Contact Artefacts please if you have any comments or more information regarding this record.	Menu Home Upfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon		Market Theater Johannesburg, Gauteng Manfred HERMER: Architect

Date: 1976 Type: Theatre Status: Extant   Click to view map Coordinates: 26°12'05.78" S 28°01'56.51" E Alt: 1721m

The Market Theatre, dating from the 1970s, is a major piece of historical conservation involving the conversion of the Edwardian Market in Newtown into the most important cultural arena in the country. As a venue for alternative culture, for protest theatre, for workshop productions, for Barney Simon's direction, for Athol Fugard's plays, for township music, it has played a large part in the dramatic process of change in the South Africa of the 1970s and 1980s. (Chipkin 1993:310) Transcription of the information board: Known as South Africa's 'Theatre of the Struggle', the Market Theatre was established by a troupe of dedicated anti-apartheid actors led by Barney Simon and Mannie Manim. The group's unique vision led to the conversion of the old Indian Fruit Market, with its soaring, cathedral-like dome, into three new theatres. The founders often participated in the physical labour themselves. The doors opened in 1976, in the same week that the Soweto Uprising began. The Market Theatre staged controversial plays that tackled the inequities of apartheid. It was one of only a few places where blacks and whites shared the stage and performed for non-racial audiences. Well-known playwright Athol Fugard contended that "the new South Africa was blueprinted on the stages of the Market Theatre long before the politicians started talking about it." In a 1984 interview, Barney Simon underlined the importance of the theatre: "South Africa is an appalling place. I have friends who have been arrested. I have friends who have been blown up. One is surrounded by these grotesque biographies. And yet South Africa is an exhilarating place because everything happens in open confrontation. You know where you stand. We're not going to overthrow the government through theatre, but people will understand each other more." Despite financial struggles and a refusal to accept apartheid state funding, the theatre became internationally renowned as the birthplace of some of the country's best local productions. The Island, Sizwe Banzi is Dead, Woza Albert!, Asinamali, Bopha!, Born in the RSA, Master Harold and the Boys, Have you seen Zandile?, You Strike the Women You Strike the Rock, Egoli[:_City_of_Gold], [The] Hungry Earth and Sophiatown are among the best-known examples to find a voice on the Market Theatre's stages. The Market Theatre remains at the forefront of South African theatre, with a focus on the production of new local work. In 2005, the Market Theatre Foundation was declared a national cultural institution. Transcription of Simon van der Stel blue plaque SIMON VAN DER STEL FOUNDATION This massive steel structure built in 1913 was designed by the town engineer G.S. Burt Andrews. It was manufactured in Britain and is a fine example of industrial architecture. THE NEWTOWN MARKET BUILDING In 1975 the Indian Fruit Market was adapted to a theatre and became home to the MARKET THEATRE Transcription of Johannesburg City Heritage Blue Plaque JOHANNESBURG CITY HERITAGE THE MARKET THEATRE The Market Theatre was founded in Johannesburg in 1976 by Mannie Manim and Barney Simon, and housed in the 1913 Indian Fruit Market. The theatre pioneered indigenous African theatre without state subsidies, its directors under constant threat for staging controversial contemporary plays performed by multiracial casts in front of multiracial audiences. It would become internationally renowned as South Africa’s "Theatre of the Struggle”. (Source: The Heritage Portal) Books and articles that reference Market Theater Chipkin, Clive M. 1993. Johannesburg Style - Architecture & Society 1880s - 1960s. Cape Town: David Phillip. pg 310