A COLLECTIVE NAVIGATION: SEASON 11 OF THE CENTRE FOR THE LESS GOOD IDEA 

Curated by Impresario for the Less Good Idea, Neo Muyanga, and supported by The Centre’s core team, Season 11 focuses on work made by and in collaboration with Johannesburg’s many artists, theatremakers, musicians, writers, filmmakers, and thinkers, as well as a host of invited international artists.

Much of Season 11 has been shaped by Muyanga’s curation at The Centre over the last two years. For Muyanga, whose practice straddles the spheres of performance and scholarship, and whose compositional style is grounded in the South African choral tradition, a key interest is that of the collective voice as a vector that shapes society. Specifically, it’s the act of collective seeing and shaping that runs through Season 11.

“It’s about how we become an ensemble, whether we are performers, audience members, or neighbours. It’s how the city performs itself through us, and also how we choose to perform the city. Johannesburg is a place that requires a collective navigation, a mutual reliance, a particular call and response,” says Muyanga.   

Season 11 is an amalgamation of the last two years of The Centre’s experimental programming, which engages a dramaturgy of sound, deep listening, and collective ways of seeing. It also embraces new strategies and performances that collectively interrogate the city as both a site and a protagonist – an emergent and unpredictable space, always seemingly on the precipice of collapse or great change.   

A DRAMATURGY OF SOUND, DEEP LISTENING & THE CITY AS PROTAGONIST

Season 11 features continued explorations of compelling works from the first three Collations programmes, namely – Visual Radio Plays, Sounding Pictures, and The Unexpected City. Collectively interrogating a dramaturgy of sound, moving image, and the stories of the city, these programmes are spread across the Season and each feature for one night only. 

An ongoing component of the Season is Site, Light, Action | Fox Street Activations, a series of free performances and public light activations in and around Fox Street and Arts on Main, curated by Vienna-based South African artist Marcus Neustetter. 

“These small experimental moments embrace the unknown or hidden, seeking connections and stories that might reveal themselves through artistic languages. Framed by temporary sets and focused by responsive mobile light, these moments function as small public studios of attempted sense-making,” says Neustetter.   

Neustetter, in collaboration with Zivanai Matangi also presents a new series of light drawings during the Season. 

Season 11 also sees The Centre continue its collaboration with cultural collective, NarowBi, first explored during The Unexpected City, who are activating the Arts on Main courtyard with Party + Market, a curated experience featuring stalls and artists showcasing music, art, style that engages the city through culture.

MIGRATION AND IDENTITY ACROSS THE GLOBAL SOUTH
 

Led by co-founder and director of The Centre, Bronwyn Lace, The Centre Outside the Centre has, over the years, predominantly established connections with artists, organisations and festivals across many parts of Europe and the Americas. Increasingly, The Centre is establishing more relationships and exchanges with artists and institutions across the African continent and the Global South. 

This Season, The Centre continues its collaboration with drummer, percussionist, composer and arranger Angelo Moustapha, (Benin), who will bring his new composition Ibilé, made in response to a film from the Albert Kahn Museum (Paris), to the Sounding Pictures programme. Also in this programme is a new film by Frank Scheffer (Netherlands), made specifically for Sounding Pictures. 

Sello Pesa and Phala Ookeditse Phala’s Ngoana oa Noka ea Kubetu, a new iteration of their Nokeng ya Kubetu series, is a pop-up performance that explores water as both a resource, a life necessity, and a source of identity in South Africa and throughout the African continent.

Artist and activist Mallika Taneja (India) and journalist and author Dele Olojede (Nigeria), both feature in separate In Conversation programmes. Olojede enters into a sonic a sonic call-and-response with vinyl selector, Nombuso Mathibela, around the theme of Money Miss Road, a Nigerian phrase that means money is wasted, thrown away, or spent on frivolous things, while Taneja discusses the act of challenging fear, patriarchy, and the limitations imposed on women’s freedom of movement in public spaces. 

As a solo work, Taneja’s Be Careful is a satirical piece that challenges the notion of safety as it’s prescribed and practiced in women’s lives, particularly in city spaces.  

Vincent Mantsoe and Shanell Winlock-Pailman also bring their own performances to the Season. Mantsoe’s Desert Poem encapsulates the allure and tranquillity of an environment characterised by extremes, while Winlock-Pailman’s Oh, death! Where is your sting? is a work about death, grief, and the moments in between.

EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VISUAL ART AND DANCE

A new programme at The Centre, Moving the Mark pairs prominent visual artists and dancers towards a series of responsive, interdisciplinary experiments in movement and mark-making. Here, the interest is in what might be discovered as a result of this pairing, but also what’s revealed in the act of collaboration – what new methodologies or creative decisions emerge when a dancer mimics an ink stain, or a painter choreographs their brushstrokes? Artists and dancers include William Kentridge, Vincent Mantsoe, Penny Siopis, Shannel Winlock-Pailman, Mary Sibande, Nandipha Mntambo, Kitty Phetla, and more. 

EXPLORING THE FUNDAMENTALS OF THEATREMAKING

Over the last two years, SO | The Academy for the Less Good Idea has deepened its focus on learning located within and around The Centre’s programming, curating regular mentorships, workshops, public conversations, performative lectures, and regular free, open training sessions for professional artists. 

In 2025, the SO Academy launched a new series of Thinking In mentorships designed to address the fundamentals of theatre-making, and with the intention to create, incubate and stage new works from scratch. 

SO | From Script to Stage is a programme of three newly incubated works of theatre from the interrelated series of mentorship programmes curated by Momenteur for the SO Academy, Athena Mazarakis. 

“In these plays, we see writers dealing with key concerns in South Africa today, telling stories about migration, capitalism, and disconnection in the digital age,” says Mazarakis. 

SEASON 11 ARTISTS

Thulisile Binda, Andrew Buckland, Anathi Ithana Conjwa, Shane Cooper, Jaques De Silva, Chris Djuma, Hallie Haller, William Harding, Qondiswa James, William Kentridge, Didintle Khunou, Namatshego Khutsoane, Billy Langa, Katlego Letsholonyane, Nolwazi Mahlangu, Micca Manganye, Sibahle Mangena, Vincent Mantsoe, Nombuso Mathibela, Aalliyah Matintela, MoMo Matsunyane, Nomsa Mazwai, Mbe Mbhele, Nozipho Mnguni, Nandipha Mntambo, Mahlatsi Mokgonyana, Melusi Mnqobi Molefe, Candice Moleshe, Katleho Jack Moloi, Peggy Mongoato, Angelo Moustapha, Pertunia Msani, Phelelani Mthembu, Marcus Neustetter, Toby Ngomane, Khanyisile Ngwabe, Smangaliso Ngwenya, Mongezi Ntukwana, Dele Olojede, Sello Pesa, Phala Ookeditse Phala, Molatudi Phasumane, Kitty Phetla, Siyabonga Radebe, Ayanda Mujaji the Rain Seoka, Ngwedi Ramphele, Jill Richards, Frank Scheffer, Tebogo AusTebza Sedumedi, Daniel Selibe Stompie, Mary Sibande, Noluthando Jupiter Sibisi, Penny Siopis, Mallika Taneja, Nomsa Myth Tavarwisa, Reggie Teys, Jefferson Tshabalala, Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon, Shanell Winlock-Pailman & Uvile Ximba

PRODUCTION FOR THE CENTRE

FOUNDER | William Kentridge
CO-FOUNDER & DIRECTOR | Bronwyn Lace
IMPRESARIO | Neo Muyanga
MOMENTEUR FOR THE SO ACADEMY | Athena Mazarakis
HOLDER | Dimakatso Motholo-Miya
DIRECTOR OF CINEMATOGRAPHY & EDITOR | Noah Cohen 
CINEMATOGRAPHER & EDITOR | Bukhosibakhe “Pantsulatographer” Khoza 
HEAD OF SOUND | Zain Vally
SOUND ENGINEERS | Ross Culverwell & Thando Mpungose
PHOTOGRAPHERS | Zivanai Matangi & Stella Olivier
ASSISTANT PHOTOGRAPHER | Bash Hops
WRITER & HEAD OF COMMUNICATIONS | David Mann
SOCIAL MEDIA ASSISTANT | Jaden Mmokwa Oratile Mosadi
GRAPHIC DESIGNER | Marcus Neustetter
SCENOGRAPHER & COSTUME DESIGNER | Nthabiseng Malaka
COSTUME DESIGNER | Nthabiseng Makoni
DESIGN TEAM | Tzung Hui Lauren Lee, Amy Pitt, Philani Masedi, Bongani Mpofu, Tshireletso Adams, Mbalentle Mntoza, Lindani Nxumalo & Molebogeng Phiri
SEWIST | Thato Mahlangu
HEAD STAGE MANAGER | Jessica Sibongile Mathe
STAGE MANAGERS | Khanyisile Ngwabe & Meghan Williams
TECHNICAL CO-ORDINATOR | Ruby Friedman  
LIGHTING DESIGNER | Michael Inglis
LIGHTING TECHNICIAN | Themba Mthimkulu 
ASSISTANT TO THE DIRECTOR | Jacqueline Ndelu
ADMINISTRATOR | Thembelihle Hadebe 
HOUSEKEEPING & SPACE MANAGER | Gracious Dube
SPACE & EQUIPMENT MANAGER | Bongani Mpofu
FRONT OF HOUSE | POPArt Productions
USHERS | Mlungisi Tshobeka, Balungile Alexander Mdlongwa, Siboniso Nokepeyi, Kamogelo Magajane & Kutlo Retlametswe Rantlhane
LIGHTING, SOUND & STAGE GEAR SUPPLIER | Gearhouse Splitbeam (Pty) Ltd
STAGE GEAR SUPPLIER | Setsational
SOUND EQUIPMENT SUPPLIER | SoulFire Studio (Pty) Ltd

Special thanks:

Chris-Waldo de Wet, Jacques van Staden, Joey Netshiombo, Diego Sillands, Thandi Nkabinde, Linda Leibowitz, Natalie Dembo, Damon Garstang, Anne McIlleron, Anne Blom, Taryn Buccellato, Jessica Jones, Laurie Cearley, Rachel Chanoff & THE OFFICE performing arts + film