This production premieres at the Star Theatre at the District Six Homecoming Centre (formerly the Fugard Theatre) on the 7th February until the 11th February 2023.

The CHR’s Ukwanda Puppetry Collectivein collaboration with the Staatstheater Augsburg bring “Isingqala Samanzi/The Call of Water” to the Baxter Flipside Theatre from 22 to 24 September 2022 at 20:00 nightly with a Saturday matinee.

CHR Artist in Residence Buhle Ngaba is writing a screenplay for a groundbreaking puppetry production on the life of Charlotte Maxeke.

“When Nights are Dark” is part of The Walk – a travelling festival of art and hope in support of refugees, with Artistic Direction from Amir Nizar Zuabi and presented by the Jungle, Good Chance, in collaboration with Handspring Puppet Company.

With 2021 being declared “The Year of Charlotte Maxeke,” the DSI-NRF Flagship on Critical thought in the African Humanities at the Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape, has embarked on a special production based on the life of Maxeke.

CHR Artist in Residence Tony Bonani Miyambo performs Commission Continua for the 2021 National Arts Festival Experience.

CHR Artists in Residence Buhle Ngaba and Tony Bonani Miyambo are set to perform a live reading of Neil Coppen’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet as part of KKNK 2021.

The CHR is delighted to celebrate and support the journey of young refugee and 3.5-meter puppet Little Amal as she walks 8000 km from Turkey to Manchester, UK.

CHR Artist in Residence Tony Bonani Miyambo will be performing the award-winning Kafka’s Ape on 22 and 23 April 2021.

Life-sized elephant puppet Mnumzane strolled across the Boschendal Estate on Sunday 14 March 2021, accompanied by little elephant Alfie, their path criss-crossed by the boisterous Dassie puppet.

The Centre for Humanities Research is proud to host a conversation with Mongane Wally Serote on the launch of his new epic poem Sikhahlel’ u-OR.

The CHR’s Ukwanda Puppet and Design Company and NIHSS special artist in residence fellow Aja Marneweck will be presenting a line-up of puppetry workshops, an exhibition of puppets, and a walking public performance with partners Net vir Pret at the Boschendal Plum Harvest Festival on the weekend of 13 and 14 March.

The CHR presented a panel with the Centres’ Patricia Hayes, Luis Gimenez and Kiasha Naidoo, chaired by Ross Truscott discussing the possibilities and approaches to the invocation of the precolonial at the recently convened Afro-Asia Conference.

The Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape (CHR), in partnership with Net vir Pret are celebrating 10 years of puppetry in Barrydale. Reboot Eden will be an online program of four new puppet performances that will be available online from the 16th -19th December 2020.

For the past ten years the Centre for Humanities Research’s Laboratory of Kinetic Objects has been engaged in a mutual education and arts initiative (along with partners Net Vir Pret, Handspring Puppet Company, uKwanda Puppetry and Design Collective, and Magpie Collective) in the village of Barrydale some three hours outside of Cape Town. Given the COVID-19 pandemic, this years Barrydale parade is set to convene remotely.

The Centre for Humanities Research and partners Net vir Pret present the ninth annual Barrydale Giant Puppet Parade and Performance.

Presented by: Ukwanda Puppets and Designs Company

15 November 2018

CHR Artist in Residence to perform at 20th annual festival

25 November 2018

The CHR and Net Vir Pret Annual Giant Puppet Parade and Performance, Barrydale, 16 December 2018

The life and legacy of the late Prof Jakes Gerwel, former UWC Rector and Vice-Chancellor, was recently celebrated with, among other things, a keynote address by anti-apartheid activist, Jay Naidoo.

10 November 2018

A Performance by Jane Taylor, Tony Miyambo, and Terry Norton at the Centre for the Less Good Idea

1 & 2 October, Theatre Arts Admin Collective

Filmmaker and human rights lawyer Shameela Seedat tracks Thuli Madonsela

New Performance by Ukwanda Puppetry Collective

CHR will be hosting a public conversation with jazz drumming great Louis Moholo at the Guga S’thebe Community Centre in Langa at 6.30 pm on June 8th 2018

Lionel Davis in conversation with Tina Smith and Ayesha Price

The CHR is pleased to announce that three documentaries produced as part of the Documentary Film course will show at this years 20th Annual Encounters South African International Film Festival.

Dialogue on Troubling Seasons of Hate

The CHR invites you to a performance of Ne’er So Much The Ape, a work produced, directed and written by Professor Jane Taylor, and performed by Jane Taylor, Tony Miyambo and Terry Norton .

Conversations is a new series of public dialogues with jazz musicians and their legacies convened by the Factory of the Arts of the Centre for Humanities […]

Venue: at the Factory of the Arts Time: 7pm Date: Tuesday 29 November. The Factory of the Arts presents From Mozambique to the Cape: Performance […]

The 2016 Barrydale Puppet Parade and Performance brings you Olifantland, a multilingual visual theatre show featuring five majestic life size elephant puppets by Adrian Kohler from Handspring Puppet Company in collaboration with UKWANDA Puppet and Design Collective.

We said goodbye to Emile two months ago. This is a short clip of the tribute to him. He was the first Convenor of the […]

A very special audio- visual collaboration comes together on 28 September with The Reza Khota Quartet and artist Dathini Mzayiya at The Factory of the […]

Mongi Mthombeni, an artist in residence at the Centre for Humanities Research, premieres his play, I See You (previously titled, Brave) in February at the […]

The Factory of the Arts, a satellite of the CHR at UWC will be participating in Art Week Cape Town 2016, an initiative of the […]

The Insurrections Ensemble returns to the Homecoming Centre at District Six for two performances on the 25th and 26th of September. For those of you who managed […]