The Market Theatre hosts The TX Theatre Hub for the second iteration of The TX Theatre @ The Market, which was first held in September, 2025. This continued collaboration reaffirms The Market Theatre’s commitment to community-based storytelling, amplifying rising voices, creating access and developing the next generation of theatre-makers.
TX Theatre Hub @ The Market is a festival comprising of five compelling, thematically rich and theatrically explorative productions. Running from 23 – 26 July 2026, audiences are spoilt for choice as Masai Sepuru and Isaac Sithole return with Dark Magic and Chasing Laughter respectively. Mxolisi Masilela’s Adam’s Ale makes a debut appearance alongside Untitled Deeds by Moruti Dlamini. Solly Ramatswi’s new work, Sinking, adds to the vibrancy of weekend offering.
The festival comes hot off the heels of TX Theatre Hub’s successful showcase at the National Arts Festival in Makhanda, where works like Dark Magic, Adam’s Ale and Untitled Deeds won hearts.
SINKING
In Sinking, written by Solly Ramatswi and directed by Moruti Dhlamini, a born-free revisits the memories in his blood. There are living shadows of his (great) grandmother and grandfather to aid him as he interrogates the times of apartheid. The journey starts with a remembrance of who we are – or more accurately, who our (great) grandparents were – and heads to the war zones where his grandfather disappeared. We see a name get buried when a body is not found; his absence is used as a telescope looking into the past and the future.
DARK MAGIC
Written and performed by the award-winning poet Masai Sepuru, Dark Magic is a powerful celebration of African spirituality, delving into its rich history and its profound influence on the global medical industry and spiritual institutions. Through an evocative blend of prose, poetry and music, Masai leads audiences on a journey into a world of mystery, ancestral wisdom and wonder. This work invites deep reflection, sparking conversation and urging audiences to reimagine and challenge dominant perspectives.
CHASING LAUGHTER
Chasing Laughter is a gripping drama exploring hate, guilt and grief. It follows a man driven by irrational desires, haunted by his past, where power blurs justice and destruction. His descent into madness warns that even justified acts can have unforgivable consequences. Through redemptive transitions and phenomenal storytelling, it confronts the darkness within and poses profound, unsettling questions. Age Recommendation 16LV
ADAM’S ALE
Adam’s Ale is a powerful one-man theatrical work that explores the complexities of identity, masculinity and loss within contemporary South African society. At the heart of the story is a young man – Letswai – navigating the uncertain space between boyhood and manhood, grappling with what the rite of passage into manhood truly means and whether the expectations placed upon him align with his own understanding of himself.
UNTITLED DEEDS
In a desolate land built from tin cans and plastic scraps, survival is a daily act of resistance. There is no water, electricity or any promise of service or care. Only the Law: a merciless system that forces citizens to move endlessly, evicted from one settlement to the next without reason or warning.