Market theatre

Marabi

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Marabi

At the Market Theatre for the opening of “Marabi”. Piano, Kasi, Stocko, Doornfontein! A full house, everyone in full attendance. The energy palpable, everyone is just excited! It’s the first show of the year!

Marabi is a South African musical theatre classic adapted from Modikwe Dikobe’s novel The Marabi Dance and originally developed through Junction Avenue Theatre Company workshops. It’s set in the Doornfontein slumpyards, rusted corrugated sheets is the feeling and tone, 1930s – the show tells a powerful story of family, music and change.

The play opens with the Mabongo family, first-generation Black migrants who have come to Johannesburg in search of opportunity but instead face the harsh realities of urban poverty and crowded township life. The central figure, July Mabongo, carries the burden of ancestral expectations, traditional values, and the tension between holding on to the past and surviving in a fast-changing city. Mabongo’s daughter Martha falls in love with Ginger George, a charismatic marabi piano player known for his vibrant rhythms and free spirit. Their relationship challenges traditional norms and creates conflict within the family.

The story uses marabi music not just as background but as an emotional and cultural force — representing continuity with heritage and the promise of transformation. As recorded music begins to challenge live performance, tensions emerge over authenticity, survival and identity.

Onstage we see the characters struggle with love, personal dreams, and the effects of broader social changes — from economic hardship to looming war. Marabi is a story of resilience, rhythm and belonging: a theatrical tapestry where family bonds, cultural heritage, and social pressures all interplay against the backdrop of South Africa’s emerging township culture.

The cast
Josias Dos Moleele
Mduduzi Mtshali
Sello Sebotsane
Gabisile Tshabalala
Mapule Mafole
Mpho Molepo
Peter Mashigo
Alister Mbuso Dube
Katlego Moloi
Thamo Baleka Ngoma

The cast are amazing, simultaneously dancing and singing. Mapule Mafole is just remarkable, she plays the role of a child to perfection. So innocent and pure, nothing betrays her performance. She is so beautiful. Josias Dos Moleele is a shapeshifter who wills things into existence. Esscentric and colorful, he brings flavor to his character. Gabisile with that menacing look, eyebrows tuck in, present your case disposition. Sello Sebotsane plays the father, she is very disappointed with her daughter. He later enrolls to fight in the War after getting fired from work. Each of the members of the cast, work with care and diligence to bring their characters to life. There’s a lot of personality and charm to the characters.

Set Designer – Wilhelm Disbergen
Costume Designer – Lethabo Bereng
Lighting Designer – Mandla Mshali

Congratulations Arthur Molepo and the whole team for a great show and a deserved standing ovation.

📸: SamSays

Medea

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Medea

At the Market Theatre for the opening of Medea. A production by The Windybrow Arts Center. For 4 performances only, don’t miss it!

A Greek classic reimagined. So dramatic, Shakespearean, tragic! The performances so gripping and captivating – you can’t look away, they demand your attention. The dialogues and monologues so heartfelt and expressive, delivered with so much conviction. Love, betrayal, poison, death, Medea.

I can’t even lie, I was disgusted by Medea’s actions. To kill your own children not out of hatred but spite, revenge because she knew it would destroy Jason emotionally! The only memory of the children that prevailed was their superhero action figures (Superman and Batman) – a signifier of their innocence. They didn’t do anything to anyone, they were just playing and running around in their superhero capes. Until their despicable mother used them for her nefarious murderous ends. Deplorable, souless woman.

The performers were fantastic, portraying the darkside of human nature, revenge, betrayal, love, poison, death, Medea. I’ve never experienced such wickedness in my life. The props; rusted and old, there is no water, a sink there, a fridge there and table with chairs. A thorn crown hovers above the stage. Gofaone Bodigelo is fantastic as Medea, she never misses a beat, she is the pulse, fantastic monologues delivered with precision, feeling and emotion. The play also stars Thingo Mcanyana, Jack Mabokachaba and Londa Mkhize. Shakespearean, beautiful sets and utterly shocking.

Congratulations Leila Henriques and the whole team for a great show and a deserved standing ovation.

📸: SamSays

Ka Lebitso La Moya

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Ka Lebitso La Moya

At the Market Theatre for the opening of Ka Lebitso La Moya. Winner of five Naledi Theatre Awards including best production in a play and best director for Momo Matsunyane.

We open in Ha Satane, a fictional township rife with with despair and hopelessness. Unemployment, crime, no service delivery, no electricity and no water. The residents take to the streets protesting, looting, demanding a change and the head of the current counselor.

Inside the Evangelist Church of Christ is where we find hope. The church serves as a pillar for the community. We are in the church serving as congregates. There is singing and praise for our lord and savior. The mood is festive and in high spirits, jubilation reigns. Ka Lebitso La Moya serves as a greeting for the congregation, a form of endearment that connects and unites. The pastor is charismatic and has women congregates vying for his attention. He is almost lured with Chakakalaka by an admirer but the pastors wife intercepts and stops things from going far. The pastor plans to be a counselor for Ha Satane considering his good standing in the community. This is a facade, he is a man of dubious character, a false prophet lying to his congregation with impunity, grooming underaged girls at church. He uses his power to manipulate an underage girl to call him “daddy”. A love interest of his son. After having his way with the underage girl (rape), he is cold and distant, instructing the girl that he is not his “daddy”. The girl is in a mess, she’s not the same, once a lead in the choir. She becomes a shell of who she was. She is troubled, broken and completely out of it. His son finds out about the relations between his father and love interest and decides to poison his father but he ends up poisoning his love interest instead.

The play is a humorous, fast paced and relatable musical that depicts life in the township. Josias ‘Dos’ Moleele plays the pastor, he feels familiar, his mannerisms and conduct mimics a stereotypical pastor in the township. Ka Lebitso La Moya, he is a preacher, a shapeshifter, a deceiver, he loves women and he exhibits preditory behavior. He won the Naledi for best actor for a reason, his performance is captivating and supremely entertaining. He is your definition of a false prophet and he knows this and is unapologetic about it, profiting and showing no remorse.

Siyasanga Papu plays two characters, one of the characters, the pastors wife. The most amazing singer in the program, she beats them all!

The other actors are amazing too:
Sibusiso ‘Black’ Madondo
Khutjo Green
Zevangeli Mampofu
Chrisophocus Seboka

The pianist Tshepo Dean is emphatic, he sets the mood, he is the pulse, he seamlessly moves from scene to scene, he feels, he has range, he is totally in the story.

Ka Lebitso La Moya! This is an amazing play! We were in Church. We even stood on our feet to the choir girls demand and sang with her, she picked two people from the audience to come on stage and sing and dance with her. It was an experience, it was realistic. Conversations in Sesotho, Tswana, Xhosa, Venda and English because we are in the township. Conversations free-flowing and naturalistic. The characters had character and personality.

Ka Lebitso La Moya! I loved everything about this play.

Congratulations Momo Matsunyane and the whole team for a great show and a deserved standing ovation.

Fatherhood

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Fatherhood

At the Market Theatre for the opening of “Fatherhood”, a play by the Alex Theatre Company that delves into absent fathers. The play explores issues of shame, pain, longing and manhood. Who are you when you don’t have anything to validate you. No pictures, no memories. You don’t exist. No knowledge of your history, heritage and culture. You don’t know your clan names, you don’t belong, you don’t know who you are.

The show starts off with a saxophone playing in the background. It is melancholic and reinforces the themes of longing and identity. It is reflective and sombre, it serves as the music for this poignant play. Three performers are faced at the wall, backs to the audience. As they turn, the show commences. They tell stories about their fathers and how shoes, ties, hats and jackets tie in with their fathers identities. You can tell a lot about a man by his shoes. They are reflective, they are frustrated, tales laced in pain, shame and identify. One father just left one day, while another arrested for rape, while a third hanged himself. The performers regress to a childlike state, playing cars and gun-gun with empty paint containers. This reflects their innocence and faultless disposition, they are still kids, pure, looking at life without understanding. Children are the perfect catalysts to depict the pain and shame, they pass the hot potato and use each other as scapegoats. The prevailing message is we are not our fathers nor their shame, we are what we choose to become.

The set is minimal, red tie, worn out jacket, phedora hat and a shoe hanging, held up by a wooden rectangular prism. On the floor is shoes and a tie. The actors are expressive, animated and tell the story with a lot of feeling. They were wonderful in their childlike states.

Actors
Mike Dzova
Simphiwe Jako
Tshepang Ramasehla
Gabaganye Mkungo

Music director and composer Sanele Mzimela

Congratulations Archie Matsetela and the whole team for a great show and a deserved standing ovation.

Father and I

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Father and I

Day 2 at the Market Theatre to watch this poignant and emotionally charged play “Father and I”. A play that delves into interpersonal relationships between fathers and their offspring. It explores what it means to be a father. To have someone teach you the intracies of life, someone who inspires you and hones skills in you so you can live life with purpose and deliberately. To instill good values, to be dependable, honest and trustworthy. Care and support your family. Someone to teach you stick-fighting and being an honorable man. The stories are told in the first person, making them subjective and personal. The stories evoke nostalgia and have the performers reminiscing about simpler times. Tata taking us to Spur every month and buying me ice-cream after school. He used to be a good guy when he was younger but now we are estranged, yes, he has children all over but still. We see one of the performers regress to a childlike state recounting and reliving her memories swinging on a swing. One of the performers recounts his father’s encouragement after he had a bad night at one of his show. He is distraught and inconsolable believing his dreams are over, he even cries on stage, lines are blurred, it doesn’t feel like he is acting, it’s too real. Nido baby formula, sunlight bar and R10 is a heavy fixture in the show, something the father’s did for a while, then gone boys.

‘Father & I’ uses personal stories, dance, song and music to explore the relationships between South African fathers and their children. As an interdisciplinary work, it combines song, dance, music and personal testimony to create a theatrical experience aimed at acknowledging the complexity and beauty of fatherly relationships, with all its imperfections.

Great show, meaningful, executed with care and attention. The performers inhabit the stories they tell, they have personality and charisma. They have hopes and dreams. They have an understanding for life.

Sunnyboy Motau provides the choreography
Music by Bongile Lecoge–Zulu and Matthew MacFarlane.

The actors/performers
Lesego Dihemo
Sbusiso Gumede
Wesley Hlongwane
Afrikamabiyase Ziqubu
Lucracia Magoro
Lumka Dumezweni
Thabang Chauke
Sindisiwe Mjali
Xhamla Samsam
Wenziweyinkosi Myeni

Congratulations Greg Homann and the whole team for a great show and a deserved standing ovation.

The moon looks delicious from here

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The moon looks delicious from here

At the Market Theatre for the opening of “The moon looks delicious from here”. The story follows Aldo Brincat, from Malta, born in Egypt Alexandria, who immigrates to apartheid South Africa. The play explores identity, family, language, sexuality and a ever changing political landscape.

No sets, no backdrop, clear stage, no fancy lighting, just him telling the story from different perspectives, dressed in all black with linking rings in his back pocket. He is on his feet the whole time. The magic tricks with his rings are spellbinding, so illusory, one moment he is holding two rings and the next six. When you look again the rings are all tangled up to form the Audi logo, then the Olympics logo and then the circles are in singles again. It’s magic. As a magician, he dreams to perform for Nelson Mandela someday.

Amazing storyteller who literally creates magic out of nothing. He is the show. He creates something from moment to moment, no lag time. He strings you along, you are in his capable hands. He provides the tempo and enacts the characters in his story with ease. He switches in and out, switching voices and mannerisms beat by beat to create a cadence that is seamless. He is captivating and tells the story with heart. The performance has a lot of range, that’s to be expected considering the characters he inhabits. A storytelling magician, he is in complete flow the whole time. Makes it seem so easy but it’s not because he does so much, inhabing different characters under one breath. The opening scene consists of two characters, one male and one female. To illustrate the differences between the characters, he uses one of the linking rings in his hand as a hat for the male and uses the other linking ring as a fan to convey the females perspective. It is effective, he also switches voices and intonation for dramatic effect. The show has elements of physical theatre, he mimics the sounds of objects.

Solo performances are often tricky and difficult, to entertain and keep the audience invested in the storyline is no child’s play but it’s no big deal for Aldo, he seemingly does everything on his own, with just linking rings in his back pocket. It’s easy, it’s masterful, pure magic. A storytelling masterclass.

Congratulations Sjaka Septembir and the whole team for a great show and a deserved standing ovation.

The black circus of the republic of Bantu

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The black circus of the republic of Bantu

Just when you think you have seen it all, something you haven’t seen before strikes you on the head to remind you that you haven’t seen anything!

At the Market Theatre for the opening of “The black circus of the republic of Bantu”. The energy and feeling is different, certainly nothing you have seen before. Before we stepped in the auditorium, our hands (the audience) was tied with a string. Something ancestral and ritualistic about the act. Soon as you entered the auditorium, the whole place reeked of incense. A solitary figure, big and heavy, dressed in all black was the source. The seating arrangement was also different. We had 3 sitting banks located against the walls, if you wanted a seat, you can sit but the majority were sitting on the floor. The set up was like a catwalk and a large screen served as the backdrop. Before the show commenced, the performer shared snuff and coarse salt with the audience and then he stripped completely naked and started interacting and dancing with the audience, instructing audience members to touch him and participate. He was in his birthday suit. It was peculiar. He was dancing completely naked, undisturbed, undeterred, balls hanging like a piñata to Maskandi music while the audience cheered him on.

The show is inclusive and encourages the audience to get involved. On the performers cue we were signaled to stand-up, sit down, echo the performers words and sing. Four participants from the crowd were selected to be in the show. They were given beastly costumes and instructed to dance, while the performer barked orders with his whip. The scene is exploitative and uncomfortable. The image of Sarah Baartman is a constant in the show. The show pays homage to figures like Sarah Baartman whose bodies where fetishized and deemed to be of a different species by colonizers. The show is about pride and empowerment.

Albert Ibokwe Khoza is the performer leading procedures. He is fearless, vivacious, colorful, creative and authentic. A lot of personality and flavor. He completely and utterly shocked me to my core, no hyperbole, I have never seen performance arts like that before!

The giant screen provided commentary and shared personal insights. The visuals are cinematic, artistic and bold.

Congratulations Princess Mhlongo and the whole team for an interesting show, certainly different and completely unapologetic.

Graveland

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Graveland

At the Market Theatre to watch “Graveland”. Social commentary, reflecting life back at us. Heartfeltingly moving, poignant, tragic. A story of love, hate, injustices, grudges that never get mended, characters who are bitter and unjustlyingly so. Two stories, two perspectives, you can emphatize with both scenarios, unhealed trauma, life goes on.

A story of a foreign national who one day gets a promotion at work. The natives are jealous, angry and offended. They won’t take orders from “ikwerekwere”. The disrespect is evident, so the foreign manager gets the natives axed from work and hires a brother. Chaos ensures, they stone his brother to death and made him watch, he begged, he pleaded, he was at their mercy, the damned South Africans didn’t care, they wrapped a tyre around his torso and set it alight. He burned to ashes. The broken man returned home with his dead brother for ashes, contained in a cup that looks like a flusk, it’s not even a proper urn. The family are heartbroken, they plan an excursion to get back their lost ones soul in South Africa.

In South Africa, Mahikeng, they encounter a disagreeable, xenophobic cop who arrests them. He demands R8000 for ‘tjo tjo” bribe money, R2000 per person. The foreign nationals can’t do anything, worse is that one of them left a pregnant wife at home. The Cops hate comes from his experiences as an officer of the law. He is pro South African, that’s who he regards, he calls foreign nationals cocroaches. Hillbrow Central, his sister was killed by a foreign national. She was used, she was abused and she died. His brother, the cop, couldn’t do anything, investigations with dead-ends. He hates foreign nationals, very stereotypical, the jobs, women, drugs, we suffering too, stay in your own country, solve your own problems, we suffering too. Towards the conclusion, he shoots a man wanting to go home to his wife and kid. Another African child will grow up without a father.

Graveland poster

The show stars
Allen Cebekulu, Diane Maseko, Abongile Maurice, Dineo Sello, Thabiso Rammala, Confidence “Mamzo” Lokhele, Thokozani “zits” Maseko, Sinenhlanhla Mbeyi & Lunga Khuhlane.

Produced by: Relebohile Mabunda
Written & Directed by: Thembeni Joni & Lunga Khuhlane
Movement by: Sinenhlanhla Mgeyi
Production Designer: Sinenhlanhla Q. Zwane
Percussionist: Mongezi Yamba

Congratulations Lule Productions and the whole team for a great show and a deserved standing ovation.

The Last Country

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The Last Country

At the Market Theatre to watch “The Last Country”. Different set-up to what we  accustomed to, talk about inclusion and intimacy. We were secluded all together, in a square-rectanglist pattern, that was the formation of the seating arrangement, that was the stage, we were literally in the play, the performers were with us! Great work by Empatheatre! The show is empathetic, we had to listen to the woman’s struggles, pains, dreams and misfortunes. The Zimbabwean woman studying for her PhD and is met with miserable stances as she navigates the world. The woman selling on the streets without permits colliding with the police resulting in the confiscation of goods, now you can’t sell anything, you are hungry. You go at it tomorrow, same place, same style, because what’s the alternative, life goes on, a permit is R900 a year, just ask the street vendors, nothing is for free. I love the street vendors dreams, she sells bead apparel, she wants to build a house.

The Last Country
smart

The Last Country is an immersive and deeply moving theatre piece exploring the stories of migrant women. Through the stories of Ofrah from the DRC, MaThwala from Ndwedwe in KwaZulu-Natal, Aamiina from Somalia, and Aneni from Zimbabwe, the audience is intimately immersed into experiences of leaving home and arriving in a South African city, KwaZulu-Natal, Durban. The script carefully weaves together experiences of struggle, pain, humour, hope and resilience in ways that surface our shared humanity, and how the smallest acts of kindness can support and transform the experiences of those seeking sanctuary in our cities.

The play features an all-star cast, that includes Mpume Mthombeni, Faniswa Yisa, Andile Vilakazi and Nompilo Maphumulo, it is an experience. The actors are amazing! They are talking to us directly, eye-ball to eye-ball, you feel them, you understand their pain and struggles, home affairs and their weak system, you wake up early and even that is not a guarantee of anything. They send you back to Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe sends you back.

After the show, we had a QandA session, we explored the show, we got to reflect about the show, discuss issues, deliver commentry, the audience got involved, it was a wonderful experience. I met a girl who is a writer, got short-listed for the DALRO Can Themba Merit Award for her short story, she chose sci fi  for her genre, she is beautiful. I submitted “ADULTERY” they went silent, I understand.

Congratulations Neil Coppen and Empatheatre for a great show and a deserved standing ovation.

MANTSOPA

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MANTSOPA

At the Market Theatre to watch the highly acclaimed play “Mantsopa” by Dr. Jerry Mofokeng wa Makhetha. The scenery was so cool, the majority of people had on their traditional attire, they donned blankets wrapped around their shoulders. You could feel the spirit of the Basotho people. The dialogue between people was also in Sesotho, the demographic was well represented. This is such a great show! So original and authentically African. I love the Market Theatre because it tells our stories. Last thing I said after the bow was “wow”, it was the general consensus, it induces goosebumps.

Mantsopa, whose grave lies at Modderpoort in the eastern Free State, was born in 1793 and died in 1908. A survivor of famine and subsequent cannibalism, she grew to become a trusted advisor to King Moshoeshoe I, correctly predicting victorious battle outcomes for Basotho against colonial settlers and speaking truth to power with unshaking honesty. She was a prophet, a seer with incredible foresight to predict the future accurately. This foresight led people into thinking that she was a witch with extraterrestrial powers! She lived to be a 111 years old, living across three centuries.

The story follows fictitious great granddaughter Tholoana who has inherited the gift of song. Rejecting her calling, she gets an opportunity to work at club in the city as a singer. She runs from herself. Tholoana’s attitude towards this calling and gift is one of derision. She doesn’t want the gift, she doesn’t want the fame, she’d rather be a psychologist, studying other people’s minds instead. In the city, things don’t go according to script. Despite her best efforts, she is rejected. Her suitor from her village in Lesotho who is smitten by her comes along and attempts to put her in alignment with who she really is – the great granddaughter of Mantsopa and the chosen one. Following her rejection, he succeeds and Tholoana embraces her calling, her destiny. The story features music and dance. The live band curate the story through unique instruments that produce sound effects that mimic nature, birds, rain, the band are a constant fixture of the show. They provide depth and feeling to the show. The performers were outstanding, performing with feeling and conviction. They inhabited the characters they were playing. They were relatable and the interactions between the characters was naturalistic and free-flowing. The set is just gorgeous! I loved the poetry. I loved everything.

The actors
Florence Masebe
Leomile Motsetsela
Tseko Monaheng
Itumeleng Mofokeng
Lebohang Banyane

Music Director and Keyboardist
Mawande Stuurman

Percussionist and Drummer
Godfrey Mgcina

Vocalist
Nomhle Pearl Nongogo

Costumes and Props designer
Sinenhlanhla Zwane

Lighting designer
Nomvula Molepo

Congratulations Dr. Jerry Mofokeng wa Makhetha and the whole team for a great show and a deserved standing ovation.

📷: Naomi Mokhele
📷: SamSays