Warm greetings from Maboneng! There’s a lot taking place at The Centre for the Less Good Idea in the coming months. In our latest newsletter, find out what’s on at The Centre, and revisit what we’ve done in 2025 so far. 

On Wednesday 16 April, The Centre for the Less Good Idea hosts an Open Moment led by co-founders of The Centre, Bronwyn Lace and William Kentridge.

Ghosts & Shadows: An exhibition in the making emerges from ongoing workshops at The Centre towards two international exhibitions opening later this year in Italy and Germany as part of The Centre Outside the Centre, which is led by Lace. 

The Open Moment will share the processes of creating a series of Pepper's Ghost Dioramas which will construct illusionary miniature scenes and constantly shifting, perpetual performances, developed using mirror and lighting techniques. Alongside the dioramas, we will share the making of experimental table-top theatre and shadow-dance installations which will also be features of the exhibitions.  

Some of the invited artists, as well as members of The Centre’s team, whose performative work has been translated into these dioramas and installations, will join Lace and Kentridge in conversation in the course of the evening. They are Thulani Chauke, Noah Cohen, Anathi Conjwa, Bukhosibakhe Khoza, Katlego Letsholonyana, Nthabiseng Malaka, Micca Manganye, Neo Muyanga, Tony Miyambo and Octavia Sonyane. 

DATE | WEDNESDAY 16 APRIL 2025
TIME | 19H00
VENUE | THE CENTRE FOR THE LESS GOOD IDEA, ARTS ON MAIN, 264 FOX STREET, MABONENG
DURATION | 60-90 MINUTES

TICKETS | R150
BOOKINGS | ww.lessgoodidea.com

Photographer | Zivanai Matangi  

“The South African filmmakers of today… we’re trying to articulate what it is we’re going to say, now that [the medium] is in our hands… I’m trying to, as much as I can, name what happened for us and with us so that it can be added to the canon, next to other forms and styles of filmmaking.” – Milisuthando Bongela-Davis

On Wednesday 23 April, The Centre for the Less Good Idea presents a HOW | Showing the Making, with writer and filmmaker Milisuthando Bongela-Davis. 

This HOW will focus on the evolution of Bongela-Davis’ concept of Nguni cinema through the making of the film Milisuthando, not merely as a filmmaking aesthetic, but as a philosophy and approach. A screening of the film will follow a short interval. 

DATE | WEDNESDAY 23 APRIL 2025
TIME | 18H30
VENUE | THE CENTRE FOR THE LESS GOOD IDEA, ARTS ON MAIN, 264 FOX STREET, MABONENG
DURATION | 3 HOURS (40 MINUTE HOW, FOLLOWED BY A SCREENING OF MILISUTHANDO, THE FILM)
TICKETS | R150
BOOKINGS | OPEN SOON AT www.lessgoodidea.com

Photographer | Hankyeol Lee

On Friday 30 May, The Centre for the Less Good Idea presents The Open Moment | Thinking in Monteverdi.

This Open Moment emerges from a four-day workshop between The African Renaissance Ensemble, William Kentridge, Neo Muyanga, and musicians from The Centre, including Xolisile Bongwana, Thuli Magubane, Mapule Moloi, and Micca Manganye, towards a contemporary reimagining of Claudio Monteverdi’s works including L’Orfeo.  

Live performance, process, and projected elements from Kentridge’s studio will form part of this Open Moment. 

DATE | FRIDAY 30 MAY 2025
TIME | 19H00
VENUE | THE CENTRE FOR THE LESS GOOD IDEA, ARTS ON MAIN, 264 FOX STREET, MABONENG
DURATION | 60-90 MINUTES
TICKETS | R150
BOOKINGS | OPEN SOON AT www.lessgoodidea.com

Photographer | Zivanai Matangi

On Friday 9 May, The Centre for the Less Good Idea presents The Open Moment | Thinking in Instruments with Zawadi YaMungu, Bongiwe Lusizi, Gontse Makhene, and Victor Gama.

Over the course of Thinking in Instruments, YaMungu, Lusizi, Makhene, and Gama will collaborate and investigate the meeting of indigenous South African instruments, vocalisation and a selection of instruments designed by Gama. 

The Open Moment emerges from this context and will be an opportunity for audiences to witness the individual practices of each musician, as well as the research and collaborative processes that took place between the artists during the four day workshop, as well as the outcomes thereof. 

DATE | FRIDAY 9 MAY 2025
TIME | 19H00
VENUE | THE CENTRE FOR THE LESS GOOD IDEA, ARTS ON MAIN, 264 FOX STREET, MABONENG
DURATION | 60-90 MINUTES
TICKETS | R150
BOOKINGS | OPEN SOON AT www.lessgoodidea.com

Photographer | Jeremy Hogan

On Saturday 1 February 2025, The Centre for the Less Good Idea presented A Defence of the Less Good Idea, a series of short-form works – Mnquma, Commission Continua and Umthandazo – preceded by a performance-based lecture by William Kentridge.

The performances took place at The Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA to a full house and were well-received by audiences and critics alike.

Photographer | Zivanai Matangi

From 5 to 8 February 2025,William Kentridge and The Centre for the Less Good Idea took The Great Yes, The Great No, to The Wallis in Beverly Hills, California.

Kentridge’s experimental production is an intensively collaborative work. Born from a process of creative exchange with The Centre for the Less Good Idea, The Great Yes, the Great No sees Kentridge collaborating with theatre-maker Phala Ookeditse Phala, dramaturg Mwenya Kabwe, choral conductor and dancer Nhlanhla Mahlangu, costume designer Greta Goiris, set designer Sabine Theunissen, and the production’s chorus of seven women who, along with Mahlangu, contribute to the deep musical structure of the work.

The Great Yes, The Great No is part play, part Greek chorus, part chamber opera – all interwoven with Kentridge’s signature surrealist visuals.

Photographer | Stella Olivier

From 27 February to 2 March 2025, The Centre presented the renowned musical odyssey, African Exodus, at the Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC) in New York City.

This was the North American debut of African Exodus and was incredibly well-received by audiences and critics alike.

Preceding African Exodus on the Lobby Stage each evening was Sounds of Limpopo, a free-to-the-public, two-man musical performance exploring the rhythmic patterns and sounds of the natural world using an array of instruments and bodily percussion. 

Also part of the programme at PAC was an In Conversation between Senegalese philosopher and scholar Souleymane Bachir Diagne, and Impresario for the Less Good Idea, Neo Muyanga, which followed the February 28th performance. Leveraging off the themes of identity, culture, and migration implicit in African Exodus, and its performance debut in North America, Muyanga and Diagne discussed, among other things, the shared musical traditions between Africa and the United States of America, and the history of migration between the two.

Photographer | Stephanie Berger

“Our own ways of understanding the world affect how we communicate, and how we write.” - MoMo Matsunyane

From 3 to 7 March, The Centre invited Neil Coppen, MoMo Matsunyane and Jefferson Tshabalala to lead a hugely generative writing and storytelling workshop. On Friday 7 March, we hosted The Open Moment, where we shared some of the key creative strategies, processes and methodologies for writing that were developed and explored during the week.

Thinking In Writing is an ongoing mentorship programme. Participants are Vuyokazi Ngemntu, Nolwazi Mahlangu, Uvile Ximba, Thabang Chauke, Mongezi Ntukwana, Melusi Molefe, Chloë Reid, Grace Matetoa, Jessica Sibongile Mathe & Noah Cohen.

Watch the full Open Moment here.

Photographer | Zivanai Matangi

From 27 to 29 March, The Centre hosted the third iteration of its Collation series, The Unexpected City. 

Curated by The Centre’s Impresario, Neo Muyanga, and following on from the first two COLLATIONS – Visual Radio Plays, and Sounding Pictures – COLLATION 3 | The Unexpected City sought to engage the city through its artists, inhabitants and everyday voices in order to present a programme of short-form theatre, site-specific performances, films, and installations that left room for myriad incidental discoveries and improvisational moments in the city. 

The full programme will be available to view on our website in the coming weeks. 

Photographer | Zivanai Matangi