Past productions

The Good Soul Of Szechuan

MAGNET THEATRE PROUDLY PRESENTS CLASSIC BRECHT PLAY FOR TRAINEE GRADUATION PRODUCTION   Magnet Theatre is proud to present the graduation production of the sixth cohort of the Fulltime Training & Job Creation Programme.   The Good Soul of Szechuan by Bertolt Brecht, translated by David Harrower, will be presented from 16 to 24 June at […]

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Snapped

Magnet Theatre’s latest production, Snapped, premieres at The Baxter for a short season, from 16 September to 2 October 2021   Magnet Theatre’s latest production, Snapped, a companion piece to the hugely successful I turned away and she was gone, premieres at the Baxter Flipside, from 16 September to 2 October 2021, at 7pm with Saturday matinees at 2pm. […]

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G7: Okwe-Bokhwe 2019

G7: OKWE-BOKHWE was originally devised by  Mandla Mbothwe with the fifth cohort of trainees on Magnet’s Full Time Training and Job Creation Programme 2017/2018 and performed at the Gugulethu Memorial site. The Magnet Theatre trainees returned as graduates and third year interns to perform the production for the 2019 tour. This powerful production is based […]

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Anitgone (not quite/quiet)

ANTIGONE (not quite/quiet) “Ninganiki Okungcwele Ezinjeni” This hard-hitting new work created by Magnet Theatre in collaboration with the University of Cape Town’s Centre for Theatre Dance and Performances Studies (CTDPS) explores the nature of protest and responses to power, untangling the tragedy of our current moment in South Africa. Subtitled Ninganiki Okungcwele Ezinjeni which is […]

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ROCKIN’ MBOKODO

Ritual and rock, song and sound ground this performance. As they jump from stone to stone, four performers remind us of the importance of family, the power of journey, healing and the significance of finding our way home. Designed by Asiphe Lili With Palesa Mohlala, Asamkela KK Ketelo, Sizwe Ginger Lubengu, Yvonne Msebenzi Assisted by: […]

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PLAY ALONE (Curtain raiser)

A lone actor takes to the stage and invites us to explore the magic he can create out of discarded paper. Now its one thing and now another! Designed by Puleng Stewart With Vela Sozo Created by the company with input from Jennie Reznek (Magnet Theatre), Barbara Kölling and Anna-Sophia Zimniak (Theater Helios), Jayne Batzofin […]

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PLASTIKA

The sound of plastic and song fill the air. A sea of plastic and a land of plastic. Through rustling bags and empty bottles, three performers from Uganda and Botswana explore the malleability of plastic and take pleasure in discovering treasure from trash. Designed by Puleng Stewart With Samson Setumo, Zoey Kayendeke, Linda Nabasa Created […]

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RESHAPE

Newspapers act as both barrier and bridge. Three performers visit and rebuild a neighborhood, crafting new worlds, animals and objects through seemingly ordinary pieces of newspaper. Designed by Puleng Stewart With Choice Songezo Mtshixa, Bonga Shabbs Tshabalala, Sivenathi Sibahle Macibela Created by the company with input from Jennie Reznek (Magnet Theatre), Barbara Kölling and Anna-Sophia […]

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Transform

Out of the dried earth and dust, life remains hidden until the rains come. And when they do, the earth transforms into clay and the clay transforms the lives of three friends! Three performers from Mozambique and Botswana invite us to explore this material that keeps on changing. Designed by Asiphe Lili With Yuck Miranda, […]

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UBIZO

Three performers explore the call and response of stones. Together with the stones they play games of song and sound, evoking places and feelings. The stones are the land. And the people need the land. It is exchanged, given away and shared. Designed by Asiphe Lili With Siphesande Mkokose, Carlo Daniels, Luxolo Rapula Mboso Assisted […]

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SH!

SH! In the rustling of paper, we find celebration of both sound and silence. Three actors play amongst discarded pieces of newspaper as they learn about the world around them. News! News! News! It is everywhere! How do we both break away from and engage with a world saturated with news and newspaper? Designed by […]

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THE VISIT

Magnet Theatre presents Dürrenmatt’s classic comic-tragedy THE VISIT Multiple award-winning Magnet Theatre presents Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s classic comic-tragedy THE VISIT, co-directed by Mark Fleishman and Warona Seane and starring the talented trainees of the fifth Magnet Theatre training programme. THE VISIT will be performed from 14 to 16 June at 7.30pm at Magnet Theatre in Observatory, […]

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G7:OKWE-BOKHWE 2017

Directed by Mandla Mbothwe Created with the Trainees on the Magnet Theatre Full-Time Training and Job Creation Programme 2017/2018 Okwe-Bokhwe (Like/of a goat) is the final performance project of the year for the 2017/2018 Magnet Theatre trainees. It is a part of a broader project – The Gugulethu 7 Project – that looks at notions […]

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I Turned Away And She Was Gone

Three incarnations of women: a mother, a daughter and an old crone. A haunting of past, present and future selves. Drawing loosely on the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone, this new play explores the process of individuation, the inevitability of the journey into the shadow and into the unknown, of the bonds that connect mothers and children to each other, of loss and the dense beautiful soaring life that we are all traveling through.

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ROCKING THE CRADLE FESTIVAL

MAGNET THEATRE PRESENTS – “ROCKING THE CRADLE” A SHOWCASE OF AFRICAN AND SOUTH AFRICAN WORK FOR AUDIENCES FROM 3 WEEKS TO 12 YEARS OLD! Magnet Theatre will host a fringe showcase of theatre for early year’s audiences in Observatory, Cape Town from 24th to 26th May 2017 as part of the Cradle of Creativity, the […]

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PAIRED

Created with the support of The Goethe Institue, Jennie Reznek and Helios Theatre In a group of shoes each journeys to find its pair, searches for a partner, longs to belong. 4 actors invite us to the shoe party! This is a piece about shoes, a favoured item for little children, and explores themes of […]

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AHA!

Created with the support of the Goethe Institue, Jennie Reznek and Helios Theatre. A box arrives in an empty space! What could be inside? Aha! Wool! Pulling out the thread, the actors weave themselves and the children into the wondrous world of wool. This playful performance explores what wool can do, what we can make […]

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Ekhaya

Ekhaya is a brand new production for under 10’s created by The Magnet Early Years Theatre Company and is an expression of the relationship of children towards home. It delves into their understanding of being ‘’at home’’, in various contexts, and explores their associated feelings using age appropriate language, song, and clear imagery. This production has toured […]

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Lwanda Sindaphi’s KUDU

Lwanda Sindaphi’s KUDU is set in the year 2030. The AmaXhosa Nation has taken over the Eastern Cape in an attempt to utilise the land for their own prosperity. Meanwhile three Khoi-Coloured descendants and their aging cow are migrating to the Eastern Cape. The drama centres on their encounter with Intaba KaNdoda, a poverty-stricken community […]

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23 years, a month and 7 days

23 years, a month and 7 days prides itself on being contemporary, womxn led, and multilingual. This moving piece uses the language of storytelling and physical theatre to engage with the complex struggles faced by womxn immersed in social and political environments that are systematically violent. It is set between contemporary South Africa’s higher learning […]

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4 new performances for under 7’s 2016

Following the success of the Magnet Early Years Theatre Festival, in December 2015, Magnet in partnership with the Goethe-Institut South Africa and Theater Helioe, presents four new and enchanting shows for children up to the age of seven. Performed by four casts of performers trained specifically to engage and communicate with young audiences, each production […]

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Tree/Boom/Umthi

“I have never seen the children so involved” – The Principal at Little Angels Educare “It should also be noted that the word “joy” came up a great deal in response to the performance. It seemed that the children had experienced something which was valuable and memorable, and which through the deep pleasure it provided, […]

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EARLY YEARS THEATRE FESTIVAL 2015

The daily line up presents two enchanting shows for children up to the age of seven as well as one for Moms and babies up to one year – a South African first. Performed by The Magnet Early Years Theatre Company, each production has been designed to captivate, fascinate, engage and communicate with young audiences, […]

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KNOCK!

KNOCK! is new indigenous South African theatre especially created for little ones. 4 performers enter the space and explore the natural material of wood, its sounds, what it can do and what it can make. Stimulating for the imagination, the cast create strange and magical animals and images with wonderfully shaped pieces of forest wood. […]

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HEART OF REDNESS 2015

In Collaboration with CAPE TOWN OPERA The young cast which includes Magnet Theatre and UCT drama graduates, and some of the young Cape Town Opera Members, have come together under the direction of Mark Fleishman to create a musical version of the Zakes Mda novel HEART OF REDNESS. Shortlisted for the prestigious Commonwealth Writers Prize, […]

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IN THE CITY OF PARADISE (Magnet Theatre Trainee Production)

IN THE CITY OF PARADISE is a modern reworking of the ancient story of the House of Atreus in which the descendants of Atreus and Thyestes are locked in an ongoing internecine blood feud. It was originally created in 1998, during the time of the TRC, in workshop with students at UCT under the direction […]

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Uvuno: The Harvest

Magnet Theatre presents 3 brand new works and an exhibition of a professional stage design project. This program has been developed with the 4 Expanded Public Works Program interns who have been with Magnet Theatre since August 2014. They are all 2013 graduates of the Magnet Theatre Full time Training and Job Creation Program. This […]

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NOMVULA – The Girl of the Rain

“NOMVULA” The Girl of the Rain, speaks to an audience of very young children, entertaining them whilst focusing on age appropriate educational themes: the relationship between humans and nature.  “NOMVULA” The Girl of the Rain is specifically aimed at 4 – 9 year old children. It tells the story of a young girl who loves […]

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Passage

What does it mean to be a good man in South Africa today? How do we grow from boys into responsible caring men? How do men engage with power without resorting to violence?

These are the questions that are explored in Passage, an exciting new collaboration between the Baxter Theatre Centre and Magnet Theatre. Directed by Thando Doni (graduate of the Magnet Training Programme),and the Zabalaza Theatre Festival and performed by 5 new talents on the Cape Town stage.

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Every Year, Every Day, I Am Walking

A piece about dislocation, about what home means. It explores what it means to lose the safety and security of home as a result of war and the consequences of that irrevocable loss in the life of a young girl. It traces the story of a young girl who loses family and home brutally and irrevocably and is forced to journey to a new place through many dangers and uncertainties.

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Voices Made Night

An adaptation for the stage of selected short stories by the acclaimed Mozambican author Mia Couto. Couto’s writing is rooted in the strange and often bizarre realities of life in contemporary African societies in transition. His stories confront head on the difficulties facing postcolonial societies in the process of transformation, offering unique insight into the psychic damage, which has been the legacy of both colonial history and the wars of decolonisation.

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Autopsy

Created by Magnet Theatre Directed by Mark Fleishman with Jennie Reznek, Faniswa Yisa, Dann-Jaques Mouton and Mandisi Sindo Design: Illka Louw Video Images: Sanjin Muftic Technical Advisor: Craig Leo Stage Manager/ Production Manager: Sherna Botto (2010); Ryno Keet (2012) Assistant Director: Frances Marek Lighting Design: Mark Fleishman A detective thriller that excavates the current African […]

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Kragbox

Greg January wants out, but he knows he has a debt to pay. It is a simple job, a 1-2-3, a break-in or so Jimmy Gladdevingers thinks. A gun, a poodle, a drunken old lady, a white BMW, a girl called Merryl – is jy bang? Originally created by Frances Marek, Dann-Jaques Mouton and Ephraim […]

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Running with Goldfish and Gift Wrapping the Sea

Running with Goldfish and Gift Wrapping the Sea is the first production of the new cohort of trainees on the Magnet Theatre Fulltime Training Programme. The production has been created with director Brink Scholtz, with input from Magnet Theatre’s Jennie Reznek, the training programme’s regular teachers, and Ananda Fuchs.

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The Children and the Bees

The Children and the Bees re-imagines the fairytale of The Pied Piper of Hamelin to explore themes of children in crisis situations and their stories of survival. The play draws on the testimonies of child survivors from across the world: from the Holocaust in Europe to the Rwandan genocide; from Nigeria to Burundi, South Africa and Australia. It weaves together magic fairytales and grim reality to create a story that should be thought-provoking for adults and children alike.

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Inxeba Lomphilisi – Wound of a Healer

A healer wanders along the N2. Between sunset and sunrise she listens to the stories of the dead and those that have disappeared along the road trying to help them find peace. She has a helper, Khehle, who also has a wound that he needs to heal.

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Die Vreemdeling

‘n Verlate dorp in die middel van nerens
‘n Gemeenskap wat hulleself met ‘n heining beskerm
‘n Vreemdeling verskyn in die verte; honger, dors en swak,
‘n Jong dogertjie sien hom,
Sy besluit om die hek oop te maak

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Ingcwaba Lendoda Lise Cankwe Ndlela

Drawing inspiration from African traditions and urban rituals, ‘ingcwaba lendoda’ explores the physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual dislocation of young black South Africans whose origins lie a long way down the N2 in the Eastern Cape.

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Isivuno Sama Phupha

Director: Mandla Mbothwe Created by the cast Costumes: Illka Louw Lighting Design: Luke Ellenbogen Performed by students of the UCT drama department and selected members of the Magnet Theatre Community Groups Intervention It is not moral regeneration we should seek, but spiritual regeneration. We all have dreams, even those who claim not to have them; […]

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Cargo

Cargo is a performative engagement with the archive of slavery at the Cape. An archive is a collection of bits and pieces; traces that remain from the past. It has its own logic of construction; its own rules of inclusion and exclusion. “Archive as much as you like”, the French historian Pierre Nora once said, “something will always be left out.”

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Rain in a Dead Man’s Footprints

“Rain in a Dead Man’s Footprints is beautiful, haunting and visually amazing but contains at its core a deadly serious story. It shows powerfully how the written word can become yet another violence being perpetrated on a people who are already suffering the ignominy of being hunted to death like animals.”

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The Fire Raisers

The Fire Raisers brings together the Swiss Playwright Max Frisch’s witty text with a Brechtian chorus sung under the musical direction of Neo Muyanga (of Blk Sonshine fame), Spirale’s choral expertise and Magnet’s unique physical imagery. The production explores with incendiary effect the consequences that face a world in which the gap between rich and poor widens daily.

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53 Degrees

The piece celebrates and foregrounds both the little and big achievements of these 2 women while at the same time placing their struggles in the context of the broader liberation struggle in South Africa.

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Onnest’bo

Over the first half of 2003 and 2006 Onnest’bo has performed to students in high schools across the province. In addition to watching the performance each school class receives a package of information on various themes related to forced removals and teachers receive booklets of follow-up exercises for classroom use. The District Six Museum arranged inter-generational workshops at schools or in the museum during which older members of the community who have experienced removals engage directly with the students.

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Cold Waters / Thirsty Souls

The fifth collaboration between the Jazzart Dance Theatre and Magnet Theatre. In past productions we used improvisation to generate dance material, which we have then refined, and set and repeated in exactly the same way each performance. In this way the dancers were integrally involved in the making of the dance. In this production we took improvisation a step further, bringing it directly into the performance arena itself. Cold Waters/Thirsty Souls is a lively interplay between structure and improvisation;between form and freedom.

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Vlam 2

It is about revelation and resurrection; death and rebirth. For most people the millennium is just an excuse for a party; others seek deeper more spiritual meanings from it. Some will wake having witnessed a revelation; others will wake with the mother of all hangovers.

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Vlam 1

It is about revelation and resurrection; death and rebirth. For most people the millennium is just an excuse for a party; others seek deeper more spiritual meanings from it. Some will wake having witnessed a revelation; others will wake with the mother of all hangovers.

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Pump

Directed by Mark Fleishman and Jennie Reznek Performed by Lara Bye, Gaeten Schmidt, Thembani Luzipho, Craig Leo, Alan Committee, Mandla Mbothwe, Warona Seane, Makhaola Ndebele Performed in schools, prisons, community centres, beaches and streets throughout the Western Cape. Over 16 000 people saw the production over an eight week period. An Outdoor Theatre production in […]

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“I Do” x 22

Directed by Mark Fleishamn Created by original cast Performed by Jennie Reznek, Mark Hoeben and Kurt Wustmann (Cape Town) Joshua Lindberg (Johannesburg) Best New Indigenous Script (nomination) FNB Vita Best Actor (winner) Fleur du cap Linda searches for the perfect partner. She dances her way through 22 failed marriages. “Right at the top (of the […]

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Soe Loep Ons… Nou Nog!

Directed by Mark Fleishman Movement Direction : Jennie Reznek Performed by Dawn Langdown A theatrical collage of story-telling, mime, song and dance. Stories that reflect the paradox of the pain and the party of life. Stories of a community that has suffered disempowerment, dispossession and the ravages of alcholism yet still fills the streets of […]

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The Sun, the Moon and the Knife

Based on Return Of The Moon: Versions of the /Xam poems by Stephen Watson, translated from the Bleek and Lloyd collection. Conceived, adapted and directed by Mark Fleishman Choreography Alfred Hinkel Music Direction Heather Mac Design Michael Mitchell Lighting Paul Abrams Performed by Dawn Langdown and the Jazzart Company “One of the most challenging aspects […]

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Medea

Direction: Mark Fleishman and Jennie Reznek Choreography: Alfred Hinkel Design: Craig Leo Lighting: Julian August Music arrangement: Rene Avenant Performed by: Bo Peterson, Kurt Wustmann, Jay Pather, Dawn Langdown, Heinrich Reisenhofer Chorus: John Linden, Simpiwe Magazi, Geli Schubert, Penny-Colleen Swain Mpotseng Shuping, Busisiwe Ngebulana, Sbonakaliso Ndaba , Randall Dirks, Sifiso Kweyama Best Production of a […]

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Moby Dick

Adapted and Directed by Mark Fleishman Movement Direction: Jennie Reznek Set design: Nadya Cohen Masks and heads: Adrian Kohler (Handspring Puppet Company) Performed by: Nicholas Ashby, Jamie Bartlett, Leslie Fong, Anna-Mart van der Merwe The text for this adaption of Herman Mellville’s novel was developed with the actors at the Market Laboratory. Together we searched […]

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The Show’s Not Over ‘Til the Fat Lady Sings

Best Director and Best Script (nomination) FNB Vita Best Comedy Performance Vita Awards, 1992 Best Actress Vita Awards, 1993 Belinda is hungry. Belinda is earthbound. Belinda is trapped inside a body that refuses to do what it is told. She is victim of her voracious appetites, her dreams, demons and desires. Belinda can’t breathe. And […]

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Cheap Flights

Performed and created by Jennie Reznek Directed by Roz Monat Best Actress (nomination) Vita Awards, 1987 Best Actress Dalro Awards, 1987 An expose of life in the fast lane of a one room flat. A character trapped in a rubbish tip of a room. Hating every inch. Frightened by the escalating violence around her, she […]

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