The District Six Homecoming Center, formerly the Fugard Theater, is a small

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communi ...

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. It was opened in the

District Six District Six (Afrikaans: ''Distrik Ses'') is a residential neighborhood in Cape Town, South Africa, located next to the city's Cape Town CBD, CBD. In 1959, people of color were banned from the area and most of them were resettled in Gugulet ...

suburb in February 2010. The theater closed in March 2021 and was handed over to the

District Six Museum District Six Museum is a museum in the former inner-city residential area and, District Six, in Cape Town, South Africa in an old Methodist church. District Six Foundation was founded in 1989 and the museum in 1994, as a memorial to the forced ...

by its founder Eric Abraham. The theatre reopened in 2022 as the District Six Homecoming Centre, and the Fugard's archive moved online.

History

Following the

Laurence Olivier Award The Laurence Olivier Awards, or simply The Olivier Awards, are presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognize excellence in West End theatre, professional theatre in London. The awards were originally known as the Society of We ...

-winning revival of ''

The Magic Flute ''The Magic Flute'' (, ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. It is a ''Singspiel'', a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue. The work premiered on ...

'', starring South African performers of

Mark Dornford-May Mark Anthony Dornford-May (born 29 September 1955) is a British theatre and film director, now based in South Africa. Personal life Mark Dornford-May was born near Eastoft in Yorkshire. His mother was a school teacher, and his father the Drama ...

Isango Portobello The Isango Ensemble (''isango'' meaning "gate" or "port" or "gateway" in Xhosa and Zulu) is a Cape Town-based theatre company led by director Mark Dornford-May and music directors Pauline Malefane and Mandisi Dyantyis. It was established in 2000, ...

, Eric Abraham wanted to create a space in Cape Town to house South African talent. Abraham underwrote the construction of the theatre, naming it after playwright

Athol Fugard Harold Athol Lanigan Fugard (; 11 June 19328 March 2025) was a South African playwright, novelist, actor and director. Widely regarded as South Africa's greatest playwright and acclaimed as "the greatest active playwright in the English-speaki ...

. Developed with Dornford-May and Mannie Manim, Rennie Scurr Adendorff began renovating the National Heritage listed

neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

Congregational Church Hall and two former warehouses, including the Sacks Futeran building, in September 2009. Politicians such as

Kgalema Motlanthe Kgalema Petrus Motlanthe (; born 19 July 1949) is a South African politician who served as the 3rd president of South Africa from 25 September 2008 to 9 May 2009, following the resignation of Thabo Mbeki. Thereafter, he was deputy president und ...

and

Trevor Manuel Trevor Andrew Manuel (born 31 January 1956) is a retired South African politician and former anti-apartheid activist who served in the cabinet of South Africa between 1994 and 2014. He was the South African Department of Finance, Minister of ...

as well as actors such as

Alan Rickman Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman (21 February 1946 – 14 January 2016) was an English actor and director. Known for his distinctive deep, wikt:languid#Etymology 1, languid voice, he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and b ...

and

Janet Suzman Dame Janet Suzman (born 9 February 1939) is a South African-born British actress who had a successful early career in the Royal Shakespeare Company, later replaying many Shakespearean roles on television. In her first film, '' Nicholas and Alexa ...

attended the grand opening in February 2010. Fugard himself premiered his play '' The Train Driver'' at the theatre in March 2010. The Fugard became a venue that hosted plays, musicals, operas, and cinema and book events such as film premieres and the

Open Book Festival The Open Book Festival is an annual literary festival held in Cape Town, South Africa with a focus on South African literature in an international context. The event includes over 150 literary events, featuring over 100 authors over 5 days. A ...

. Abraham, with Daniel Galloway as the managing director and producer (December 2010 to January 2020), ran the Fugard as a philanthropic endeavour. After announcing a temporary closure, owing to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, in March 2020, the theatre offered online streaming performances overseen by then newly appointed general manager Lamees Albertus and Artistic Director Greg Karvellas. However, the financial losses became too great, and there was little confidence that it would be safe enough to reopen soon. Abraham announced in March 2021 that the theatre would be closing and the building would be handed back to the District Six Museum Board, whom Abraham hoped would find use out of the space. Since its physical closure, the Fugard Theatre website has been changed into a
online archive
which lays out the full history of the Fugard Theatre including a full listing of all past productions as well as a video series detailing the journey of the theatre. The archive intends to secure the memory of the space and offer the public a free-to-access, accurate historical archive of the theatre. "Another icon has fallen",

John Kani Bonisile John Kani (born 30 August 1942) is a South African actor. He is known for portraying T'Chaka in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films '' Captain America: Civil War'' (2016) and ''Black Panther'' (2018), Rafiki in ''The Lion King'' (201 ...

wrote of the closure, and

Lebo Mashile Lebogang Mashile (born 7 February 1979) is an American-born South African actress, writer and performance poet. Biography The daughter of exiled South African parents, Mashile was born in the United States, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and return ...

called it a "painful death". Many in the artistic community, the press, and the EFF called on Minister of Arts and Culture

Nathi Mthethwa Emmanuel Nkosinathi Mthethwa (born 23 January 1967) is a South African politician who is currently serving as South African Ambassador to France. He represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the National Assembly of South Africa betwee ...

to do more to support the sector. Board chair Siraj Desai stated that a search for new tenants was under way.

References

{{Reflist, 30em 2010 establishments in South Africa 2021 disestablishments in South Africa

Former theatres Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the performing arts Theatres in Cape Town Churches in Cape Town