At its core, A Good House is about a couple who discover the limits of good neighbourliness and what is required to fit in. This play – which Jephta was nominated for the prestigious international Susan Smith Blackburn Prize that honours women+writing for the stage – is full of wit, humour, insight and exhilarating tension.
Jephta describes the work as a provocative exploration of the meaning of place, the contradictions of belonging and definitions of community. While complex class dynamics and race relations play out behind high walls, the play raises questions of land, the housing crisis, transformation and racism with tongue-in-cheek honesty.
“These are the shifting terrains that my characters grapple with. The creation of the Black middle class is often spoken about as a post-apartheid policy success, gauged in terms of upward mobility, proximity to whiteness and by implication distance from their often haunted backgrounds. What we haven’t openly interrogated, at least theatrically, is what that kind of assimilation truly costs in the face of long-held prejudices and opportunities conditioned on polishing identities.”
Jephta hopes that the work will live beyond the gated community it’s set in, adding to the ongoing conversation about how the nascent Black middle class – like the couple in the play – find themselves constantly “negotiating their Blackness in spaces where they’re often the first, and indeed only, ones of their kind”.
The Market Theatre Foundation’s Artistic Director, Greg Homann, expresses great excitement and anticipation for A Good House’s South African premiere in the 50th birthyear of The Market Theatre.
“For us, this work makes the key point that community cannot be understood simplistically. It is much more complex, storied and deeply interconnected in tense but also hearty ways. Through the lens of just one suburb, this play peels the layers off amid raging debates about place and belonging. This is the kind of work that questions who is deemed an outsider and who has the inherent right to claim a piece of land as their home,” Homann says.
Don’t miss this hilarious, joyful and richly themed story of how we live next to each other, how neighbourhoods become communities and how communities make societies. Catch A Good House from 6 – 30 August 2026 at The Market Theatre.
with special discounts for the preview performance, for groups of four or more, and with all Wednesdays at half-price.
Affordable, safe and secure underground parking is available at Newtown Junction.
ENDS.
The Market Theatre is a division of The Market Theatre Foundation, an agency of the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture.
For reduced price block bookings (of 10 or more) and school groups, contact Anthony Ezeoke (Audience Development Specialist at The Market Theatre Foundation) atAnthonyE@markettheatre.co.za or 083 246 4950.
For media enquiries, please contact Bongiwe Potelwa (Publicist at The Market Theatre Foundation) at bongiwep@markettheatre.co.za or (011) 832 1641.
