Writer and Director: Swelihle May

Cast: Ashwin May, Jared Doubell, Mihle Ndlodaka, Lacretia Stuurman, Thandolwethu Dludla, Baxolele Khutyiswayo, Sibanye Jongile, Braam Kwezi Du Toit, Ntandoyenkosi Radebe

Stage Manager: Kenya Winn

Assisstant Stage Manager: Bianca Cele & Princess Sathekge

Swelihle May is a 2^nd Year Masters candidate at Rhodes University. He is most notably a director, writer and actor. His work seeks to bridge the gap between heightened text and emotional authenticity, taking works of antiquity and finding their contemporary resonance. Outside of his own academic studies, he is a tutor and teaching assistant within the Rhodes Drama Department, working on his own skills but also helping shape and mould his fellow students.

In 2025, he wrote and directed The Dinner, a play that he debuted at the National Arts Festival. He most recently directed a production of Euripides’ Medea, and prior to last year’s festival, he directed Garcia Lorca’s Yerma, a self-written work, Daddy’s Home, and Athol Fugard’s Master Harold… and the Boys.  His offering to this year’s National Arts Festival seeks to be the crowning achievement of his body of work in his career as a student.

Mihle Ndlodaka is an Applied Theatre student and Masters candidate whose work explores performance as a tool for social reflection, dialogue, and transformation. Her practice engages with themes of gender, identity, culture, power, and everyday performance, often focusing on the lived experiences of different communities. Through writing, research, and collaborative theatre-making, she creates work that interrogates systems of social injustice while centering storytelling, embodiment, and community engagement. Her artistic approach is shaped by an interest in theatre that provokes critical conversation and collective reflection.

Sibanye Jongile: To start, this is the first time I've worked in this type of space and for the first time it has been incredible. I learned to work with people in a centered environment where no one is above another, and it has been simply joyous. Through this I have learned everyone around and most importantly myself, the things that make me tick and ones that don't, ones that make me happy and ones that make me sad. It has been a roller-coaster of absolute joyfulness to complete disappointment in myself which has made me grow as an actor and person. I expect to be part of many more works as I grow because this experience has done wonders to my character and will appreciate this moment for a long time. My interests have always to perform and a great story at that, whether it's the theatre or other aspects like music, I have always loved to perform and give the people what they want which is a good time and through this production I have gotten what I wanted, the only thing left is to make the magic happen at NAF, I appreciate the moment which has made me grow so much.

My name is Braam Kwezi du Toit, I am a third-year student, majoring in drama at Rhodes University. Drama and performance have always been a part of my life, with me notably taking part in the 2023 Graemian production of Grease, collaborating as an actor for directing students and appearing as Reverend John Hale in last year’s YDS production of The Crucible. I see performing as an opportunity for collaborative storytelling, each time I play a new character, through crafting that persona, I learn new things about myself and the world around me. To me, theatre has thus, always been a way in which I can experiment and explore via both introspection and creative expression.

Ashwin May is a singer, actor and performer who holds a Masters Degree in Contemporary Performance. He has worked on several performances that has appeared at The National Arts Festival including "Arcade" curated by Gavin Krastin and "Home" directed by Nomcebisi Moyikwa as well as the Standard Bank Ovation Award winning “Just a Phase” which was created by him and directed by Mmatumisang Motsisi assisted by Angelinah Maponya and Carla Mostert.

He is currently pursuing a Postgraduate Certificate in Education at Rhodes university while also being a part time teacher and lecturer in the Rhodes Drama Department.

Lacretia Stuurman is a Rhodes University Masters candidate specialising in contemporary performance. With an honours background in acting, writing for performance, and dramatic literature, she is driven by a passion for storytelling. As a performer, she is drawn to roles that push her out of her comfort zone, allowing her to tap into the complexities of the human experience. Her notable performances included the Standard Bank Standing Ovation award winning performance, Second Hands (National Arts Festival 2023, and Young Professionals Season 2024).

Thandolwethu Dludla: Growing up, I was often warned that my loud voice would get me into trouble, as I frequently challenged prevailing opinions. As a first-year Master's candidate and an aspiring theatre maker, this defiant spirit shapes my creative work, focusing on minority perspectives—those unafraid to confront norms and challenge the status quo. I tend to be drawn towards expressionism and stylisation, focusing on emphasising visual and emotional impact through expressive movement, gesture and physicality that depict the characters and their actions down to their essence, without relying on text.

Ntandoyenkosi Radebe, mostly known as Mike, is a young theatre and performance artist with experience in acting, movement, stage production, and physical storytelling. He appeared as an extra on the telenovela uMkhokha: The Curse in 2023 and has performed in several university productions, including We Shall Sing for the Fatherland, You Do Love Me, Don’t You?, My Children! My Africa!, Karoo Moose, and Ruined, along with many other theatre projects in the Rhodes Drama Department. He has also worked as a stagehand for many productions, gaining experience in the technical and backstage side of theatre production. Mike created and performed a movement piece titled In Fights We Resolve, which was presented as a moving exhibition in a Rhodes Fine Art exhibition space. He is deeply interested in all areas of theatre and passionate about continuous learning and growth as an artist. His work explores storytelling through both spoken language and the body, using movement, emotion, and performance to create meaningful connections with audiences. As an artist, Mike believes theatre is a powerful space for expression, truth, and human connection, and he is committed to creating socially engaging work.

Baxolele Khutyiswayo is a 21-year-old actor and drama student. Aside from performing in the acting classes, he has played multiple characters in student productions. The most recent of these include Walter Lee Young from Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun and Loyiso Zungula in an honours student production. He is a fan of characters that speak to humanity and individual realities. At the moment, he is exploring onscreen acting with 2 short film productions. Aside from this, he is an aspiring writer and reads crime fiction for fun.

Jared Doubell is an honours student in Linguistics at Rhodes University. However, throughout his time at Rhodes, he has extensive experience in student productions, including serving as a longtime collaborator with Swelihle as an actor. They worked together on productions such as Euripides’ Medea, Federico García Lorca’s Yerma, and Athol Fugard’s Master Harold… and the Boys. His acting lends itself to exploring the intensity and complex emotional weight of heightened text, and he works very hard to develop truth in his work.

Kenya Winn is a South African writer, director, academic, actor, poet, and multidisciplinary theatre person. She is currently in the final year of her B.A. at Rhodes University, majoring in Classics and Classical Latin. She has published poetry and short stories internationally, and most recently co-authored an academic article published in the IPTN Journal (2025). She is an avid academic; however, her primary passion has always been theatre. Active since 2019, Kenya is a self-proclaimed ‘Jack of all trades’ and has performed in and served as crew on just over 20 productions in her career. Kenya has a particular interest in expressionism and surrealism in theatre, and her creative approach is deeply rooted in metaphor and in grappling with the human soul. Informed by her love for Classics, she also finds an immense interest in period pieces.

Bianca Cele is an Honours Applied Theatre student at Rhodes University, as well as a writer, performer, and multidisciplinary creative whose work exists at the intersection of storytelling, memory, and social reflection. Her creative practice is rooted in poetic language, movement, and the belief that theatre can serve as both a mirror and a meeting place. Using theatre and movement as instruments of expression, Bianca is drawn to the spaces where words fall short, and the body must speak instead. Her work engages themes of mourning, healing, womanhood, and survival, often exploring how memory and emotion live within the body. At the core of her artistic process is collaboration. She believes every person brings a unique offering shaped by their own lived experience, and that these individual perspectives deepen the creative process. For Bianca, theatre is poetry in motion, a living archive of bodies attempting to narrate the stories they carry.