Johannesburg hosts inaugural Queer Festival at Market Theatre

The Market Theatre in Johannesburg hosted its first five-day Queer Festival from October 21 to 25. Held as part of the theatre’s 50th anniversary celebrations, the event featured a diverse program of drama, cabaret, dance, and music exploring sexuality, gender identity, and LGBTQIA+ experiences.

Performances included “The Breasts of Tiresias,” which examines the lived experience of being a trans man, and Chantal Stanfield’s “Shockwave,” a play addressing homosexuality, religion, and prejudice during the apartheid-era State of Emergency. The festival also featured “No Filter: New Queer Writing,” showcasing 18 works from various writers.

Greg Homann, artistic director of the Market Theatre Foundation, noted that the festival aimed to represent the diversity of the queer community through multiple stories rather than a single work. The event opened with a sold-out performance by satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys performing as his iconic alter-ego, Evita Bezuidenhout.