It was very special to be at Artscape, in Cape Town, last night, February 11, 2026, at a performance of From Hanover Street – a concert commemorating 60 years. The concert is a commemoration of 60 years, since District Six was legislated as a “white area”. From Hanover Street is on February 10-15 at Artscape but is sold out – the entire run. It is an experience – more than concert – emotional, moving, poignant and uplifting. The producers are David Kramer, Emo Adams, Alistair Izobell, Loukmaan Adams and Jody Abrahams. Emo Adams is directing.

Izobell, Adams and Abrahams began their careers as youngsters in District Six – the Musical and here they are as producers, with David Kramer. Kramer wrote this iconic musical with the late Taliep Petersen. District Six – the Musical premiered in 1987 at the Baxter. That season broke box office records, with 350 000 people seeing the show. Fifteen years after it was first staged, the show was revived at the Baxter – with 133,331 people attending. [https://thecaperobyn.co.za/in-tribute-taliep-petersen-1950-2006/].

Izobell, Adams and Abrahams are carrying the baton, continuing the legacy of the late Petersen and Kramer who transfigured memory of the District into a lived theatrical experience on stage. They went beyond archive and memory, creating a treasure, a body of work, which was experienced viscerally by audiences, which is why I put it as “lived theatrical experience”.


Over 60 000 people were forcibly and often brutally removed from District Six, displaced and dumped on what became known as The Cape Flats, and elsewhere. The removals lagged on from 1968 to the 1970s. The last buildings were bulldozed and flattened in 1982.

Watching last night and writing this now, looking at the timeline, I am struck how 1987 was only twenty years or so since District Six was declared “white”. And indeed, the final razing of the District was in 1982, so when Petersen and Kramer began working on the musical, the past was very much part of the present. This was 1987, South Africa; with a country on the cusp of the birth of the Rainbow Nation. District Six was the Rainbow Nation, before the Rainbow Nation.

District Six was and continues to be emblematic of the diversity of the District which was a veritable melting pot of people from a vast array of cultures. It was designated in 1867, as the Sixth Municipal District of Cape Town, which led to its moniker as District Six.

From Hanover Street is a vital call to “never forget” and a call out for “never again”. It is also a celebration of heritage and memory – 60 years later from that death knell of a community. With the staging of From Hanover Street, there has been an overwhelming response – with requests to stage From Hanover Street again and to revive District Six – The Musical and other Kramer-Petersen musicals. They shaped an extraordinary “lived experience” on stage, with heritage songs and original songs which have become a songbook of legacy and memory.

I grew up in Johannesburg and had no connection to the District (although it once had a sizable component of Jewish people). Through District Six The Musical and other Kramer-Petersen musicals such as Kat and Kat and the Kings, I felt like I was privileged to become immersed in the District, through performance, the “lived experience’” in a theatre.


We don’t just read about it on Wikipedia. We “live” it through performance, through theatre and that is the gift that Taliep Petersen and David Kramer has given us and the baton has been passed on so that a new generation can become immersed in the District. I thank Alistair Izobell, Loukmaan Adams, Emo Adams and Jody Abrahams – for continuing the legacy – keeping the District alive in terms of memory; captivating us, enthralling us by transporting us back into the sounds and rhythms of a community which was physically expunged but which continues to live on through lived experience, in the theatre. Bravo. More please.

✳ From Hanover Street. Pic: Light Lounge Studio. Supplied.