By Sitha Maliwa:
After marking its 50th milestone in 2024, the National Arts Festival (NAF) returns to Makhanda from 26 June to 6 July 2025 with a programme that promises to be its most daring in years. Under the theme “Vivid. Bold. Unfiltered,” this year’s event offers a sweeping, energetic reflection of our times – restless, uncertain, but brimming with artistic vitality.
Set against the backdrop of the Eastern Cape winter, the Festival will once again transform the historic town into a national and international hub of cultural exchange, where performance, visual art, dialogue, and innovation converge.
“This year’s Festival is a container for the ideas and questions shaping the world,” said Artistic Director Rucera Seethal. “In the face of unpredictability and global upheaval, artists provide us with pathways – through movement, language, and image – to notice what often goes unseen.”
The 2025 programme captures this ethos with a blend of protest, reflection, and imagination. From large-scale theatre to intimate solo performances, the Festival seeks to challenge, comfort, and inspire.
Dance is a prominent feature on the Curated Programme. Cape Ballet Africa presents SALT, a triple bill featuring choreography from Kirsten Isenberg, Mthuthuzeli November, and Michelle Reid, along with a staging of George Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante.
Other highlights include Izithukuthuku, an innovative fusion of isiPantsula with traditional Southern African dance forms; Magic Maids, a thought-provoking collaboration from the Philippines and Sri Lanka; and Road, a moving Afro-Fusion duet about solidarity and endurance.
Children and families can look forward to Malo and the Moon Maiden, a visually rich circus production directed by Janice Honeyman and featuring a cast of aerialists, dancers, and musicians.
This year’s theatre offerings tackle political, personal, and existential themes. British company Action Hero presents The Talent, an acclaimed work that examines the fate of the human voice in a digitised future.
South African playwright Nadia Davids’s Bridling, adapted for stage by Jay Pather, offers a dark exploration of art, feminism, and historical memory. Meanwhile, the legacies of Athol Fugard, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona are honoured through new productions of Sizwe Banzi is Dead and The Island, directed by Xabiso Zweni.
Other notable premieres include The Fugue of Tjebolang, a mystical journey through Javanese spiritual and erotic landscapes directed by Rehane Abrahams, and Vakavigwa, a multimedia work by Campbell Meas that explores African identity, migration, and xenophobia.
A rich and varied music programme includes performances by Anelisa “Annalyzer” Stuurman, whose piece Izwi Lami fuses traditional Xhosa music with operatic performance; a return by popular vocal group The Soil; and a rebel-inspired programme by the Wits Trio.
Archival pop-up DJ sets curated by the International Library of African Music (ILAM) will highlight the soundscapes of 20th-century Africa, while the much-anticipated National Jazz Festival Makhanda will present a full programme of concerts, workshops, and student collaborations.
The Fringe Festival remains a vital part of NAF, with works spanning comedy, drama, experimental theatre, poetry, and cabaret. This year sees the rise of regional artist collectives from Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban, as well as a robust student showcase featuring performances from nine South African universities.
Notable Fringe acts include Conrad Koch and Chester Missing, Stuart Taylor, Khanyisa Jam Jam, Yaseen Barnes, and satirist Mike van Graan. The Festival’s family theatre programme, curated with ASSITEJ South Africa, promises a wealth of engaging productions for young audiences.
Beyond the formal stages, the Festival will host free daily concerts at the Village Green, pop-up performances on a mobile stage truck, and late-night talks and music at the Black Power Station—an independent venue that has become a beloved Festival fixture.
For those unable to travel to Makhanda, a curated selection of performances will be available through the VFringe online platform.
The Festival will also feature Art Talks, a series of public conversations between artists, thinkers, and audiences about art, identity, power, and the role of culture in shaping society. The Eastern Cape Literature Festival (LitFest) returns with a programme highlighting writers and stories rooted in the region.
The full Festival programme goes live on 13 May 2025, with tickets and further information available at https://nationalartsfestival.co.za.
As Seethal notes, “The Festival invites us to step out of the everyday and into a space of unexpected discovery.” With more than 10 days of groundbreaking work across disciplines, the 2025 National Arts Festival promises to be a bold and necessary escape. –@NewsSA_Online
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