Nico Malan Theatre Centre

Originally known as the Nico Malan Theatre Complex in Cape Town.

Also known as the "The Nico" or "Die Nico" in Afrikaans.

Renamed Artscape Theatre Centre in 2001.

For information on the theatre complex post 2000, see Artscape Theatre Centre.

History (1971-2000)

The Nico Malan Theatre Centre (The Nico Malan Skouburg in Afrikaans) was opened on 19 May 1971, to be programmed and managed by the Cape Performing Arts Board (CAPAB) as a production house with four arts companies – orchestra, opera, ballet and drama: each of the companies had full-time artists, technical and administrative staff.

The centre was named after Dr Johannes Nicholas Malan (better known as Nico Malan), a politician and administrator of the Cape Province (1960-1970). Malan had initiated the building project.

The theatre complex was built on the premises where the Alhambra Theatre (a bioscope, at times also used as theatre) had originally stood. Architecturally and technologically the most advanced of all South African theatres when it was opened, it had been constructed for a massive R12million. It was one of the first theatres in the Southern Hemisphere with electro-mechanical facilities for transporting décor. The theatre was also geared with a computerised lighting system. A fire in the opera houses’ lighting switchboard caused approximately a R1million in damages in 1976.

The government-funded centre was initially opened to Whites only. This exclusionary Apartheid policy received widespread objection from several quarters and after enormous pressure, and in 1975 it became the first South African theatre that the Apartheid government, through a permit system, allowed all races into its premises, while on 11 March 1978 the then Nationalist government abolished its legislation that barred mixed race audiences in theatres and mixed race casts in productions. As an attempt to popularise it and rid itself of the apartheid stigma, it was at one point renamed "The Nico" (with the slogan "The Nico for All").

Apart from CAPAB's own productions, the Centre also acted as a receiving house for visiting/touring shows by other producers. In 1980, the largest symposium to date, a conference on Disaster Treatment, was attended by a 1400 people. In 1981, an even bigger crowd attended to hear the former South African and Israeli Cabinet minister, Abba Eban, speak.

From 1994 government policy changed dramatically. All performing arts boards were transformed to playhouses and the various arts companies had to become independent. In 1997 the CAPAB staged its last play, The Guise, by David Mowat. It was staged as an ode to the closing down of CAPAB and the major theme of the play was the survival of theatre.

In line with the new South African the political dispensation and the concurrent changes, the complex was renamed the Artscape Theatre Centre in March 2001.

Venues

Covering an area of some 14 000 square meters, the Centre consists of the following performance venues and spaces:

Opera House (seating 1487)

The theatre was used principally by the CAPAB Opera, CAPAB Ballet and CAPAB Musicals departments.

Theatre (seating 540)

The theatre was used principally by CAPAB Drama.

Arena Theatre (seating 140)

Built on the side stage of the Theatre, originally as a space to house the work of CAPAB's experimental company, the CAPAB Theatre Laboratory. It opened with a production of Dylan Thomas’s Under Milkwood (1972).

Numerous groundbreaking productions have been done there over the years, including Rosalie van der Gucht’s production of James Ambrose Brown’s version of The Story of an African Farm (1975), Mis, Mirakel and Drif (all three by Reza de Wet). Other groups also used the space, such as the Peninsula Group for the Performing Arts (with Die Bulldozers het Gekom in 1986).

Other venues

• Piazza
• Gardens
• Rehearsal rooms
• Parking

For more information

For more information, see Cape Performing Arts Board (pre 2001) or Artscape (post 2001).

Sources

https://www.artscape.co.za/celebrating-50-years-from-nico-to-artscape-in-grand-style/

https://www.artscape.co.za/history/

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