Why The Fall at the Market Theatre Is the Must-See Play This April

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If you see just one theatre production this April, make it The Fall. Running at the iconic Market Theatre from 9 April to 4 May 2025 (excluding Easter week), this reimagined staging is more than a performance – it’s a call to remember, to reflect, and to reignite the dialogue around education, justice, and the ongoing fight for equality in South Africa.

Presented by Theatre Duo & Co (Pty) Ltd and the Market Theatre, in arrangement with DALRO, The Fall marks ten years since the birth of the #FeesMustFall movement – a student-led protest that challenged the proposed increase in tuition fees and, more deeply, the structural and historical inequalities that still affect millions of South Africans today.

Originally devised by postgraduate Drama students at the University of Cape Town – including Tankiso Mamabolo, Sihle Shona, Sizwesandile Mnisi, and others – The Fall was born out of lived experience and collaborative protest. It unflinchingly confronts issues of race, class, gender, colonialism, patriarchy, and systemic injustice, giving voice to those whose struggles are too often silenced. The show was developed during a time of seismic change, when the statue of Cecil John Rhodes came crashing down – and with it, the illusion that our institutions had fully transformed.

Now, this searing, insightful piece returns to the stage in a reimagined form that honours the past while powerfully engaging with the present. The 2025 staging sees the return of original cast members Tankiso Mamabolo, Sihle Shona, and Sizwesandile Mnisi, joined by a brilliant new ensemble: Tshepo Matlala, Kevin Narain, Mosehlana Mamaregane, and Lechè Tangee.

And this isn’t just local theatre with a message – it’s a globally celebrated production. The Fall has toured South Africa, Europe, the UK, and America, receiving widespread acclaim, including being named a New York Times Critic’s Pick. It played to sold-out houses internationally and was praised for its honesty, urgency, and artistic excellence.

There is something deeply fitting about The Fall being staged at the Market Theatre – a space that has, for decades, stood as a bastion of artistic resistance against social injustice. To witness this story come to life in that space is to engage with both our painful past and our contested present in a way that few other mediums can achieve.

I’m not involved in the production myself – I’m simply using my platform to urge you to go see it. This is protest theatre at its most potent, and it reminds us that the conversation around decolonisation and access to education is far from over.

If you believe in the power of art to provoke, inspire, and hold truth to power, then this is a show you cannot afford to miss.