Arts, Culture & Heritage
X-twitter Facebook Instagram
Blue Plaque Sites

The Market Theatre

Table of Contents

About The Market Theatre

Developed in partnership with the Market Theatre and Johannesburg Heritage Foundation

Address

Market Theatre, Lilian Ngoyi Street Newtown.
24 October 2017

Inscription

THE MARKET THEATRE The Market Theatre was founded in Johannesburg in 1976 by Mannie Manim and Barney Simon, and housed in the 1913 Indian Fruit Market. The theatre pioneered indigenous African theatre without state subsidies, its directors under constant threat for staging controversial contemporary plays performed by multiracial casts in front of multiracial audiences. It would become internationally renowned as South AfricaÕs ÔTheatre of the StruggleÓ.

Photo courtesy: Kabelo Mokoena (Sunday Times)

Explore Joburg

A culmination of research gathered over many years, the Online Johannesburg Heritage Register is being launched on Nelson Mandela Day 18 July 2025.

Among the many heritage sites featured is Chancellor House, the downtown offices of Mandela and Tambo Attorneys in the 1950s. After having been vacant and shuttered for more than a decade, this iconic building is being revived and brought to life once again as offices for the Community Development Department, which oversees the City’s Arts, Culture & Heritage Services.

Browse Heritage Sites