One year after its 50th milestone, the National Arts Festival reclaims its rebel roots with an energetic programme that channels the restlessness of the times and the promise of an invigorating cultural escape. Hosted in its home town of Makhanda in the Eastern Cape, between 26 June and 6 July, audiences can look forward to a blend of local and international works that provoke and imagine, protest and remember.
Musing on the evolution of this year’s programme, the National Arts Festival’s Artistic Director, Rucera Seethal says, “The global landscape is entirely unpredictable; trends emerge and collapse, institutions quiver, shocks reverberate and radical new ideas rumble below a tense surface. The Festival is a fluid container for these conversations. Unhinged from the daily grind, artists first see and then weave – through words, art, body or expression – that which we are too busy to truly notice. At the Festival we enter this world of the artist, leaving the everyday for the unexpected.”
A gathering of the collective heartbeat of South African creativity, here are some of the highlights of what to expect at the 2025 National Arts Festival:
The Body as Storyteller
On the Curated Programme, dance (and a shot of sherry) offsets the Makhanda winter chill. Dance disruptor Cape Ballet Africa’s triple bill SALT is a series of pieces with powerful choreography by Kirsten Isenberg, the award-winning Mthuthuzeli November and Michelle Reid. An exciting addition to this National Arts Festival outing is the performance of George Balanchine’s Allegro Brilliante – a joyous celebration of expansive romanticism, set to Tchaikovsky’s soaring Piano Concerto No. 3. It will be staged for Cape Ballet Africa by Diana White of the George Balanchine Trust, who has spent her lifetime studying, performing, staging and coaching Balanchine’s works.
Gabriel Ravenscroft, Mia Coomber and Jan Kotzé in
Kirsten Isenberg’s Reverie as part of SALT – Photo credit Paul Seaby
Fusing isiPantsula and several traditional dance forms such as indlamu, setapa, tsutsube and toitoi as a quilt for the rhythm of protest activism, Izithukuthuku is a dance portrait of the diminution of the soul of a migrant worker. Using the percussive sound and the rhythms created by the industrial machinery that is the city; the typewriter and paper as symbols of instructive language, the work is co-conceptualised and choreographed by Vusimuzi Mdoyi and multi-award winning creative Phala Ookeditse Phala, who also directed the piece.
Choreographers Eisa Jocson and Venuri Perera hail from Sri Lanka and the Philippines; countries known for exporting labour to the West. Their dance performance Magic Maids, is part ritual, part performance, an examination of the entanglement of historic European witch-hunting and the exploitation of female labour, in particular that of domestic workers from the Global South, to the present day.
Magic Maids is performed by Eisa Jocson and Venuri Perera.
Image by Bernie Ng – courtesy of Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, Singapore
Choreographed and performed by Oscar Buthelezi and Muzi Shili, Road is an award-winning Afro-Fusion duet that meditates on solidarity, and survival. Lit by themes of hope and endurance, it reflects on the light and shadow of humanity.
A bridge between dance and theatre, circus entices audiences of all ages and this year’s Festival sees the return of crowd favourite The Cirk with Malo and the Moon Maiden. Directed by Janice Honeyman, with music by Wessel Odendaal, Malo and the Moon Maiden tells the story of Malo the Clown and his eternal devotion to Melodia Luna, the celestial Moon-Maiden, set against the backdrop of a once-glorious circus faded by time. Featuring Claudia Moruzzi and Yahto Kraft alongside a vibrant chorus of characters and circus folk, including singers, dancers and aerial artists, in a rich tapestry of movement and magic for all ages.
Die Een Wat Bly is part dream and part testimony featuring Grant van Ster, Shaun Oelf and Daneel van der Walt. Straddling dance, physical theatre and text, the play uses the company’s personal memories as a starting point to explore the relationship between mothers and sons. A dancer confronts his dying mother and walks through the flashes of his memory, as well as the imagined secret life of his mother, to come to terms with his past, his identity, his family and his future on a path to healing. This production is part of a body of work supported by the recently formed Festival Enterprise Catalyst project with funding from the Jobs Fund, that supports the mobility and longevity of productions. Die Een Wat Bly premiered to great acclaim at KKNK in April and joins the National Arts Festival programme after performances at Suidoosterfees in May.
The cast of Die Een Wat Bly, one of the plays that will be at the Festival as part of the Festival Enterprise Catalyst project – image credit Gys Loubser
Chaos Curated
This year’s Curated theatre programme is a mash-up of ideas that run amok in reflection of the troubles, ruptures and near-breakthroughs of our times. Many works pioneer into the ever-narrowing blur between real life and digital.
The UK’s Action Hero, brings the acclaimed experimental theatre work The Talent to this year’s Festival. The piece questions what legacy the human voice might leave in a post-human future. Winner of an Off West End Award for Best Performance, and shortlisted for Best Production (experimental theatre), The Talent sold out its run in London and at the Edinburgh Festival, after its premiere in Lisbon, Portugal.
Bridling, an brand new adaptation of Nadia Davids‘ Caine Prize short story by the same name is a dark, unsettling story about creativity, co-opted feminism, fierce compromises, performances of the self and history, and small rebellions reminiscent of Kafka’s A Hunger Artist. Director Jay Pather will adapt the story – using his signature merging of text, the visual and dance – with performers Buhle Ngaba and Shaun Oelf. This premiere work will be the first time these four artists work together since the much-garlanded What Remains. This work is also supported by the Festival Enterprise Catalyst project and will travel to Woordfees in October this year.
In collaboration with the Mandela Bay Theatre Complex, Athol Fugard will be remembered through the staging of two plays, both co-written by John Kani and Winston Ntshona; The Island and Sizwe Banzi is Dead. The works will be directed by Ovation Award-winning (The Tyrant) Gqeberha-based director and playwright Xabiso Zweni. Fugard spent much of his life in the Eastern Cape, inspired at first by the pivotal partnerships he formed there and then by the solitude that he was afforded to write his solo plays.
After a hiatus from directing, Rehane Abrahams will premiere her new work The Fugue of Tjebolang at the 2025 Festival with the support of the Festival Enterprise Catalyst. It follows the carnal adventures of the seductive Tjebolang who runs away from home to journey through a mystical maze of Sufi scholars, prostitutes, hermits, shadow puppets, medicine men, ulama women, martial artists; free minds, runaways and outcasts, who tinker unceasingly at the periphery of power, and weave this hallucinating erotic and spiritual yarn of Java. Tjebolang will be played by artist/activist and Mother of the House of Vineyard, Cheshire V, who will be joined by young Fleur Du Cap Theatre Award-winning performer, Lukhanyiso Skosana and Sizwe Mnisi (The Fall).
Cheshire V in The Fugue of Tjebolang
Photo Credit Haneem Christians
National Playwright Award winner Campbell Meas sees her newly awarded script Vakavigwa (Burials/They Were Buried) presented at the National Arts Festival this year. A gripping and ambitious work, it’s an emergent voice for contemporary theatre that breaks boundaries with multimedia integration and multi-plane storytelling. The story explores the troubling relationships many South Africans have with other Africans, asking where our African solidarity and humanity lies.
Musical Roots, Journeys and Tributes
Xhosa vocalist, storyteller, and multidisciplinary performer, Anelisa “Annalyzer” Stuurman will be at the Festival withIzwi Lami (My Voice). Inspired by the Xhosa lunar calendar, this work honours a time of spiritual renewal, memory, and replanting in an intimate ritual performance weaving together traditional Xhosa musicality, operatic voice, and narrative storytelling.
Much-loved acapella group, The Soil, will make a welcome return to the Festival with their energising vocal harmony and charismatic audience rapport. Audiences can expect a night of joy, unity, and celebration.
The Eastern Cape will also present an exciting programme for this year’s Litfest – the Eastern Cape focused Literature Festival which forms a part of the National Arts Festival. Audiences should also look forward to the second edition of Art Talks which take a creative perspective on some of the current affairs issues and big ideas in the world today. These programmes will be revealed soon.
The Soil will be appearing at the 2025 National Arts Festival
The Wits Trio, who are celebrating 15 years of playing together this year, are bringing a classical note to the Festival but with a twist as they highlight compositions created during times of rebellion. A sound chamber from the past to remind us of history’s great conflicts.
Makhanda’s International Library of African Music ILAM at Rhodes is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest repositories of African music in the world. At this year’s NAF, DJ (need name) will be presenting pop-up performances from their archive, including Hugh Tracey Sound of Africa and Kwela and Township Jazz from 78rmps sets.
The National Jazz Festival Makhanda will present a programme of works soon to be announced, alongside the National Youth Jazz Festival, the only programme of its kind to bring jazz mentors and students together for a jazz intensive that combines performances, workshops and jam sessions.
The Eastern Cape’s cultural and artistic landscape will also be traversed through the Eastern Cape showcase; a project presented by the National Arts Festival in partnership with the Eastern Cape Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture.
Another independent programme at the National Arts Festival, the Black Power Station’s powerful presentation of music and talks is a Festival highlight with a loyal and growing following who warm their hands and hearts at the fireside of the old power station venue late into the night.
Always a much anticipated part of the Festival programme, this year’s Standard Bank Young Artists; Asanda Ruda (Dance), Siya Charles (Jazz), Calvin Ratladi (Theatre), Muneyi (Music), Nyakallo Maleke (Visual Art) and Modise Sekgothe (Poetry) will premiere their works at the National Arts Festival – setting the tone for a new generation of creatives who are blazing new trails in South Africa and the world. More about those works soon.
Khanyisa Jam-Jam brings his Ovation award-winning show Sorry for the Weight back to the National Arts Festival Fringe
Straight from the Edge
The National Arts Festival’s Fringe is once again bursting with new ideas, old favourites and a diversity of works – from comedy and music to experimental theatre dance and poetry. (note to media – a separate release will expand on this programme further).
Some of the highlights include Conrad Koch and Chester Missing who will be among the comedy players delighting fans with Puppet Power and Khanyisa Jam Jam who has been freshly anointed Savanna Comics Choice Breakthrough Act of the Year (2025) after winning a 2024 Ovation Award for Sorry for the Weight which returns to Festival stages this year. After a sold-out success last year, Stuart Taylor will be back at the Festival, while Mike van Graan Productions will also return with the satirical piece So Over the Rainbow. Yaseen Barnes will also bring his work Thoughts Thinked to the Fringe this year.
Fringe artists this year have created collectives where audiences will be able to binge works from exciting performers collaborating and creating work together and creating work in SA’s major cities. Among these is this Spark in the Dark Collective, championed by frequent Festival performers from Cape Town including Sophie Joans, Sibuyiselo Dywili, Dara Beth, Christie van Niekerk and Tshiamo Moretlwe – among others – performing a variety of works.
The 031 Collective sees Durban festival stalwarts Lisa and Aaron McIlroy, along with daughter Kaylee McIlroy, Micheal Taylor-Broderick and Aldo Brincat, presenting a collection of works spanning comedy to drama.
From Johannesburg, TX Collective has formed a gathering around works from key Johannesburg players including the Tx Theatre, Soetry Media, The independent Theatre Makers Zone and The Generation of Stars.
ASSITEJ South Africa is collaborating with the Festival to present a hub of family theatre productions for young children to teens. The Festival has also attracted a significant student showcase with works presented by universities from across South Africa including Rhodes University, UCT, Walter Sisulu University. University of Zululand, Sol Plaatjie University, University of Venda, Tshwane University of Technology and the University of Limpopo.
The Festival’s Village Green visitors will also be in for a treat. The National Arts Festival, Durban’s The Playhouse Company and the Mandela Bay Theatre Complex will bring a pop-up stage truck to the popular Festival hub which will feature a daily programme of family theatre and music performances. Visitors will also be treated to the famous Sundowner Concerts (5pm) at The Monument; a chance to glimpse some of the talent within the Fringe programme in a free concert for all.
For those not able to soak up the Festival in person, a collection of VFringe on demand videos will also be on the programme including works from Jacques Batista, Mbali Ndlozi, Alan Parker and O’Lerato Maselesa.
Provocative Dialogues
That was just a taste of what’s to come. The Festival’s programme will be fully revealed when it goes online and bookings open on 13 May 2025. All programme information and bookings can be found at https://nationalartsfestival.co.za/
