Joe Blog

UP Faculty of the Humanities presents MIRROR | MIRROR
“Mirror | Mirror” is a new theatre work conceived and created by Alan Parker, incollaboration with a cast of student performers from the University of Pretoria’sSchool of the Arts: Drama. Developed through a process of collectiveexperimentation, the production explores the unstable relationship between realityand representation, asking what it means to live in a world in which images, storiesand performances do not simply reflect reality, but actively participate in producing it.
Taking the mirror as both a material object and a conceptual provocation, the workmoves between reflection and distortion, recognition and estrangement, the real andthe artificial. It considers the ways in which we encounter ourselves throughrepresentations: in images, performances, screens, memories and in the eyes ofothers. If theatre has often been understood as a mirror held up to life, Mirror | Mirrorasks what happens when the reflection becomes unreliable and begins to acquire alife of its own.
Created at a moment in which the boundaries between the authentic and thefabricated are increasingly uncertain, the production invites audiences to questionwhat they see, what they believe and how they distinguish between the thing itselfand its representation.

Production Team
Director: Alan Parker
Assistant Director: Sazikazi Ndabula
Production Manager & Scenography: Nadine Minnaar
Costume Design: Cindy Nhlangwini
Lighting Design: Oliver Hauser

About Directors
Dr Alan Parker
Dr Alan Parker is a performance-maker, dramaturg, embodied researcher and senior lecturerin the School of the Arts – Drama, at the University of Pretoria. He holds a PhD in Theatreand Performance from the University of Cape Town, with a focus on Live Art, Interdisciplinary and Public Art. Since 2019, he has also served as resident dramaturg for the Live Art Arcade, a non-profit organisation supporting early and mid-career artists in live and performance art through mentorship and collaboration. As a performance-maker, he has consistently presented work both nationally and internationally, for over two decades, at platforms such as the National Arts Festival, the Live Art Festival, and the Maitisong Theatre Festival, among others. Recent performance works include Fallen (and I can’t get up), Sometimes I have to lean in, with Gerard Bester, and Heavy Metal with Gavin Krastin.
Sazikazi Ndabula
Sazi Ndabula is an Honours student at the University of Pretoria’s School of the Arts: Drama, specialising in directing and physical theatre. Her creative practice is rooted in her interest in dance and choreography, with a particular focus on Hip-Hop and contemporary styles.Her work has been presented twice at the National Arts Festival in Makhanda and she has also assisted Kathy Perkins in directing Kwa-Landlady, in 2025. Sazi also has ample behind-the- scenes experience, having worked as a stage manager, assistant director, personal assistant, and student teacher. In these roles, she has collaborated with a range of established choreographers, dramatists, and teachers across different stages and insitutions.