𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐲𝐬 by Figure Of 8 Dance Theatre was on in the at The Baxter Flipside, October 28 until November, 2025,

This beautiful play was on for a short season.

“Don’t look back.” Ja, but we do and we must and telling and hearing the story, we can reimagine memory and hold it close. The story of Orpheus is threaded as a leitmotif. Does looking back, mean that we don’t trust? Ultimately, some stay, no matter what.


A very special piece of theatre by Figure Of 8, performed by Shaun Oelf, Grant Van Ster and Daneel Van Der Walt. Script and directed by Wessel Odendaal. Choreography by Figure Of 8, with Natalie Fisher. Set and design Gideon Lombard. Projection design Nell van der Merwe.

Beautiful script and dance. I think that one can describe it as a “play”, rather than a dance “piece”. At the start we hear the elegiac Stardust, sung by Nat King Cole, playing in a liminal room, space with walls that are screens. Shadows and images are projected- with the performers involved in changing some of the slides. It becomes movie, dance, play.

A son in the theatre industry, journeys back to his childhood. His father died on the night of his birth. Grief shrouded his life, tethering him and his mother. We see different aspects of the sons, through Grant and Shaun – physical, astral. It’s part dream, nightmare, riffing between past and present. Daneel is the mom – and she is calling – literally – there is a phone (not a mobile device) which is an important prop, marker – and emotionally, other-worldly.

Testimony and remembrance, remembering is heightened through the text – verbal (dialogue), physical (dance, movement), sound (music) and film/drawing, shadows, scribbles.

The text was honed from the lives of the performers. In the play, there is a line: “There are not enough words to make sense of our thoughts.” True.


So much in this achingly beautiful play – bodies draped across each other, cocooned, carrying, hoisting, relinquishing. See featured image on this quickie review.

Need to see this play again. This was a quickie review as the run was short and I did not see it on opening night and wanted to urge people to see it. Congrats Figure Of 8. Hope it returns.