Filled at the Baxter Studio

Filled is an award-winning solo play written and performed by Tshiamo Moretlwe and directed by Roshina Ratnam. It follows a woman trying to make sense of a horrifying event while she navigates a gauntlet of unsolicited advice from a cast of outlandish characters, and examines what happens when private trauma becomes public.

Armed with only paper props and a single bench, Moretlwe uses physical theatre, voice and sharp wit to play an entire cast. The show moves between biting realism and absurdity, with a Strictly Come Dancing-style soundtrack and echoes of an ancient San story. It critiques the societal response to gender-based violence, the cruelty of victim-blaming and the demand that survivors shoulder responsibility for what has been done to them, and it asks what happens if you can’t forgive, or if you want revenge.

Filled won a Standard Bank Ovation Award at the National Arts Festival and was nominated for Best Script at KKNK 2026. Moretlwe is a winner of the Brett Goldin Memorial Prize, and Ratnam is a Fleur du Cap nominee. The play deals with gender-based violence.