What: The Grab After A Doll’s House
When: August 23 at 2pm and 7pm, August 25-29 at 7pm
Where: Theatre Arts, Cape Town
Bookings: https://theatrearts.co.za/show/the_grab
Written and directed by: Morapeleng Molekoa
Set and music design by: Smamkele Mentyisi
Performers: Anathi Godlo,Thukelo Maka, Bianca Oosthuizen and Cullum McCormack
Age advisory: 16+  

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐛 𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐀 𝐃𝐨𝐥𝐥’𝐬 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 – a new play – written and directed by Morapeleng Molekoa is on in Cape Town, at Theatre Arts, August 23-29, 2025. It is the premiere season of this play. The performers are Anathi Godlo, Thukelo Maka, Bianca Oosthuizen and Cullum McCormack.

If you are curious about the title, the blurb for the play puts it like this: “Loosely inspired by Henrik Ibsen’s class, the play follows a series of interwoven narratives across time and memory to explore the impact of buried truths and justice in South Africa.” There is a character, Noma, a nod to Nora in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. Here is a plot spoiler alert. At the end, reminiscent of Nora’s speech in Ibsen’s play, Noma hits out against being coddled by the men in her life, with a theatrical screen grab of Ibsen’s play: “I am tired of being a reflection – tired of being a wife, lover.” To her husband: “I flinched every time you looked at me – like I was porcelain.” There is also a land grab. There are two children, Black and white with the white child grabbing. The protagonists are grabbing, seizing and snatching – their present realities – the past – as they dice with truth.

It is an intensely uncomfortable play, with interlocking narratives, framed against a courtroom trial, presenting Documents from Hell. The gaze is unflinchingly withering – “Not what South Africa was but what we still allow it to be.” There are two mothers, one white and one Black who deal with loss in landscape where “humanity is absent”. The call-out in the play is to “interrogate silence”.



Theatre is a vital safe space to interrogate silence. Truth, confession, forgiveness and justice – well see how the judge delivers her findings. Molekoa’s writing is breathtakingly beautiful but I could not always follow the streams of narratives and characters. Hopefully that can be tightened up. I loved the set design and music design but felt that the visuals could have been dialled back.  Visceral performances by Anathi Godlo, Thukelo Maka, Bianca Oosthuizen and Cullum McCormack. I look forward to seeing this play taken further.

✳ Featured image – 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐛 𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐀 𝐃𝐨𝐥𝐥’𝐬 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 , written and directed by Morapeleng Molekoa, Cape Town, Theatre Arts, August 23-29, 2025. Pic: Robyn Cohen/TheCapeRobyn.