The Baxter Theatre Centre is an iconic Cape Town spot for lovers of the performing arts. Sitting at the foot of the mountain on UCT’s lower campus, the theatre is known for telling important South African stories.
Here’s what you can watch this July:
Life & Times of Michael K
Following its sold out success last year, Nobel Prize-winning author JM Coetzee’s, Life & Times of Michael K, adapted for the stage by Lara Foot, in collaboration with the Tony Award-winning Handspring Puppet Company, returns to The Baxter, by public demand, for a limited season.
A frighteningly beautiful story that follows a simple man who embarks on a journey through a South Africa, shattered by civil war, to return his mother to die on the farm where she was born. A co-production between Theater der Welt Düsseldorf 2021, Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, Baxter Theatre Centre and Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg.
- Dates: 5 to 15 July
- Start time: 7pm & 4pm
- Duration: 140 minutes
- Cost: R220 – R300
- Tickets: Here

Also read: Booker Award-winning novel comes to life on stage in Cape Town
Figure of 8 Winter Season: Set in Motion
SET IN MOTION is a theatre dance production that investigates the internal and external forces that pulls us in various directions and sometimes even hinders our ability to live life to the fullest. ‘A body in motion will stay in motion, and a body at rest will stay at rest. Unless an external force changes something.’
The piece looks at the many unexpected twists and turns that life takes us on that can make us feel as if we are caught in a web. It touches on life-altering events, but also minor moments that can have opposite outcomes from extreme exhaustion, pain, and confusion, but also hope and happiness.
Many people often feel as if their lives are spinning out of control, but if one creates enough motion and explore our own curiosities, we will find the proper resting place and our purpose along with it.
The cast consists of Shaun Oelf, Ockert Prins, André Maarman, Lisakhanya Nongqongqo under the direction of Grant van Ster.
The set and costumes designed by Carin Bester will include innovative use of materials.
Collaboration has always been a fundamental part of the approach of Figure of 8’s work. Lighting designer, Andi Colombo, loves to experiment with the transformative power of light as it sculpts and shadows bodies, objects and space. There will be some text incorporations by Nico Scheepers to create a multi-faceted dance production. The soundscape by Shaun Oelf will be in collaboration with some original music by Franco Prinsloo.
- Dates: 6 to 15 July
- Start time: 8pm & 3pm
- Duration: 60 minutes
- Cost: R100 – R130
- Tickets: Here

Surge
SURGE directed by Roshina Ratnam, designed by Hansie Visagie and co-created by the Magnet Theatre Youth Company, uses puppetry to create a world of wonder and intrigue as it follows the story of two characters, their different relationship with the natural world and climate events – and what is ultimately important.
- Dates: 21 to 29 July
- Start time: 11am & 7pm
- Duration: 45 minutes
- Cost: R40 – R90
- Tickets: Here

Also read:
Explore CT through the pages: 5 captivating books set in the Mother City
Picture: Quicket