Joe Blog

The Market Theatre Laboratory proudly presents Isilawu – our first-year students’ professional production for 2025, directed by the award-winning Siphumeze Khundayi.

Isilawu invites you into the cracks of Newtown, Johannesburg’s storied cultural precinct where history clings to every brick and spirit to every street corner. Once a hub of industry, resistance, and artistic revolution, Newtown becomes the setting—and a character—in this lyrical and evocative fantasy. In its puddles, plants, and crumbling walls live memories, ghosts, gods, and desires still waiting to be born.
Mourning, celebration, craft, and toil intertwine in this rich theatrical world shaped by those often forgotten—merchants, labourers, spirits, and dreamers. Isilawu is a powerful glimpse into the soul of a place where the past is never truly past.

Tickets: R100 | Students: R80

Step into the unseen. Witness the magic. Feel the pulse of Isilawu.