The TheatreDuo, is an independent collaborative theatre-making duo consisting of Billy Langa and Mahlatsi Mokgonyana, working and living in South Africa. They began creating their unique brand of physical and storytelling theatre productions in 2015. They have since produced their original plays in Johannesburg, South Africa and toured most parts of the country and internationally—earning them critic’s picks and awards which include the Cape Town Fringe Fresh Award for Performance, Cape Town Fringe Fresh Creative Award for directing, Standard Bank Ovation award, The Naledi Theatre Award for Best Production for young audiences and ACT (Arts and Culture Trust ) Impact runner-up prize.
Billy Langa is an award-winning Actor, playwright, and educator. Langa takes a curious approach to theatre – puzzling out what it means to those who perform it and those who witness it – that’s deeply relational to the body. A recent interest of Langa’s is the presence of language, and how it fits into the physicality of theatre. Mahlatsi Mokgonyana is an award-winning theatre director, actor and dramaturge who prizes, above all else, the inherent truth in a piece of theatre, and the resultant impact it has on its audiences.
In 2018 the TheatreDuo was invited to join Junkets Publishers to publish their critically acclaimed award-winning poetry in performance theatre production Tswalo, which currently forms part of the curriculum at Rhodes University, Drama Department, and is taught under translanguage and performance.
TheatreDuo’s latest project is a 2 months European Tour through Germany, Norway, and Sweden, which encompasses research residencies, performances, and workshops. The tour includes working with Bayfink at Iwawalwahaus in Bayreuth, Germany, one of the world’s leading institution of advanced African studies, to develop new projects both locally and internationally.
