Newtown
Former fruit market turned theatre and arts district where apartheid-era audiences defied segregation laws.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Newtown in Johannesburg follows actor Barney Simon and stage manager Mannie Manim, who in 1974 found a dead Indian fruit market under a steel dome shipped from Britain and saw a theatre in its iron skeleton. You'll hear how they built the Market Theatre on almost no money, and what it meant to seat black and white South Africans together in apartheid-era South Africa. It traces the plays and the reputation that grew around that iron dome, now ringed by galleries, jazz clubs and shops.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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