Young theatre-makers thrive at Cape Town's Theatre Arts
‘iNkanyezi’ is a choreographic work that moves through memory, faith and tenderness.
Image: Yazeed Kamaldien
Young theatre-makers are thriving in Cape Town, showcasing new productions at Observatory-based Theatre Arts aimed at ensuring under-funded productions find a platform.
Theatre Arts is an independent theatre which operates like a non-profit organisation. It charges R600 a day for rehearsal space while renting the theatre to showcase a performance costs R800, far less than commercial theatre rates.
Romantic comedy ‘Harte-Bliksems’ traveled from Bloemfontein as part of the Theatre Arts Young Professionals series.
Image: Yazeed Kamaldien
Theatre Arts artistic director Caroline Calburn said their aim is to “grow the eco-system around theatre and make it a healthy place for artists and the public to engage with it”.
“We are a humble theatre,” she said.
“We can’t provide productions with the fantastic light and sound quality that bigger theatres can. We can provide artists with care and all the surrounding things that enable their work to grow and develop.
“That has been critical for many productions to get their work shown elsewhere.”
‘Classics’ was a showcase of dance in various genres performed by the Versatile Dance School based in Gugulethu. It is among shows that would otherwise not gain access to more established theatres due to inhibiting costs.
Image: Yazeed Kamaldien
Calburn says as an “underground theatre space” they “don’t have a publicity machine to get word out” about shows either.
“Artists rent the venue and their audience very often is the friends and family of the production team. They do struggle to get audiences,” said Calburn.
While the result might not be profitability for most of the productions shown at Theatre Arts, the reward for audiences is a range of shows from new and younger theatre-makers on the scene.
‘Glimpse’ dance show focused on the January 2026 suspected arson that led to multiple fires in Stanford. The blaze consumed over 4000 hectares of land, much of it Fynbos.
Image: Yazeed Kamaldien
Over the last two months Theatre Arts has showcased stage-plays, dance, cabaret, a dance school graduation show and comedy. Among these were shows produced under its Young Professionals series.
Theatre Arts runs this series to provide a platform for graduating theatre students to share their work with the wider public, while also introducing them to the industry.
Among these shows was ‘Reaxenia’ which “invites audiences to confront the contradictions of power, accountability, and survival”. This play is set at the interface of politics and journalism in a fictitious country called Reaxenia, which mirrors contemporary South Africa.
In this imaginary world — similar to the real world — pompous politicians poetically lie to the masses while lining their pockets with public funds. Citizens meanwhile starve, not only for food but also the truth.
‘Beyond This Body — A Petition’ is a work-in-progress short theatre performance about a revelation at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that affected a women’s life.
Image: Yazeed Kamaldien
Journalists throughout the play expose these contradictions and realities, while politicians are expert propagandists.
The Afrikaans language romantic comedy ‘Harte-Bliksems’, which traveled from Bloemfontein, was also staged as part of the Young Professionals series. It comprised vignettes about online dating amongst a younger generation.
Dance performances ‘iNkanyezi’ and ‘Glimpse’ were also part of this series, with the latter focused on the January 2026 suspected arson that sparked multiple fires in small town Stanford in the Western Cape.
Its synopsis reads: “The blaze consumed over 4000 hectares of land, much of it Fynbos. ‘Glimpse’ gives us a momentary or partial view of the relationship between the human and more than human world.”
Stageplay ‘Reaxenia’ about the contradictions of power, accountability, and survival shows that young theatre-makers are socially engaged.
Image: Yazeed Kamaldien
Another standout work-in-progress, ‘Beyond This Body — A Petition’, was presented by theatre writer and director Zinobulali Goduka.
It tells the story of a woman who discovered via the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) that her twin brother was murdered and buried. Now she struggles to get his body back for burial.
This timely work is presented 30 years after the TRC’s launch. It talks about the longing for healing and justice that numerous families still carry years after the fall of apartheid.
Young theatre-makers, through shows presented at Theatre Arts, mostly seem grounded in social consciousness and engagement with current realities. Sometimes it feels risky and other times it falls flat, but when it shines there appears a promise that theatre has a great future.