Market Theatre

The Market Theatre is an "alternative" theatre space created by writer/director Barney Simon and producer/administrator Mannie Manim in 1976. It has long been termed South Africa's unofficial "National Theatre" because of its pivotal role in the cultural politics of the Struggle years (1976-1994).

STILL TO BE SUBSTANTIALLY EDITED

An “alternative” theatre space created by writer/director Barney Simon and producer/administrator Mannie Manim, both of whom had had wide experience of theatre before forming The Company -an independent company committed to non-racial theatre - in 1974. The wanted to use it as a home base for their own work, but gradually the theatre developed into South Africa’s most renowned theatre space, unofficially considered the country’s “national theatre” in the 1980s and early 1990s. Looking for this home, they were led to the site of the former "Indian" produce market in Johannesburg's vibrant inner-city suburb of Newtown and eventually named the theatre complex after that former enterprise on the site.

The building was converted and turned into a complex consisting of four theatres and two galleries - one for graphic arts, one for photographs. Both the conversion and the subsequent running of the complex were funded entirely by donations from the private sector. It was opened in 1976, operating as an independent, non-racial theatre during the country’s apartheid regime. It is named for the site on which it stands, which was originally a produce market, also known as the Old Indian Market or the Newtown Market, which closed after 60 years of trade and relocated to another part of the city.

Like the Space Theatre, it defied the Group Areas Act, which restricted theatres in "white" areas to whites only - both as audience and as actors. From the start the trustees of the Market Theatre Trust opened the stages and the auditoria to all who wished to come there, regardless of race.

It was not until the 1990s, with the demise of the apartheid regime, that the Market Theatre would formally receive state funding.

Origins

The Company

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_Theatre_(Johannesburg)

See The Company

A home

It happened that the old produce market, also known as the "Old Indian Market" or the "Newtown Market", which had been opened in 1913, had finally closed after 60 years of trade and been relocated to another part of the city.

The Company, looking for a home, put in a bid, along with many other individuals and companies (including Schalk Jacobsz, Des and Dawn Lindbergh, and **) for the front section the old Johannesburg Indian fruit market in Newtown. They eventually won the tender in 1974 and began converting it.

The Market Theatre became the ‘home’ of The Company and on the 4th of January 1976 a fund raising production was put on which consisted of a compilation of readings by well known performers such as Janet Suzman, Michael McCabe and Ron Smerczak, with music by Keith Blundell. Danny Keogh was the stage manager for the production.

Structure

The building of the theatre was done by Ozz Construction, from architectural designs by Rodney Grosskopff. It initially consisted of two stages, the Market Main Theatre (the circular old sales hall) and what was to be called Upstairs Theatre. Later the Market Café was opened (it later became The Laager), followed by other spaces such as ** and the Rehearsal Room.

In 2013 a major revamp was undertaken, with capital funding from the Department of Arts and Culture, to enlarge capacity and make it more comfortable. However, because the building is a protected Heritage Site within Johannesburg's culturally important Newtown Precinct, the overhaul could not change any structural features.

The Theatre Upstairs/Upstairs at the Market

This venue is a smaller space in the Market Theatre building, used for more intimate plays and performances. It has also been referred to as Opstêrs by die Markteater in Afrikaans by the ever controversial Schalk Jacobsz, who performed there a number of times. It opened on 21 June 1976.

Productions:

1976: Opening production - Barney Simon’s production of Chekhov’s The Seagull starring Erica Rogers, Vanessa Cooke, Sandra Prinsloo, Bill Brewer, Marius Weyers, Danny Keogh, Lindsay Reardon and Bess Finney; Barney Simon's production of The Crucible; Fugard’s The Blood Knot, directed by Benjy Francis and starring Francis and Fats Bookholane; Francis also directed Waiting for Godot with an all black cast; One Friday in Jerusalem, directed by Garalt MacLiam; Pieter-Dirk Uys’ God’s Forgotten, co-starring Christine Basson, Magda Beukes and Lynne Maree

1977: In association with The Company the Academy staged Murray Schisgal’s Broadway comedy Luv, directed by Barney Simon with Wilson Dunster, Janice Honeyman and James White; Robert Kirby’s How Now Sacred Cow

1978: An Afrikaans translation of Equus directed by Mario Schiess; Paradise is Closing Down directed by its author Pieter-Dirk Uys; Adam Small’s first play in English, The Orange Earth, directed by Jo Dunstan; Tom Stoppard’s Travesties, directed by Malcolm Purkey and starring Vanessa Cooke, Nicholas Ellenbogen and William Kentridge

1979: Barney Simon directed Cincinatti – Scenes from City Life starring Vanessa Cooke, Marcel van Heerden, Danny Keogh, Lesley Nott, Barrie Shah, Thoko Ntshinga, Bo Petersen, Sam Williams and Robin Smith for The Company at Upstairs; Donald Howarth directed his own play Ibchek starring Annabel Linder, Jacqui Singer, Frantz Dobrowsky, Danny Keogh and Elaine Proctor

1980: Fugard’s A Lesson from Aloes, directed by Ross Devenish, starring Marius Weyers, Shelagh Holliday and Bill Curry; Janice Honeyman’s production of An Arabian Night

1981: Die Bywoners produced the first translation of the Fugard play Hello and Goodbye called Hallo en Koebaai, directed by Jan Engelen and starring Schalk Jacobsz and Elna Potgieter; Pieter-Dirk Uys’ Karnaval, directed by Dawie Malan and starred Magda Beukes, Lida Botha, Dale Cutts and Joey de Koker; The Glass Menagerie, directed by Lucille Gillwald and starring Shelagh Holliday and Lesley Nott

1982: Paul Slabolepszy’s Saturday Night at the Palace starring Slabolepszy, Bill Flynn and Fats Dibeko, directed by Bobby Heaney; Lanford Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Talley’s Folly starring Dorothy Ann Gould and Anthony Fridjhon, directed by Bobby Heaney

1983: Bobby Heaney directed Edna O’Brien’s Virginia starring Sandra Duncan, Robert Whitehead and Yvonne Banning (February); Janice Honeyman directed Danny Keogh and Vanessa Cooke in This is for Keeps (August); Sweeney Todd, adapted and directed by Robert Whitehead starring Richard Haines and Grethe Fox (August); Janice Honeyman’s production, Forbidden Fruits, starring Vanessa Cooke, Jeremy Crutchley, Mike Huff, Danny Keogh, Amanda Strydom and Annelisa Weiland

1984: The Company presented Barney Simon’s Black Dog Inj’emnyama before going to the Edinburgh Festival.

1985: Deon Opperman’s Môre is ‘n Lang Dag (January); Christo Leech’s Die Spinner was the late night show at this stage; Robin Levetan’s Skyf starring Sean Taylor originated at the Baxter before playing here (May); Barney Simon, in collaboration with his cast which included Fiona Ramsay, Vanessa Cooke, Timmy Kwebulana, Gcina Mhlophe, Terry Norton, Thoko Ntshinga and Neil McCarthy wrote Born in the RSA which opened here in August 1985 before moving to the main theatre.

1986: In collaboration with Malcolm Purkey’s Junction Avenue Theatre Company the Company presented Sophiatown starring Minky Schlesinger (February), and subsequently the Market main house, abroad, with many return visits; Robert Kirby’s The Bijers Sunbird starring James Mthoba and Sean Taylor under Kirby’s direction (April); Reza de Wet’s Diepe Grond starring Dawid Minnaar, Susan Coetzer, Gys de Villiers and Doris Sihula under Lucille Gillwald’s direction; Robert Whitehead directed Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr Sloane starring Christine le Brocq, Anthony James, Kevin Smith and Danny Keogh (October); Steven Berkoff’s Greek, directed by Mavis Taylor; Keith Grenville’s Not About Heroes, for Volute Productions

1987: Esther van Ryswyk’s production of Hallo en Koebaai

1988: Andrew Buckland’s The Ugly Noo Noo; Sandra Duncan played the title role in William Luce’s Lillian

1989: Lanford Wilson’s Burn This

1990: Malcolm Purkey directed David Mamet’s Speed the Plow; Clare Stopford directed Ibsen’s A Doll’s House

1992: William Kentridge directed the Handspring Puppet Company in Woyzeck on the Highveld; James Whyle’s Hellhound; Ariel Dorfman’s Death and the Maiden

1993: Athol Fugard’s Boesman and Lena; Can Themba’s The Suit

1994: Athol Fugard’s Hello and Goodbye

Market Theatre Café

Also known as the Market Café, this was a minute, eccentric and airless entertainment venue within the Market Theatre, which existed from 1 August 1976 to 17 July 1978. The concept was for a café-theatre in the continental style and it epitomised much of what the Market Theatre was striving to be. Initially run by Dave Marks and Fran Marks, it officially opened on the first of August 1976 with Alan Kwela. Later Marks added a small recording studio to the venue under the label of Third Ear Music. Due to financial problems the Market Café was shut down on 17 July 1978.

Significant performances there include Pieter-Dirk Uys’s Adapt or Dye (1981) and Hennie Aucamp’s Afrikaans cabaret Met Permissie Gesê (1981). *

It closed in 198*, ** replaced by *** and later in the 1990s?* became Gramadoelas, an unpmarket restaurant run by Eduan Naude.

The Laager

A small space in the Market Theatre, that opened in 1978 with Pieter-Dirk Uys as artistic director of the theatre upon opening.

Productions:

1978: Die Van Aardes van Grootoor by Pieter-Dirk Uys, directed by Dawie Malan and starring Uys, Magda Beukes, Johan Botha, Lida Botha, Antoinette Kellermann, Nomsa Nene and Rina Nienaber was the opening production in September 1978.

1979: Pieter-Dirk Uys's Info Scandals, directed by Dawie Malan; Mario Schiess translated (from Kafka’s German) and directed Report to the Academy starring Marius Weyers; Harvey Fierstein’s International Stud

1980: Israel Horowitz’s The Indian Wants the Bronx starring Bill Curry, Michael Richard and Jonathan Rands, directed by Bobby Heaney; Robert Kirby wrote, directed, and co-starred (with Terry Lester) in Separate Development; Pieter-Dirk Uys, Tessa Uys and Thoko Ntshinga starred in Uyscreams with Hot Chocolate Sauce

1981: Henry Rootenberg’s Zeyda, starring Nicholas Ellenbogen, Molly Seftel and Frantz Dobrowsky; Athol Fugard’s Nongogo with Thoko Ntshinga; Woza Albert! developed by Mbongeni Ngema and Percy Mtwa under Barney Simon’s direction

1982: Colin Higgins’ Harold and Maude starring Ruth Oppenheim and Jeremy Bonell, directed by Tammy Garner

1983: Janice Honeyman directed Danny Keogh and Vanessa Cooke in This is for Keeps(May, before playing at Upstairs in August); Stephen Gray’s Schreiner starring Elize Cawood, directed by Lucille Gillwald (August); Barney Simon’s production of Marsha Norman’s 'night, Mother starring Janice Honeyman and Julie Follansbee (September)

1984: Torch Song Trilogy

1985: Mbongeni Ngema’s Asinamali (directed by Ngema, May 1985 before going on a world tour and returning to the Market in December); Percy Mtwa wrote and directed Bopha (a Market and Earth Players; Saira Essa directed The Biko Inquest, created by John Blair and Norman Fenton

1986: Peter Se-Puma’s Hamba Dompas (directed by Nomsa Nene with the author and John Ledwaba (January); Gcina Mhlope’s Have You Seen Zandile? starring Gcina and Thembi Mtshali, directed by Maralin Vanrenen (February); Lucille Gillwald’s production of John Patrick Shanley’s Danny and the Deep Blue Sea

1987: Mark Banks starred in We’re Not on Top...We’re Inside (January); James Mthoba’s Mehlondini

1989: Pieter-Dirk Uys’ Just Like Home (opening production of the newly refurbished Laager)

1991: Andrew Buckland directed Soli Philander in Soli’s Take Two

1992: Paul Slabolepszy’s The Return of Elvis du Pisanie; Paul Slabolepszy’s Mooi Street Moves

1993: Jean Genet’s The Maids; Steven Berkoff’s Decadence

1994: Sue Pam-Grant and D.J. Grant’s Take the Floor

The Market Theatre Laboratory

Also known as The Lab or the Market Theatre Lab.

Originally founded in 1989 as a training facility attached to the Market Theatre with money from the Rockefeller Foundation. John Kani and Barney Simon were the founding directors and Mark Fleishman was the first administrator. Gradually the success of the Drama School led to other programmes initiated by the Laboratory. It also received substantial funding later from SIDA through the Stockholms Statsteater.

Other administrators have been Tale Motsepe and Vanessa Cooke,

Today the Market Theatre Laboratory is based in The Bus Factory – 3 Helen Joseph Street, Newtown.

The Market Theatre Laboratory Drama School

The school offered an intensive practical two year course in basic theatre and performance skills for marginalised aspirant actors.

The school used professional theatre practitioners as tutors as they would impart not only the theoretical background but also give of their practical work experience. It soon became a platform for young artists to meet, interact, engage and discuss issues affecting the arts industry and creative processes.

The school was renamed the Ramolao Makhene Drama School after the passing of the renowned actor, though the title does not seem to be used much. Their theatre, the Ramolao Makhene Theatre, was also named after him.

The National Fieldwork Programme

This programme has worked with hundreds of community groups over the years and its success is evident in the annual Community Theatre Festivals and Zwakala Festivals.

The Writing Programme

With the assistance of Zakes Mda the lab started a writing workshop, which led to the development of a number of new South African plays.

Fieldworkers Festival or Market Laboratory Community Theatre Festival

The project was started to prepare and present the work of 50 community theatre groups and present a showcase of these in a semi-professional setting. The second co-ordinator Tale Motsepe initiated the Community Theatre Festival (known then as the Fieldworkers Festival). This festival became an annual event with groups coming from all the provinces.

Sources

http://markettheatre.co.za/view/laboratory/about-the-lab-and-drama-school

Productions

The first formal production was on 21 June 1976 (The Seagull by Chekhov, directed by Barney Simon in the Upstairs Theatre) while October 19th 1976 saw the opening of the the complex’s main theatre and the official opening of The Market Theatre with Peter Weiss’s The persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as performed by the inmates of the asylum of Charenton under the direction of the Marquis de Sade (usually referred to simply as the the Marat/Sade), also directed by Barney Simon. This play sparked off the first of many controversies for which The Market Theatre became renowned over the years. The theatre would also become a ‘Community Arts Centre’ with art exhibitions, photographic displays and training in aspects of theatre craft in its Market Theatre Gallery. For a while the centre baosted an exciting bookshop and an upmarket restaurant and cabaret venue as well. The Market, its passages and especially its pub became a multiracial neutral area in the midst of Apartheid South Africa, while other artists and arts associations also moved into the area. Gradually the precinct around it was also developed, so that by the late 1990s it included the Museum Africa exhibition rooms, Kippie's Jazz Club, the restaurants Gramadoelas and Kofifi, plus the Electric Workshop, where the 1997 Arts Biennale was held, the offices of the Film Resource Unit, the Dance Factory and the Bag Factory artists studios. * It quickly forged links with other alternative companies and theatres, such as the Space Theatre (from which it drew many of its ideas and artists) and the Baxter Theatre, exchanging productions with them. Besides productions by The Company, the venue also hosted the work of companies from the townships and elsewhere, some becoming regular performers there. These include the Earth Players, Bahumutsi Players, ** In this way it became the most prominent of the alternative political theatres by the end of the 1970s , often referred to as “South Africa’s national theatre” (see for example Graver and Kruger, 1989). In 1989*? Mannie Manim left to head the Wits Theatre and run his own company Mannie Manim Productions. *** took over as chief adminstrative officer and John Kani as chairman of the board. Over the years In 1989 it also opened the Market Theatre Laboratory (also the Market Lab or simply The Lab) with sponsorship from inter alia the Rockefeller Foundation. Founded by Barney Simon, John Kani and Vanessa Cooke, and directed by Cooke, The Lab aimed to train both performer and community theatre practitioners. Unfortunately, the city centre had also become depopulated and the Market Theatre a dangerious place, which affected attendance. However it has gone on, and in 200* Malcolm Purkey was appointed director**. Productions by and from the Market Theatre have raked in awards all over the world, including Tony Awards, Laurence Olivier Awards, **, and so on. In 1990 the Market Theatre building was declared a national monument and in 1995 the theatre was awarded the prestigious Jujamcyn Award. s** Market Theatre:Theatre in Johannesburg. It was housed in the old Indian Fruit Market on the corner of Bree and Wolhuter Streets. The premises was awarded to The Company in April 1975. Pleasure and Repentance, a fund-raising show, was staged here in a back room of the unfinished theatre on 4 January 1976. Barney Simon directed and the cast comprised Michael McCabe, Ron Smerczak, Keith Blundell and Janet Suzman P.P.B Breytenbach was a founder trustee. Lucille Gillwald played an instrumental role in the operation of the Market.

• • • • WAREHOUSE, The. A venue in the Market Theatre. This, the fifth venue at the Market, opened in April 1987. The opening production was Janice Honeyman’s Black and White Follies. Mara Louw and Bayete starred in Mayibuye iAfrica here in 1987. Pieter-Dirk Uys presented Rearranging the Deck Chairs on the S.A. Bothatanic starring Chris Galloway in 1987 and in December of the same year they joined forces again in Uys’ Cry Freemandela – The Movie. Andrew Buckland’s The Investigation of an Ugly Noo Noo was staged here in 1988. Sarafina was staged here in 1988/89. Janice Honeyman directed Pieter-Dirk Uys in A Kiss on Your Koeksister for the Market here in 1990. Patrick Mynhardt staged The Boy from Bethulie and Just Jerepigo here in 1990. **** (Percy Tucker, 1997) Market Theatre: The old Newtown building from 1916. Opening play 19 Oct 1976: “The persecution and assassination of Marat, performed by the inmates of the Asylum of Charenton under the direction of the Marquis de Sade” .MM (dir)& B Simon. Honorary patrons were: Athol, Leon Gluckman, Nadine Gordimer, Sir Michael Redgrave & Janet Suzman. Experimental Theatre upstairs opened with The Seagull (dir) Barney. Market Theatre, JHB (Director: John Kani) Market Theatre: The old Newtown building from 1916. Opening play 19 Oct 1976: “The persecution and assassination of Marat, performed by the inmates of the Asylum of Charenton under the direction of the Marquis de Sade” .MM (dir)& B Simon. Honorary patrons were: Athol, Leon Gluckman, Nadine Gordimer, Sir Michael Redgrave & Janet Suzman. Experimental Theatre upstairs opened with The Seagull (dir) Barney.

Sources

Pat Schwartz, 1988; Percy Tucker, 1997;

Loren Kruger, 1999

http://markettheatre.co.za/

http://www.historicalpapers.wits.ac.za/inventory/AG3005.php

Feature written by Helen Grange, The Star, 20 September 2001.

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