Joburg Theatre, Performance arts complex in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, South Africa.
The Joburg Theatre is a performing arts complex in the Braamfontein district of Johannesburg, South Africa, with three performance spaces of different sizes: the Nelson Mandela Theatre, the Fringe Theatre, and the Spaces Theatre. Each hall is set up for a different type of production, ranging from large-scale shows to smaller, more experimental formats.
The complex opened in 1962 under the name Johannesburg Civic Theatre with a production of Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann. It was renamed in 2001, and the new name it received is one that no other theatre in the world carries.
The Nelson Mandela Theatre, the largest of the three halls, carries the name of the South African freedom fighter since 2001. The programme today mixes local South African productions with work by international artists, giving the stages a broad range of voices and styles.
The complex has several entrances, which can make orientation on a first visit a little tricky, so it helps to check which entrance leads to your booked event before you arrive. For evening shows, it is worth planning ahead, as parking in the surrounding area can be limited.
In its opening year, the venue welcomed more than 145,000 visitors, a number that shows how much Johannesburg audiences wanted a dedicated space for live theatre. That figure is all the more striking given that audiences at the time were still divided by apartheid-era rules.
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