Watch Brand-New Theatre Productions At The Baxter This Winter

The award-winning theatre company, How Now Brown Cow, is back in Cape Town for a sixth season, bringing two wildly different productions to the Baxter Studio.

The South African production company is committed to bringing local and international scripts to the stage and to commissioning entirely new, original works from renowned playwrights across the globe. The group was started by award-winning actor, writer, and producer Julie-Anne McDowell, known for her roles in Me and My Best Friend, The Revlon Girl and, most recently, My Name is Lucy Barton. Over the years, the company has staged The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Expelled, and 2025’s fan favourite Dear Evan Hansen.

Constellations

The 2026 season kicks off with Constellations, directed by acclaimed industry veteran and choreographer Jay Pather. The play, which premiered at the Royal Court Theatre before moving to the West End, follows a physicist and a beekeeper in a relationship that evolves, twists, and rewrites itself before the audience’s eyes.

This mind-bending, reality-altering play was originally written by Nick Payne, who has received Olivier and Tony Award nominations for his work and wrote the A24 romance film We Live In Time.

In this production, Marianne is played by Mwenya Kabwe, an award-winning Zambian-born performer known for her roles in Doubt and mAnJE! MaNje. Mark Elderkin plays Roland, himself a renowned actor who has starred in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Amadeus, as well as in various film and TV roles.

Theatre lovers looking for something that pushes the art form and plays with expectations can look to Constellations, which uses the language of quantum physics to tell a simple story about the complexity of love, for a unique and moving experience.

Cost: R250. Book now on Webtickets.

When: 2 – 20 June 2026 | From 8pm | Saturday matinee from 3pm
Where: Baxter Studio (Baxter Theatre Centre), cnr Burg & Main Rds, Rondebosch, Cape Town

Prima Facie

Playing for South African audiences for the first time, this famed one-woman play follows a lawyer whose entire life is thrown into turmoil after being sexually assaulted.

The original play, written by Suzie Miller, received numerous accolades after Jodie Comer played Tessa in its London and New York productions a few years ago. In 2026, the role is performed by Danica De La Rey Jones, known for her roles in Netflix’s Unseen and James Ngcobo’s For Colored Girls. The production is directed by Neil Coppen, a veteran storyteller who adapted Animal Farm for the stage in 2015, and co-wrote Isidlamlilo/The Fire Eater, which is currently touring overseas.

Prima Facie is a hard-hitting, eye-opening look at patriarchal power structures and how victims of sexual assault are often undermined, disrespected, and disregarded. Given South Africa’s ongoing pandemic of gender-based violence and femicide, the play is an important work for local audiences to view, dissect, and understand. Viewers are warned that the story contains distressing and potentially triggering material.

Cost: R250. Book now on Webtickets.

When: 4 – 29 August 2026 | From 8pm | Saturday matinee from 3pm
Where: Baxter Studio (Baxter Theatre Centre), cnr Burg & Main Rds, Rondebosch, Cape Town