The Wits Theatre Complex comes alive as the immersive, flagship Pitso Ya Kalaneng 2026 Festival returns to Wits from Monday, 2 February to Saturday, 7 February 2026, presenting a bold, high-energy programme of new theatre, dance and music under the theme “A Call to the Theatre.”
Now in its third edition, Pitso Ya Kalaneng continues to grow as a collaborative platform for performance-making, bringing together a wide range of training institutions, creative hubs, and cultural partners. Participating institutions in the 2026 festival include the Theatre and Performance Department (TAP) at Wits University, Wits Theatre, Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), University of Pretoria (UP), AFDA Johannesburg, The Market Theatre Laboratory, Luthando Arts Academy, Abantu Creative Projects, Mandifeze, Wits Choir, Sibikwa Arts Centre, and the Creative Research Lab. The 2026 festival carries the hashtag #TukoHapa (Swahili for “We Are Here”) as a declaration of arrival, voice, and creative visibility.
Across six days, audiences can expect sharp satire, ritualistic storytelling, surrealism, political drama, physical theatre, and live performance, with emerging voices and daring work staged across the Wits Main Theatre, Amphitheatre, Downstairs Theatre, Nunnery, Space Frame (Education Campus) and the Mezzanine.
“Pitso Ya Kalaneng is where the next wave of South African theatre announces itself. It is urgent, imaginative, and unafraid,” says Malcolm Purkey, Consulting Director at the Wits Theatre. “This is a festival that invites audiences back into the room where stories are made live and where we gather, listen, laugh, argue, and remember what theatre can do,” he says.
A festival of new work and fearless storytelling
The 2026 programme features a dynamic mix of productions, including:
- Eskom-Se-Poosh (satirical comedy): Four young men’s attempt to reclaim justice backfires, trapping them inside a surreal prison where truth is controlled and survival depends on wit.
- Kumfiliba – (for we are nuanced) (surrealism): An intimate excavation of love, silence, masculinity, and the blurred line between care and harm.
- Ungubani (ritualistic theatre): A dream-led return to ancestry and identity, as a young woman discovers her destiny in a village calling her home.
- Members of the Jury (theatre of the absurd): A grotesque courtroom ritual where hunger, power and moral collapse collide.
- THE [STATE]MENT (political drama): A boardroom unravels as officials attempt to “manage” truth after tragedy.
- ANNa (magical-realist, spiritual storytelling): A potent, poetic reckoning as a 97-year-old woman confronts memory, salt, song, and forgiveness.
- 416 Booysens Street (comedic drama): Brotherhood, betrayal and bare-knuckle consequence in an underground fight club.
Dance and music highlights
Movement and physical storytelling form a central pillar of Pitso Ya Kalaneng 2026, with dance and physical theatre works that move between intimacy, endurance, ritual, and collective memory.
The movement programme includes T(w)o Thread(s), a quietly powerful physical theatre duet that traces connection, inheritance, and shared histories through gesture, rhythm, and touch. DIMITERRE – When the Skin Comes Off is an embodied solo work drawing on trauma-informed movement, Butoh, and aerial elements to explore dissociation, vulnerability, and the slow return to self. Sehokolo – missing link confronts the unspoken pressures placed on men, unpacking masculinity, mental health, and absence through tightly charged movement.
Anchoring the programme is Solitude Trilogy, a large ensemble physical theatre work that moves through states of confrontation, endurance, and remembrance, weaving personal and collective histories into a layered exploration of survival and resistance.
The music programme extends the festival’s live, communal energy beyond the stage. Audiences can enjoy the Campus Harmonics concert featuring Wits Choir on Monday 02 February, showcasing the choir’s rich blend of South African, African, and global influences under the banner of “Excellence through Diversity.” On Friday 06 February, iNGOMA takes over the Wits Main Theatre, a powerful celebration of African music, dance, and storytelling drawn from multiple productions, functioning as a living archive of rhythm, memory, and movement.
Throughout the week, the Main Theatre Foyer becomes an active performance space through Foyer Flavour, featuring the genre-defying UZURI Collective, whose sound blends jazz, R&B, Afro Pop, and deep house into immersive live sessions. The festival closes on a high note with a guest DJ set by DJ Khanyi Msweli on Saturday night, transforming the foyer into a shared social and sonic gathering point.
Workshops and staged reading
A Workshop Series led by the Wits Theatre and Performance Department and guests’ runs daily (10h00), open to all participating students, including invited performing arts institutions.
A staged reading of TORO, written and directed by Ipeleng Keamogetswe Matlhaku and facilitated by Dr Refiloe Lepere, features across Tuesday and Wednesday.
Tickets
All shows:
- R40 – Students (with valid student card/access card)
- R80 – General public and staff
Tickets available online via Webtickets and at the Wits Theatre Complex Box Office: https://www.webtickets.co.za/v2/Client.aspx?clientcode=witstheatre
Information and contacts
Wits Theatre Box Office & Front of House: 011 717 1381 | Kabelo.pakwe@wits.ac.za
General enquiries: lerato.sekele@wits.ac.za
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