Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2026, the Market Theatre is one of Africa’s most storied stages and a natural stop on the 702 Jozi My Jozi Walk the Talk route through Newtown. Founded in 1976 in a converted Indian fruit market, it became known as the “Theatre of the Struggle”, staging defiant anti-apartheid works when few other venues dared.
Today the Market Theatre remains a thriving, multi-stage cultural landmark, presenting a busy year-round season of drama, comedy, dance, poetry slams and experimental theatre alongside its acclaimed drama and photography schools. Its historic brick complex opens onto Mary Fitzgerald Square, a natural gathering point in the inner-city cultural precinct. Catching a show, or simply admiring the building and its adjacent galleries, gives walkers a direct link to Johannesburg’s creative and political heritage.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons contributors (CC BY-SA).
