistance under apartheid’s harsh censorship to a thriving space for diverse voices and stories in South Africa’s democracy.
The lights dimmed as two figures stood centre stage, gazing over at the crowd. A single spotlight cast long shadows and, for a moment, there was silence. Then, slowly, the haunting notes of Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika rose, not from a choir, but from the audience itself. It was a song that once whispered defiance in theatres, now sung freely in places providing a platform for stories of pain and success.
I was a part of that audience, sitting in the intimate space of Soweto Theatre, where the walls felt close and the stage small. We had just finished watching Woza Albert! and the air felt thick with unspoken words. The crowd, usually eager to fill the space with chatter, sat in heavy silence; heads bowed slightly, eyes distant, as if each person were lost in the story they had just witnessed. You could almost feel the weight of history settling over the room, as everyone absorbed the gravity of what had just happened.
When we sang, we sang with heart and, as the final notes of the national anthem faded, Hamilton Dlamini and Thulani Mtsweni quietly left the stage. The audience rose to their feet, their applause filling the theatre in a wave of gratitude. The woman standing next to me quietly wiped away a tear, while my friend cheered at the top of his lungs. It was an electric moment – one that we all knew would stay with us. It was more than just a performance: it was a story that mattered.
These are the kinds of stories that still resonate in the democratic South Africa of today. Yet, although they remain ingrained in the nation’s cultural memory, the word “democracy” is now more often tied to thoughts of politics – elections, government promises, and the ongoing fight for basic human rights like clean water and education.
Among these vital issues, we often forget the profound role art played in winning our freedom. Art, in its many forms, challenged societal norms and empowered black people to take agency over their lives.
Through art, stories of hope and resistance blossomed on stages on which actors dared to challenge apartheid’s brutality, feeding the spirit of a nation yearning for liberation. The names of photographers like Alf Khumalo, David Goldblatt and Sam Nzima often fade from memory, their lenses once capturing the soul of a nation’s struggle, now left in the shadows of history.
Writers like Steve Biko and Es’kia Mphahlele are often lost to time, their words once carrying the weight of a nation’s sorrow and hope, now drifting quietly through the corridors of memory.
Protest plays like Sarafina, once powerful voices against the injustices of apartheid, are now watched on Youth Day by parents and their teens – a fleeting moment of reflection before life carries on, as if the struggles they portray are distant echoes, easily set aside.
Protest theatre is a genre that emerged as a powerful force, distinct in its provocative and participatory nature. It stirred the soul, turning audiences from silent onlookers into fierce participants, igniting in them a fire for change and the will to fight for this.
As plays like Sophiatown unfolded on stage, it echoed to the streets of Soweto which erupted in flames when the young voices of the Soweto Uprising rose in defiance a decade prior. It was a gut-wrenching, yet beautiful moment of art and protest intertwining. As the screams echoed through the streets, voices rose from the stage. Though different in sound, they spoke the same language – delivering the same message. Theatre continues to serve as a mirror to society, reflecting its tensions and truths. But is its impact as powerful now as it was in the fight against apartheid? Does the taste of freedom still hold the same promise for South Africa’s people today? And how has the significance of theatre during apartheid evolved in contemporary times?
Theatre’s significance under apartheid
For Malcolm Purkey, renowned playwright of Randlords and Rotgut (1980), Sophiatown (1988), and Love, Crime and Johannesburg (2000), the significance of theatre as a vehicle for social change has always been undeniable. Sitting quietly among the vacant seats of the Wits Theatre, the founder of the Nunnery Theatre at Wits and its iconic box theatre recalled how his landmark play Sophiatown first found its voice at Junction Avenue Theatre.
The play draws from a poignant reality during apartheid. Based on the unique history of Sophiatown, a township where black people were allowed to own land, the play tells the true story of two Black writers who boldly advertised for a Jewish girl to live with them. This move challenged societal norms and the segregation laws of that time.
The opening scene creates the atmosphere with a soulful adaptation of Kofifi Sophia by the cast, with Mingus, one of the characters, sitting front and centre, his hat pulled low. His voice blends into the rising chorus as he states his claim: “We are staying here in Sophiatown.”
The other character, Jakes, a Drum magazine journalist, rises to speak, painting a picture of the heart of Sophiatown. He calls out its streets, the jazz legends and the political icons that walked on them, recalling the emotional energy and soul of a place both revered and targeted by the apartheid regime. It’s a declaration of identity, a memory of the township’s heart, and a warning of its looming erasure.
It is in moments like this – when theatre becomes a voice for the silence – that its role in history and today’s times is undeniable. When asked about theatre’s place in such crises, a quiet moment lingers before Purkey speaks. “I still believe that theatre has a right and a need to continue working, no matter what the state of the play is. And actually, if there are uprisings or, you know, revolutionary processes, theatre can play a part in that.”
Reflecting on theatre’s role in revolutionary processes brings to mind prominent venues like the Market Theatre. The theatre, originally built in 1913 in Johannesburg’s bustling Indian Fruit Market, took its name from this trading hub. In its transformation, it became known for something greater – internationally recognised as “The Theatre of Struggle”, a symbol of resistance against apartheid. The theatre defied the segregation laws of that time and dared to imagine a different South Africa.
Purkey recalls how the Market Theatre’s audience evolved, becoming a representation of the future the theatre-makers hoped to see – a diverse, non-racial crowd, hungry to see stories that represented their complex world. Who were these people? Where had they come from? What was it about their hunger that pushed them to seek storytelling?
“These people came to have their realities explained back to them,” Purkey remembers. They weren’t just entertained: they were challenged and enlightened by beautifully woven narratives, layered with wit and humour, despite the gravity of those times.
Long after the curtain call, these audience members would linger around in bars, filling the space with the clutter of glasses and the murmur of voices, sometimes slurred with drink, but always lively. It was more than just a bar – it was a forum, where political dreams, frustrations and a vision for a new future were debated into the early hours. Over the clinking of glasses and rising cigarette smoke, those conversations sparked with the same fire that lit the stage, painting futures that had not yet been written.
Although these conversations have long faded, the energy and ideas they birthed continue to ripple through time. The spirited debates and ideas of a new tomorrow may exist as echoes, but the desire for transformation has not been dimmed.
Instead, it has been passed down to a new generation – Gen Z – who find themselves at the start of their own defining moments. With their unique challenges, desires and visions, they stand prepared to rescript the narratives of the past and create new stories for the stage.
Gen Z: Rescripting the stage of change
Today, Generation Z, the digital natives, step into theatres, not to escape their world, but to transform it. In the 30 years since freedom was won, their stories grapple with modern struggles like LGBTQ+ rights, the #FeesMustFall movement, unemployment and the many challenges shaping young lives.
However, this generation, although present in the theatre world, does not make up a large percentage of the audience. In a Mail & Guardian article, titled ‘Theatre can return to grassroots’, several critical issues are highlighted about why theatre today may seem like it’s either facing a crisis or slowly fading away.
According to the article, one of the biggest problems is the lack of early exposure to theatre. Inside these theatres, seats once filled with different faces are now occupied by only a few people, many of them older, affluent individuals. The stories on stage are powerful, relevant – but something feels missing.
The kids from township schools aren’t there. The teachers didn’t bring them, because no school trips were arranged. The reason? Tight budgets and bus fares they can’t afford. Theatre, they believe, is for the elite. And so, the gap widens. Residents who live mere blocks away from the theatre see it as distant, unreachable. The stories might be theirs, but the stage feels foreign, inaccessible, built for others.
This is the growing silence that Gen Z has come accustomed to. Unlike the audience of the 1980s, who, as described by Purkey, needed theatre to reflect the struggles of their external world, today’s generation craves something more intimate. Rather than having the world explained to them, they seek an understanding of themselves.
A recent report in The Guardian found that one in three young people aged 18 to 24 are grappling with mental health challenges like depression and anxiety. As these numbers rise, so do questions of identity, purpose and belonging. This generation, confronted by a digital age that blurs the line between the real and the virtual, increasingly faces identity crises that deepen their desires for stories that speak directly to their internal struggles.
As Gen Z continues to search for stories that resonate with their internal struggles, the future of theatre must evolve to meet their unique needs.
Reimagining theatre: A path forward for a new generation
Lesedi Job (40) an award-winning theatre director, actress and voiceover artist is sitting in the drum room of the 10th floor of the University Corner Building. Job is also known for mentoring emerging artists and her advice to young creatives has always been simple: “Don’t chase the title. Society, especially with the rise of social media, pushes people to seek validation.”
Being in theatre is about doing the work: you will know if it’s truly for you before anyone tells you, Job emphasises. It is this wisdom, rooted in years of experience, that has shaped her approach to storytelling and mentorship alike.
Reflecting on the challenges theatre faces today, Job offered a compelling perspective. Ticket prices do not need to be lowered so theatre can become more accessible to people of all socioeconomic backgrounds; in her eyes, theatre is already affordable.
Job emphasises that reducing prices is not a solution, because at its core, theatre must still operate as a business and account for operational costs. Instead, what truly needs to be changed is how theatre is marketed – how it introduces itself to the public and how it calls to those people who have yet to experience its magic.
As she says this, a memory slips into my head. In the playwriting classes I attended during my undergraduate years, theatre’s lack of adequate advertising was often highlighted. One thinks of moments of driving along highways and seeing billboards dominated by banners promoting the latest Netflix series or adverts for consumer products. In contrast, a new play – particularly one that isn’t an adaptation of an apartheid-era classic or written and directed by a well-known figure – faces a far steeper climb to gain recognition. This highlights how much effort it takes for a fresh production to break through the noise and capture public attention.
Even without the widespread visibility of mainstream media, theatre’s role as a mirror to society remains as essential today as it was during apartheid. Although the world is no longer as deeply in touch with the medium as it once was, I believe theatre still holds the same powerful impact. It is finding its new voice in democracy, just as it decoded South Africa in a time of struggle.
Today, theatre aims to reflect who we are and seeks to explain the complexities of modern life back to ourselves. Although the taste of freedom may have shifted, the core, intention and heart of theatre remains the same.
FEATURED IMAGE: Joburg Theatre’s Instruments. Photo: Ofentse Tladi.
The inner-city housing crisis and the plight of the marginalized was in the spotlight in a powerful tale of humor and tragedy.
‘Kwa’Mnyamandawo’ is the seventh play by ‘Kwasha! Theatre Company’ which ran at Market Theatre from July 18-21, 2024.
It follows an investigative journalist named Penelope seeking to uncover the truth behind the housing crisis in Hillbrow through the help of a local tour guide. Her findings reveal a story of corruption and human neglect indicative of life in the inner city.
As one walked into the theatre, they were met by two walls with faded paint and exposed brick, one bearing the words ‘kwa’mnyamandawo’ or ‘the dark place’ spray-painted across it. Below, litter was scattered across the floor and a projector played real Eyewitness News coverage of a building fire in the background. This set the tone for what was expected to be a bleak telling of inner-city trauma.
Speaking to cast member Wenziyweyinkhosi Myeni, she says: “It’s about time that we start seeing stories we’ve never seen before. You may look at the buildings and the people that come from there and think their stories don’t need to be told, but those are the exact stories that need to be told!”
However, the hour that followed was anything but. As the lights dimmed and the projector cut, the audience’s silence was met by the harmonizing of the four-cast ensemble as the tour guide delivers a dispassionate sales pitch of Hillbrow. “Brothels and strip clubs make perfect for first dates!’” he proclaims to a snickering audience.
Dance and humour was a feature throughout Kwa’Mnyamandawo. Photo: Kabir Jugram
But the laughs would not end there. From the exaggeration of the swaggered walk of boys that don sporties (bucket hats) and studded earrings to the impersonation of rude yet clueless cops, the characters on display were caricatures of people we all know and see daily. Pair this with continuous choreography and melodies backing even the most mundane scene of daily routines of those in hijacked buildings, and daily life in the inner-city was splashed with colour.
Yet the consistent humour would not belittle the gravity of the play’s theme. As the play ends- after the police burn down an occupied hijacked building to conceal evidence of a syndicate – the lights dim, the actors turn to the projector and footage of real interviews with fire survivors plays, a reminder that the themes illustrated in the play are in fact a reality for many.
The play ends with real footage of a building fire being projected in the background. Photo: Kabir Jugram
Cast member Xhamla Samsam stated: “humour (is) the way of nursing the real wound that lies behind”. And that is exactly what this play is all about- using humour to make sense of trauma, the only way us South Africans know how. The result of this is a play that is complex yet digestible, relatable and unapologetic in its messaging.
Vuvu rating: 9/10
FEATURED IMAGE: The tour-guide and journalist engaged in argument. Photo: Kabir Jugram
The entertainment industry greats paid tribute to one of South Africans great actors, John Kani at his birthday celebration.
Award winning actor, director, playwright, and Wits honorary doctorate receiver John Kani celebrated his 80th birthday in a packed theatre. The celebration took place in his namesake, the John Kani theatre, in the Market Theatre laboratory on August 30.
The event was opened with a performance by the South African jazz musician Sipho ‘Hotstix’ Mabuse, followed by an address by Atandwa Kani, his son and an actor in his own right. “We all here to celebrate this big man’s birthday on behalf of the family, I just want to say tata, happy birthday Mlotshane,” he said.
Atandwa Kani performing The Island. Photo: Aphelele Mbokotho
The Van Toeka Af living legends recognition series is an initiative by the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture’s which recognises living legends and the work they have done. Dr Kani’s 60 year career in the dramatic arts played out on stage.
The celebration included different snippets of theatre work that Kani had worked on and won accolades for, among these performances was the infamous Sizwe Banzi is Dead, performed by Atandwa and Nathienal Ramabulana on the night. The play co-written by Athol Fugard, Winston Ntshona and Kani, explored the themes of identity, self-worth, racism, and suppression.
This is the play that won the Tony Award for the best play in 1975. It premiered in October of 1972 and ran 52 times in New York, winning the award three years later.
Kodwa spoke fondly about Kani and the work he has done for art and how he has used art to inspire change through his work during the apartheid and post-apartheid era. “He is the living testament to the power of art, to inspire change, to transcend boundaries and to foster unity,” he said.
Another outstanding theatre performance of Shakespeare’s Othello was performed by Atandwa, Kate Liquorish and Michael Richard. In 1987, Kani’s role as Othello, in particular the infamous kiss shared with Desdemona (a white woman) in the play, faced backlash. The kiss came just two years after laws prohibiting interracial marriages and sex were repealed by the Apartheid government. But segregation was still so ingrained, that many audience members walked out during performances reported the Chicago Tribune at the time.
Atandwa Kani and Kate Liquorish performing Othello. Photo: Aphelele Mbokotho
Kani wrapped up the evening with a performance of a play he wrote called “Nothing but the Truth” which looked at the relationship complexities between the black people that stayed in South Africa and the ones that went into exile.
After his performance he made a speech on the importance of sustainability in the arts. “We have to industrialise the arts, it cannot be a side job because we don’t want to do a BSc [Bachelor of Sciences], it has to be a business, an industry that I can tell my children yes because you’re going to survive, make money and be rich.”
FEATURED IMAGE: John Kani sits down to have an interview with Wits Vuvuzela. Photo: Nonhlanhla Mathebula
A genre-bending play reflects on how our past influences our present when it comes to gender-based violence and the objectification of black bodies.(more…)
After sold-out performances at the National Schools Festival in Grahamstown and rave reviews hot off the Cape Town run, Hayani is heading for Johannesburg, bringing with it compelling performances and a heart-rending home-grown story of a generation nearly lost and forgotten, and which is yearning to be heard.
Hayani is directed by Warren Nebe and presented by the Drama for Life Company Laboratory, a research-based project aimed at developing young professional theatre performers, writers and directors at Wits University.
The Market Theatre’s main stage was the platform where six diverse minds gathered to discuss migration, a topic central to all of their individual work.
The last day and the last panel discussion of the Mail & Guardian Literary Festival helped to make audience members and authors alike reflect on the movement of people in and out of cities and countries.
The poor accommodating the poor
Wandile Zwane from the City of Johannesburg’s Migrant Helpdesk, used an interesting anecdote from a conversation he had had with a woman, illustrating a point made earlier about migration being a situation where the poor are accommodating the poor. [pullquote]”…people migrate to places with a gravitational pull…”[/pullquote]
The woman talked about the hierarchy that existed when it came to where one slept in her house. As a young child one was in the main bedroom, the older one got you would move to the dining room and the kitchen to make space for the younger ones. Eventually one would land up in the outside room and from there move on to their own house with a spouse.
Unfortunately her marriage had not worked out so she had to move back to the outside room with her kids, but because there was an immigrant living in that room she had to go back to the kitchen. The story points to one explanation of the animosity that exists around migration in South Africa.
Migration
Chinua Achebe’s book ‘There was a Country’ was the theme around which the conversation around which migration had to bend itself.
The panel consisted of writers who had threaded together stories and books, all zooming in on migration and themes central to resettlement. The panel discussion was largely based on the different writers’ works and their experiences of bridging political and personal narratives in their storytelling.
A young writer making waves in the literary world, NoViolet Bulawayo, said emergent personal narratives are based on political events, and that it was not possible to separate the two in one’s writing. [pullquote align=”right”]“Johannesburg is a migrant city”[/pullquote]
While the works of the six on stage were central to the discussion, engagement with audience members opened up the dialogue and brought up issues that were left out in the initial conversation.
Photographer and self-proclaimed book lover, Victor Dlamini (@victordlamini) made a poignant point from the floor, which steered the conversation to a meaningful point. He commented on people who are migrants themselves taking issue with people who migrate. He used Johannesburg as an example, saying most people who are in this city are not even from this city. “Johannesburg is a migrant city,” he added.
Panelist and writer, Achmat Dangor responded by saying that he agreed with Dlamini and pinned negative attitudes around migration on mechanisms of ‘othering’. He added that people migrate to places with a gravitational pull because of new ideas in that specific place. This is always the case with ‘big cities’, the activity and promise of economic emancipation lure people in, be it across borders or provincial lines.
Caroline Wanjiku Kihato, author of The Bookseller of Kibera, added to Dangor’s response, saying that human beings had a tendency of finding one another’s differences and using them to oppress one another.
Another audience member asked why was it that only Africans were considered immigrants. He did not understand why the Chinese and Europeans who come to this country were not treated with the same hostility that “our brothers” were.
In response Kwanele Sosibo (@KwaneleSosibo), journalist at the Mail & Guardian, simply said “we do it to ourselves”. He went on to narrate an anecdote about how people in an Eastern Cape community believe in measuring people according to certain pedigrees. Mining house recruiters divided them up according to body size, using pedigree determine who’d make best workers, exemplary of systematic ‘othering’.
Writing Invisibility
The Writing Invisibility e-book was launched. Some of the writers on the panel were contributors in the book which was a project done in collaboration with the Wits African Centre for Migration & Society.
MILK and Honey, directed by newly minted Market Theatre chief James Ngcobo,tackles the paradox of memory and blackness in a swift and surreal 70 minutes of time travel.
The exposition of the play is prosaic without being boring, as it sets out the main character’s dilemma.
Thekiso Moekesti is a young and ambitious lawyer—needing only to relocate a rural community from their mineral rich land on behalf of his company to gain unqualified membership into the comfortable, nouveau rich stratosphere he and his fiancé Mamasti desire.
The problem is the paradox; the irony being Thekiso’s invidious position of being an “Other” amongst others.
Thekiso is haunted to a point of sleepless anxiety by the ghosts of his ancestors urging him to find his motherland and reconnect with the soil. Doubtless, his ancestors are also not pleased with his role as neo-coloniser.
Through a number of dream sequences and flashbacks we are whisked back and forth between past and present; between Thekiso and Mamasti’s impending marriage and the pastoral, whimsical courtship between Thekiso’s grandparents.
Both are set against the large shadow of displacement: in the present, Thekiso must ‘negotiate’ a community out of its land; in the past, his grandparents are kept from marrying by their separate tribes’ reaction to violent appropriation of their land by colonisers.
Thekiso’s physical journey to the land of ancestors, and his psychological journey through the story of his grandparents: through their experience of being black, and the painful experience of displacement.
A choice of interpretation
We are given two sides of a familiar coin. With one side of the coin, we might purchase the lessons and victories of irony. The catch is that while these things are on offer, they are at the same time concealed from us.
With the other side of the coin, if you wish, you can purchase a crudely political interpretation of the play.
Ignore theme, and consider only the context.
Choose this route, and Milk and Honey becomes an empty marker of the Land Act centenary; reminding us of the effects it still has today and nothing else; a justification for certain kind of political racialised myopia.
Thankfully, this is exactly what Milk and Honey is not.
Milk and Honey is part of the 969 Festival showing at the Wits Theatre
Oh Captain my captain: Director of the Wits Theater Gitanjali Pather Photo: Mfuneko Toyana
Attendance at Wits Theatre’s 969 Festival have been far from overwhelming.
This is despite the fact that plays being staged were hand-picked from the best productions recently on stage at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.
Director of Wits Theatre and curator of the festival, Gitanjali Pather, said she was disappointed that out of student population of 30 000, 5 000 of whom live on campus residences, the audiences have only been about half full.
Lady on a mission
“My chief challenge is to change this… I love this university and I want to make Wits Theatre and festivals like the 969 integral to the life of the university,” said Pather, who surprisingly—for all her enthusiasm and passion for Wits Theatre—is only five months into the job.
But once she began explaining why she thought theatre was so important, her enthusiasm became easy to understand.
“The theatre is an arena of contestations, of opinions, of ideas, of world views, of realities and it requires us to think. No one walks away from theatre unchanged,” she said speaking about the differences between theatre and more popular entertainment mediums like television.
“We are a lazy world. We are constantly bombarded by media and we also want instant gratification. We want to be told what to think and the level of interaction with our world is miniscule.”
Pather explained that since her four years as CEO of the Market Theatre, and right through her “sabbatical” from the politics of being a theatre manager, when worked in advertising while still teaching theatre, she always felt the stage offered a powerful avenue for social activism.
“What people take away from a performance is so unique. The act is such a personal one. It is a relationship established moment by moment between an audience member and the performance. Everyone walks away with something completely different. That is the magic of theatre and the creative arts.”
A history in the arts
Pather’s 27 years in the arts run almost parallel to the 30 year history of Wits Theatre; the coincidences telling and almost poetic.
“When I entered the profession, the arts and the cultural aspirations of the majority of people were never seen on our stages,” said Pather.
However, she also recalled the journey South African theatre has made from protesting minority rule, to offering therapy and hope for the masses.
“It allows people to experience change and catharsis and insight”, she said.
More importantly, she said, the arts offered students a “hemispherically balanced” experience, drawing on left brain and right brain.
“Wits needs to be a cosmopolitan and sophisticated campus. Students need to know that education goes far beyond the perimeters of a degree.”
Witsies, according to her, have everything to gain from attending the 969 Festival.
The festival closes with Skierlik showing on Saturday and Writer’s Block on Sunday.
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