The Suidoosterfees is an annual Cape Town-based community arts festival dedicated to fostering an inclusive, non-racial South African society through the arts.
The festival promotes job creation, community development and social cohesion, while supporting emerging artists through several development initiatives.
With a diverse programme spanning drama, music, dance and public discussions, the Suidoosterfees provides an accessible platform for both established and emerging local and international artists to showcase their talent, cultivate new voices and make the arts affordable and welcoming to all.
- Date: 29 April – 3 May 2026
- Time: 09:00 – 00:00
- Venue: Artscape & Media24 Building
- Tickets: Free – R150 | Tickets coming soon
A WOMEN ALONE
with Kim Engelbrecht | Script: Franca Rame & Dario Fo | Director: Quanita Adams | Assistant Director: Charlton George
First performed in 1977, this one-woman play is a powerful and thought-provoking monologue that explores the life of a housewife, delving into themes of oppression, liberation and social commentary. Combining elements of satire, farce and drama, and using humour, irony, and emotional intensity, the housewife – unnamed throughout the play – recounts her daily life, struggles and frustrations. She describes her relationships with her husband, family and society, highlighting the restrictive roles and expectations placed on modern-day women.
30 Apr 26 09:00 ATKV Arena Teater | ATKV Arena Theatre
01 May 26 15:30 ATKV Arena Teater | ATKV Arena Theatre
02 May 26 19:00 ATKV Arena Teater | ATKV Arena Theatre
For more information: https://suidoosterfees.com/2026-nati-teaterfees-nati-theatre-festival/
Ticket Booking: https://www.webtickets.co.za/v2/event.aspx?itemid=1587302768
CRYBABY
with Frank Opperman, Nicole Holm, Wian Taljaard and René Cloete | Script & Directed by Carla Smith
On an ordinary morning, at an ordinary daycare, three-year-old Samuel experiences the unspeakable destroyer of innocence – the news. He changes in the blink of an eye: From a blissful child to a weary adult, decades aged by dire headlines, tragic events and the fate of humanity that is hopelessly too heavy for his new shoulders to bear.
CRYBABY is an absurd tragicomedy that deals with the toll it takes to live in a money-hungry world where everything is collapsing. It is at once a love letter to one’s childhood and an indelible reminder of the one truth every adult knows: Growing up is not child’s play.
30 Apr 26 10:00 kykNET Teater | kykNET Theatre
01 May 26 13:30 kykNET Teater | kykNET Theatre
For more information: https://suidoosterfees.com/2026-nati-teaterfees-nati-theatre-festival/
Ticket Booking: https://www.webtickets.co.za/v2/event.aspx?itemid=1587851166
EUGENE
with Carlo Daniels, Lynette du Plessis & Kirby van der Merwe | Script: Saartjie Botha, based on the novel by Kirby van der Merwe | Director: Nico Scheepers
Eugene, based on Kirby van der Merwe’s multi-award-winning novel, is a raw and poetic portrait of a man who lives between worlds. Streetwise yet seemingly upper middle class, Eugene is a wanderer, seeker, lover and lost son – a hard-edged outsider who has mastered the art of truly seeing. The production explores marginalised masculinity, mental health and trauma, and illuminates themes such as love, hate, trust, betrayal and forgiveness. With Brechtian estrangement as an undertone, his journey becomes a quest for integrity and humanity amid injustice and despair. Eugene is gripping, stylish and unforgettable.
29 Apr 26 13:30 ATKV Arena Teater | ATKV Arena Theatre
01 May 26 12:00 ATKV Arena Teater | ATKV Arena Theatre
03 May 26 15:30 ATKV Arena Teater | ATKV Arena Theatre
For more information: https://suidoosterfees.com/2026-nati-teaterfees-nati-theatre-festival/
Ticket Booking: https://www.webtickets.co.za/v2/event.aspx?itemid=1587303706
JOSHLIN: MEER AS ‘N NAAM
with Bronwyn Damon, Chriswill Kotze, Janru Steenkamp, Mahlatse Molubi, Maundrey Jantjies, Michael Ruzvidzo, Ronald Theron, Rehane Abrahams & Adri-Jo Waterboer | Script: Herschelle Benjamin | Director: Kanya Viljoen & Byron Klassen
The child with the blue-green eyes is gone. The child disappears in the darkness of a land that has forsaken her. In the shame of a community that turned its gaze away. She cries at the violence, hides in the shadow of injustice, who lives in the conscience of a society… The child isn’t dead. The child is gone. Rise up, communities! Shout on our cellphones! Haunt the corridors of parliament! And ask, “Where is our justice?” And wait for the answer…
29 Apr 26 10:00 ATKV Arena Teater | ATKV Arena Theatre
30 Apr 26 12:00 ATKV Arena Teater | ATKV Arena Theatre
01 May 26 09:00 ATKV Arena Teater | ATKV Arena Theatre
For more information: https://suidoosterfees.com/2026-nati-teaterfees-nati-theatre-festival/
Ticket Booking: https://www.webtickets.co.za/v2/event.aspx?itemid=1587304492
KINDERLE
with Miché van Wyk, Theodore Jantjies, Lynette du Plessis & Damian Jacobs | Script: Lynthia Julius | Director: Lee-Ann van Rooi
A grudge, they say, is a painful thing to nurse. Nama and San people are peaceful folk. Or that’s how white people portray them. They don’t fight. They give when it is needed, and they don’t take. Like Hanna, Maria begged God for a child, and God gave her one. Dawid and Maria were given Dammas. On a Sunday in 1867, their camp, Nona-Ams, was attacked by San people while the adults were attending a church service at Besondermeid. Thirty-two Nama children, their caretakers and dogs were killed. The same God who gave to Dawid and Maria, took back Dammas and 31 other Nama children. Giving and then taking back is worse than stealing. This work portrays a Northern Cape history that is not widely known. It raises questions about motherhood, parenthood, faith, and a tragic history, the scars of which still lie across the back of Namaqualand.
01 May 26 16:00 Little Theatre, Hiddingh Campus
02 May 26 09:00 Little Theatre, Hiddingh-Campus
For more information: https://suidoosterfees.com/2026-nati-teaterfees-nati-theatre-festival/
Ticket Booking: https://www.webtickets.co.za/v2/event.aspx?itemid=1587320051
LEMOENE, LEMOENE, LEMOENE, LEMOENE, LEMOENE
with Mienke Ehlers and Dean John Smith | Script: Sam Steiner | Directed by Kanya Viljoen
In a South Africa where people are only allowed to use 140 words a day, two young lovers must learn to live with silence, and fight with words. How do you say “I love you” when language itself has become dangerous? This moving piece explores what love, freedom and the power of one’s voice mean within limits.
02 May 26 09:00 ATKV Arena Teater | ATKV Arena Theatre
03 May 26 12:00 ATKV Arena Teater | ATKV Arena Theatre
03 May 26 19:00 ATKV Arena Teater | ATKV Arena Theatre
For more information: https://suidoosterfees.com/2026-nati-teaterfees-nati-theatre-festival/
Ticket Booking: https://www.webtickets.co.za/v2/event.aspx?itemid=1587311004
VERWELKINGSLIED
with Antoinette Kellermann and Dawid Minnaar | Script: Breyten Breytenbach | Directed by Marí Borstlap
In Breytenbach’s last play, we are taken on a journey by the master, who imagines himself at his own funeral. Breyten enters into a consciousness-expanding and intimate conversation with an elderly stage actress. For one last time, he attempts to balance the score – leaving the old actress with the daunting task of paying homage by performing his final words … Verwelkingslied is Breyten Breytenbach’s moving swan song, written for Suidoosterfees shortly before his death in 2024, and dedicated to Antoinette Kellermann and Marthinus Basson.
29 Apr 26 17:30 ATKV Arena Teater | ATKV Arena Theatre
01 May 26 19:00 ATKV Arena Teater | ATKV Arena Theatre
02 May 26 12:00 ATKV Arena Teater | ATKV Arena Theatre
For more information: https://suidoosterfees.com/2026-nati-teaterfees-nati-theatre-festival/
Ticket Booking: https://www.webtickets.co.za/v2/event.aspx?itemid=1587312104
