Writer |  Nadia Davids 

Director |  Jay Pather 

Performers |  Buhle Ngaba and Shaun Oelf 

Set Designer | Nicola Pilkington

Costume Designer | Michealene Wessels

Sound Designer | Jannous Aukema

Projection Designer | Nicola Pilkington

Lighting Designer | Andi Columbo

Stage Manager | Andi Columbo

Production Managers | POPArt Productions

Produced by | National Arts Festival and the Festival Enterprise Catalyst

Nadia Davids

Nadia Davids is a multi-hyphenate South African writer, scholar, former President of PEN South Africa, and the winner of the 2024 Caine Prize. As an A.W. Mellon Fellow, she has been a visiting scholar/artist at the University of California Berkeley, New York University and at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London. She’s held faculty positions  at Queen Mary University of London and at the University of Cape Town.

Her plays, At Her Feet, What Remains, Cissie and Hold Still, for which she’s won the Olive Schreiner Prize for Drama and two Fleur du Caps for Best New South African Play, have been staged throughout Southern Africa and in Europe. Her debut novel, An Imperfect Blessing, was shortlisted for the Etisalat Prize for Literature. She was a 2023 Aspen Writer in Residence. Her novel, Cape Fever Simon and Schuster (US) and Scribner (UK) will be published in 2025.

Jay Pather 

Jay Pather is a director, curator, choreographer and an academic. He curates a Live Art Series for Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art, the Afrovibes Festival in The Netherlands, co-curates Spier Light Art and is Professor Emiritus at the University of Cape Town. He has curated Infecting the City Public Art Festival and the ICA Live Art Festival in Cape Town, the French Season Africa 2020/21 and Spielart in Munich. Recent work include direction of Nadia Davids’ Hold Still and surface tension which he created as a result of a Vila Albertine residency in New York. Recent publications include Acts of Transgressions, Live Art in South Africa and Restless Infections, Public Art for a Transforming City. A monograph, Jay Pather and Spatial Politics, by Ketu Katrak was recently published. Pather has been named Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government.

Buhle Ngaba 

Buhle Ngaba is a multi-award-winning South African theatre maker, actor, writer, and researcher whose work explores the power of storytelling to amplify African women's voices. A graduate of Rhodes University in Acting and Contemporary Performance, she began her professional career under Andrew Buckland with the acclaimed Ubom! Eastern Cape Theatre Company. She gained national recognition for her performance in the world premiere of John Kani’s Missing, earning nominations for both the Fleur du Cap and Naledi Theatre Awards.

In 2016, she founded Maru Factory, an independent production company for her original works. As the recipient of the prestigious Brett Goldin Bursary, she trained at the Royal Shakespeare Company, where she wrote her debut play Swan Song. Since its premiere, the play has earned two Kanna Awards and has had sold-out runs at Suidooster Kunstefees, Wiener Festwochen, and the Basel Theater Festival. She was also nominated for a Fleur du Cap Best Leading Actress award for her role in What Remains, written by Nadia Davids and directed by Jay Pather.

Buhle is the creator of Shakespeare Grounded, a radical workshop series that interrogates and reclaims Shakespeare within South African contexts. She is a published author (The Girl Without A Sound, The New Girl Code), dedicated to promoting diversity in children's literature and cultivating a storytelling legacy for the next generation.

As an artist and fellow at the Centre for Humanities Research (UWC), she wrote a puppetry theatre production on the life of Charlotte Maxeke (2023), inspired by the research of Dr. Thozama April. She is currently curating The Southern Region Women's Archive—a personal and political archival project rooted in materials inherited from her great-aunt, Ruth Mompati, a founding member of the 1954 Federation of South African Women.

In 2024, Buhle was awarded the Market Theatre’s Barney Simon Residency, where she developed her latest production, Bling!, which premiered to critical acclaim and a sold-out season at Vienna Festival. Bling! will continue its international tour in 2025, with plans for a South African homecoming in 2026.

Shaun Oelf 

Co-Founder of Figure of 8 Dance Theatre

Shaun Oelf is a professional dancer, choreographer, and teacher with a passion for creating innovative and captivating performances. Born in Johannesburg and raised in Knysna, Oelf's journey in dance began in 2006 under the artistic direction of Alfred Hinkel and John Linden after which he joined Jazzart as a company dancer, honing his craft and developing his unique style.

Throughout his career, Oelf has had the opportunity to perform in a diverse range of productions, from collaborations with renowned musicians to large-scale theatrical productions. Some highlights of his performance career include Flower Of Shembe (2013) with Neo Muyanga, I Hit The Ground Running (2013), Struck Silent (2014), Adagio for a Hacked Life (2016), and Fishes Of Hope (2014-2015) South Africa, Austria, and Germany). He has also performed in productions such as West Side Story (2018), Porgy and Bess (2019, South Korea and Argentina), Couched at the Toyota Stellenbosch Woordfees, Wag/Waiting at the Baxter Theatre and Toyota Stellenbosch Woordfees, KARATARA (2022) at KKNK, Embody You (2022), Set In Motion (2023) and Braam en die Engel (2024).

As a choreographer, Oelf has worked on numerous productions, including co-choreographing David Kramer's Danger in the Dark Musical and FO8's WAG/WAITING.  He has also co- choreographed the Kyknet Fiesta Awards (2021-2022) and has worked on film and television projects such as Strange New Things (Amazon Studios) and Miss South Africa (SABC), Vasgevang for Netwerk 24 (2021), Interrupted for Toyota Stellenbosch Woordfees TV on DSTV, and Breathing In, South African Horror Film directed by Jaco Bouwer (2023). Additionally, Oelf featured on the television series season 2 of Nêrens, Noord-Kaap directed by Nico Scheepers (2024).

Throughout his career, Oelf has received numerous awards and nominations for his work as a dancer, choreographer, and artistic director. Some notable awards include the Baxter Theatre Artist of the Year Award (2014) and the Naledi Theatre Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor (2015). Oelf was also part of What Remains (2017) which won numerous awards at the 2018 Fleur Du Cap Theatre Awards. Co-Writer and Performer in the award winning Production KARATARA (2022) and completed his Artistic Residency at Jazzart Dance Theatre in (2021).

Figure of 8 Dance Theatre has also won awards, including the Cultural Affair Awards Dance Category (2016) and KKNK 2020 Kunste-Onbeperk Young Voice and a Naledi Theatre Award nomination for Best Choreography in a Dance Physical Theatre and Ballet Production (2024). Furthermore Naledi Theatre Award nominations includes Best Performance in a Dance Physical Theatre and Ballet Production (2024). Most recently, he was a performer and co-choreographer in The One Who Stays / Die Een Wat Bly, which was nominated for six KKNK Kanna Awards, including Best Ensemble and Best Debut Production.