South Africa’s Performing Arts - the perfect escape

SSouth Africa is a country rich with talent, - in every corner for every reason, there is song, there is dance, there is humour, and it is infectious.  That talent finds form and audience in South Africa’s dense and layered performing arts scene.  Making time to step into a theatre or dance production is a certain way to step into new cultures and languages, a people's hopes and history. 

South Africa's performing arts legacy is deeply intertwined with its journey to democracy. During the apartheid era, theatre became a powerful voice of resistance, with pioneering artists using stages as platforms for social change. The Market Theatre, The National Arts Festival, and countless community venues and artists became crucibles of protest theatre, where playwrights like Athol Fugard, John Kani, and Barney Simon created works that challenged the status quo.

Post-1994 at the dawn of South Africa’s democracy, South African artists stepped out into a new exploration of nationhood, dancers leapt onto national and international stages embodying complex histories and movement traditions, and this rich tradition of socially conscious performance continues today, alongside joyful and uplifting expressions of freedom and cultural diversity that characterise contemporary South Africa.  The covid period, despite its devastation, drove digital innovation in the performing arts, and pushed innovative multi-disciplinary approaches on South African stages.

From big-city theatres to historic stages, independent art centres to expansive festivals, the country's stages come alive with performances that blend storytelling traditions with bold contemporary voices, creating unforgettable experiences for culture enthusiasts at home and around the globe.

Immerse yourself, attend an Arts Festival

The oldest and arguably the most diverse festival of the country is the National Arts Festival in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape province, over the end of June and beginning of July, the small university town transforms into a celebration of arts and culture across all forms. Here, international visitors mingle with local audiences in historic venues and pop-up theatres across the town, experiencing everything from powerful social commentary to experimental performances to entertaining theatre and stand-up comedy, it is a must-visit for a saturation of the plethora of culture, language, history and cutting-edge new voices which South Africa proudly holds. 

Staying in the Eastern Cape and over the same period, visit the SPAR Kirkwood Wildsfees for music and crafts, and new festival on the block in the Eastern Cape, the Mandela Bay Arts Festival in Gqeberha (formally Port Elizabeth), features artists from the town, in venues dispersed across the coastal city at the end of February into early March.

The South African festival circuit extends across landscapes and seasons. The Aardklop Arts Festival runs annually in September.  It is an hour and a half drive into the North-West province from Johannesburg and hosted in the small town of Potchefstroom and showcases both Afrikaans and multilingual theatre from established and emerging artists along with a large food and craft market.  A longer three-hour drive (or a short flight) to Bloemfontein in the province of the Free State in July will land you at the Vrystaatfees (the Free State Festival) for theatre, dance, music, a food and craft fair as well as a literary component.

In the picturesque Stellenbosch in the Western Cape, the Woordfees, now one of the biggest festivals in the country, transforms the university town into a literary and theatrical haven, where language, performance, and music intersect, offering everything from classical drama to experimental works.  The festival also offers exciting lifestyle events including dining and wine tasting.  The Maynardville Open-Air Festival runs late January into early March and is Cape Town’s open-air theatre experience.  Look forward to Shakespeare, classical music as well as work by the Cape Town Opera.  Venture out to a small town in the Karoo to attend the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees, held annually in Oudtshoorn, and featuring drama, dance, music, and visual arts.

With its impressive array of writing and performing talent, and as South Africa edges to a close of its 30 years of democracy commemorations, we must do our utmost best to ensure that theatre and the arts in general become accessible to everyone across the different parts of the country. Theatre not only remains a form of entertainment, but equally it is an important tool that fosters social dialogue that make us think, reflect and act on issues that affect our daily lived experiences as a people. And as we savour performances at our local theatres and festivals this summer, let us allow these to start discussions that last long after the curtain has fallen.

Author:

Rucera Seethal, Artistic Director of the National Arts Festival

rucera@nationalartsfestival.co.za

Rucera Seethal is the Artistic Director of the National Arts Festival; South Africa’s oldest and most diverse Festival, known for its annual winter-time gathering of the arts in it's home town of Makhanda in the Eastern Cape. A binge of theatre, dance, performing and visual arts, music and more, many of the shows first seen there go on to tour nationally and internationally.