‘Mr Duiker Sang the Blues’ Presents a Meditation on the Death of an Artist
The Market Theatre in partnership with the Dramatic, Artistic and Literary Rights Organisation (DALRO), Wits University Press and the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts (UKZN CCA) have teamed up for the premiere of Mr Duiker Sang the Blues, a theatrical adaptation of the 2025 DALRO Can Themba Merit Award winning short story of the same name, written by Dyondzo Kwinika.
This new play-with-music tracks the life of an exceptional jazz musician named “Themba”, who enjoys a successful music career while wrestling his inner demons. Through the recollections of his family and those closest to him, the play presents a deeply intimate and honest exploration of family, friendship, memory and the complexities of mental health.
Mr Duiker Sang the Blues is directed by Mahlatsi Mokgonyana (Standard Bank Young Artist 2022), and will run from 10 September – 4 October 2026 at The Market Theatre.
Legendary actor Desmond Dube, who featured prominently during The Market Theatre’s 50th anniversary celebrations, leads the phenomenal cast comprising of another veteran of the stage, Nomathamsanqa Ngoma. William Harding and Tankiso Mamabolo complete the cast, with experimental and narrative-driven music by Yogin Sullaphen and haunting operatic vocal lamentations by Pertunia Msani, who together are at the core of telling this story.
Nelisiwe Xaba makes a comeback to The Market Theatre as the play’s movement director.
Director Mokgonyana describes Mr Duiker Sang the Blues as a meditation on the meaning of an artist’s death, while poignantly exploring grief, how it lingers and how we reckon with loss.
“The burden of the artist is often to be everything except being yourself. In surrendering their innermost being to the demands of their craft and the public gaze, artists become expelled from themselves, becoming idols and icons who belong to the world,” he remarks. “When death arrives, family and loved ones must then contend with private grief in the midst of public mourning. The weight of the spirituality of death is reduced to a spectacle, and the artist, in death as in life, forfeits themselves to the gallery.”
With death as its meditative anchor, this musically rich work calculates the hefty psychological price for creative talent, and the cost of balancing artistry, personality and celebrity. It further lends much needed language to mental health challenges facing the creative community, often masked in performative joy and the unending pursuit of perfection. It asserts that the true legacy of artists is not measured by the outpouring of condolences when they pass on, but the respect and integrity with which they were treated during their life and times.
The DALRO Can Themba Merit Award was launched at the Time of the Writer Festival in March 2025 as a groundbreaking collaboration between DALRO, The Market Theatre Foundation, Wits University Press and the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts.
The competition attracted more than 250 submissions from different parts of South Africa. An anthology featuring the top ten shortlisted stories titled When Water Wants To – including Kwinika’s Mr. Duiker Sang the Blues – was published by the Wits University Press and edited by playwright-director, Neil Coppen.
Reflecting on this moment, Kwinika says, “I wanted to write about the guilt, the silence, the unbearable. And Mr Duiker Sang the Blues came out of that place. I wrote it as a short story, so seeing it become a play is still strange to me. Words that started with me are now being spoken by actors, and other people are finding their way into the work. The DALRO Can Themba Merit Award has been important in my writing journey. It gave the story a life beyond me and gave me the opportunity to discover playwriting. I am still learning what happens when a story leaves your hands and enters a room.”
Greg Homann, Artistic Director at The Market Theatre Foundation and dramaturge of the play-with-music, says Mr Duiker Sang the Blues continues on an impressive record of staging and adapting some of South Africa’s favourite novels and short stories into plays. “For us at The Market Theatre, adaptation has long been a powerful way of giving stories a life from page to stage. Through this tradition, iconic works such as The Suit, The Life and Times of Michael K, The Promise, The Cry of Winnie Mandela and now Mr Duiker Sang the Blues have found new audiences beyond the page, expanding access to these important narratives while vitally preserving, growing and celebrating our rich literary heritage,” states Homann.
For DALRO, this work is closely linked with its commitment to safeguarding the rights of creators and advancing an ecosystem in which artists are fairly recognised and remunerated, both of which are essential to their wellbeing, sustainability and legacy. “The journey of Mr Duiker Sang the Blues from an award-winning short story to a fully realised stage production is exactly what the DALRO Can Themba Merit Award was created to achieve,” says DALRO Managing Director, Lazarus Serobe.
“The award is more than a writing competition. It is a developmental platform designed to identify, nurture and invest in emerging South African writers, providing mentorship, publication opportunities and pathways into other creative disciplines. We are immensely proud of Dyondzo Kwinika’s achievement and of how this story has progressed from a call for submissions to publication and now to the professional stage. In celebrating Can Themba’s legacy, we are also creating opportunities for a new generation of writers to find their voice, build sustainable creative careers and contribute to the future of South African storytelling.”
Don’t miss this poetic, moving and deeply effecting play-with-music at The Market Theatre from 10 September – 4 October 2026.
Tickets for Mr Duiker Sang the Blues are available on Webtickets starting from R110, 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.
