The Centre for the Less Good Idea is an interdisciplinary incubator space for the arts based in Maboneng, Johannesburg

 SO | FROM SCRIPT TO STAGE

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 that emerge directly 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. 

CHOSI THREE TIMES

Adapted from a script by Uvile Ximba, and directed by Chris Djuma, Chosi Three Times grapples with themes of isolation, grief, depression, connection, and spirituality in the contemporary world. 

A simple set does a significant amount in the world of the play. Here, a desk is a home office, a bed, a coffin – the site of labour, rest, dreaming and an ever-present fear of death. Nto, performed by Pertunia Msani, is anchored to the desk, bound to it. She has only her father and an AI search engine (both performed by Billy Langa) to keep her company, both of their voices appearing through the screen. 

Lighting design by Jöel Leonard helps communicate the world developed by Djuma and the cast, playing with shadows in subtle, but effective ways. Ultimately, one of the main narrativesChosi Three Times wrestles with is the reality of how our physical and spiritual lives are mediated through, and fundamentally changed by,  technology.

CREDITS

DIRECTOR | Chris Djuma
PERFORMERS | Pertunia Msani & Billy Langa
LIGHTING DESIGNER | Joël Leonard
ADAPTED FROM A SCRIPT BY | Uvile Ximba

THE BRAAI REPUBLIC

A fast-paced ensemble work set in newly gentrified Maboneng, The Braai Republic is adapted from a script by Mongezi Ntukwana, and directed by Noluthando Jupiter Sibisi. 

Short and sharp, The Braai Republic pulls together a group of metaphorical characters and pithy one-liners to form a slow-burning critique of extractive systems of capitalism in South Africa.

A tight ensemble with lyrical writing, it’s a work that also borrows from the South African tradition of sketch theatre and the playground storytelling game Maskitla.

CREDITS

DIRECTOR | Noluthando Jupiter Sibisi
PERFORMERS | Sibahle Mangena, Katlego Letsholonyane, Katleho Jack Moloi, Siyabonga Radebe, Toby Ngomane & Nomsa Myth Tavarwisa
LIGHTING DESIGNER | Joël Leonard
ADAPTED FROM A SCRIPT BY | Mongezi Ntukwana

EXODUS WITH NO LAST NAME

Equal parts poetic and physical, Exodus With No Last Name is adapted from a script by Nolwazi Mahlangu, and directed by Aalliyah Zama Matintela. 

Set inside a border control office, this prose-based play follows the journey and intertwined relationship of a woman with no name (Khanyisile Ngwabe), far from home and seeking refuge, and a lone border patrol officer (Jaques De Silva) tasked with figuring out who she is and where she’s come from. 

Here, a small platform becomes an interrogation room, an island, a continent, and a prison. Through lyrical dialogue and striking physicality, the two characters move through these floating, unfixed worlds in an increasingly intertwined state, unravelling long and languorous lines that speak to personal histories, interconnected realities, ancestral memory, and more. 

CREDITS

DIRECTOR | Aalliyah Zama Matintela
PERFORMERS | Jaques De Silva & Khanyisile Ngwabe
LIGHTING DESIGNER | Joël Leonard
ADAPTED FROM A SCRIPT BY | Nolwazi Mahlangu

All text by David Mann