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The Next Fest is a performance festival featuring up-and-upcoming artists from the University of Pretoria, School of Arts: Drama showcasing their final performance offerings of 2025.
Come and see the creativity and artistry of the Directing and Physical Theatre students in the BA (Hons) Drama and Film Students Programme, as they craft and create new performance works!
The lineup features:
Four plays by the Honours Directing Students (featuring the Third Year BDram students):

When Swallows Cry by Mike van Graan - Directed by Bianca Janse van Vuuren)

Where do we belong as we cross borders and boundaries? This drama unpacks these tensions of migration, movement and global mobility.

Thaba Kgolo: Trojan Women by Euripides - Directed by Banele Masuku

This South Africanised version of the Greek Tragedy asks what is the aftermath of mining tragedies on the women left behind?

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare - Directed by Caitlyn Ancillotti

How does love unfold, in betwixt disguise and discovery, in this Shakespearean comedy?

Shoes and Coups by Palesa Mazamisa - Directed by Uyanda Rozani

Who holds power, in this biting South African satire, which explores the rise of a new state run by a power-hungry fashion designer.

Three performances by the Honours Physical Theatre Students:
Larona Chiloane, Monique Esterhuizen & Merveille Anyishayi have been exploring individual embodied research processes through the creation of physical performances involving bodies and objects. In these projects, the practice of creating through and with body becomes a means to ask questions, uncover possibilities and experiment with emergent strategies relating to a range of interdisciplinary research interests. The performances shared with the audience are the culmination of these investigative creative research processes.
The festival takes place from the 27th to the 29th of October 2025 in the Masker and Lier Theatres on UP’s Hatfield Campus. Matinees begin at 12:00 and 13:30. Evening shows start at 18:30 on the 27th and 28th, and at 18:00 on the 29th of October 2025.
Tickets per day (allowing access to all performances on that day) cost R50 for students, R80 for adults and free for UP Drama students.