| What: The Killing of a Union Leader Written and directed by: Louis Viljoen When: May 12 – 30, 2026 Where: Artscape Arena, Cape Town Performers: John Maytham, Emma Kotze, Sizwesandile Mnisi and Carl Beukes Design: Kieran McGregor Tickets: R170 – R200 Bookings: Webtickets Age Restriction: No Under 18s Poster and website design: Barbara Loots Website: www.unionleaderplay.co.za |
The Killing of a Union Leader is on in the Artscape Arena, May 12-30, 2026. Written and directed by Louis Vijoen, this psychological thriller is set in a boma type enclosure, wrapped by reeds. The area is stark and lit in a glare of lights which distorts features of the four vile protagonists. There is only one chair – a throne – and we watch as these menace people duel in a game of thrones. It is a verbal game but it is brutal. This taught thriller unspools after the killing of a union leader and unexpected consequences of that killing – and what that means for future alliances of power.
Kieran McGregor’s striking design (set and lighting), heightens the tension, the menace and fear, shrouding the set in a fog and fugue of miasma. I was utterly riveted by these nasty peeps. Dark, twisted, creepy but fun, if that makes sense. Pure escapism. The play pings very much as a Shakespearean tragedy of delusion and madness, somewhere in a dark city in our neck of the woods.
Terrific performances. John Maytham plays Burke, a “captain of industry”, a Lear like dude who battles demons but unlike Lear, he doesn’t adore his daughter, Margot, who is ruthlessly ambitious and uptight. She is so uptight, one wants to wring her out like a towel.
Being a Louis Viljoen play, there are daddy and daughter issues and sexual bantering. The writing is lusty and luscious and again utterly enjoyable as one tastes and holds to words, delicious phrases of the yummy wordsmith, Viljoen.
Sizwesandile Mnisi plays the “union representative”, Gibson and Carl Beukes plays a “political operative”, Dobbs. As to what actually happened, “the truth is not on the table”. These snarky dudes dodge accountability and culpability. They curate “exit lines”, fudging guilt and remorse. The leitmotif: “What is in it for me?” Who gets the throne? Watch and see how it “ends”.
✳ Featured image – Sizwesandile Mnisi, John Maytham, Emma Kotze and Carl Beukes in The Killing of a Union Leader, written and directed by Louis Viljoen, Artscape Arena, Cape Town, May 12 – 30, 2026. Pic: Daniel Rutland Manners. Supplied.
