THE UGLY NOO NOO Comes to The Market Theatre With a Special 'Showing the Making' at The Centre for the Less Good Idea

This August, renowned South African theatremaker Andrew Buckland reprises his iconic one-man show, The Ugly Noo Noo for Johannesburg audiences, with a run at The Market Theatre and a special HOW | Showing the Making at The Centre for the Less Good Idea.  

Drawing inspiration from the irrational fear evoked by the Parktown Prawn, The Ugly Noo Noo delves into how fear is manipulated in times of struggle and difficulty, while also addressing universal human truths. The work, which has had a profound impact on South African theatre, was first staged in 1988.   

From 15 August to 1 September 2024, The Market Theatre plays host to the return of The Ugly Noo Noo.

As part of the production's Johannesburg run, The Centre for the Less Good Idea will host a HOW | Showing the Making with Buckland on 13 August, revealing the approaches, strategies and methods employed in the making of this influential work of theatre. 

Says Buckland about the inception of the work: “In 1988, the question for me was ‘How do I live my life?' I was a white man living in a predominantly white, middle-class suburb with my little family in the middle of apartheid South Africa in a State of Emergency that was about to implode. I was concerned with the questions: ‘How can I live? How do I deal with the anxiety and with the conflict inside me and how do I transform?'”

In partnership with The Market Theatre, The Centre is offering a limited amount of double tickets to both the HOW | Showing the Making at The Centre on Tuesday 13 August, and the preview performance at The Market Theatre on Thursday 15 August.

HOW | Showing the Making is a series of performance lectures and demonstrations presented by SO | The Academy for the Less Good Idea. 

Buckland's HOW | Showing the Making will give audiences insight into the development of his signature style and the creation of The Ugly Noo Noo as a response to the political and social context of apartheid South Africa in the late 1980s. It is also a moment to get a little closer to the thinking and strategies of this highly influential South African theatremaker.

Athena Mazarakis, Momenteur for SO | The Academy for the Less Good Idea, explains that The Ugly Noo Noo is a seminal work in the canon of South African theatre.  

“The work is not only a biting piece of allegorical Protest Theatre, but it also established Buckland's unique style of the highly physical one-hander that blended elements of mime with razor-sharp text,” says Mazarakis. “This is a style that has since influenced and inspired multiple generations of performers and theatre-makers, defining a particular South African brand of physical theatre marked by the combination of physical virtuosity with a strong textual strand and the solo performer who single-handedly takes on an entire cast of characters.”

Mazarakis goes on to explain that the re-staging of The Ugly Noo Noo in the year that South Africa marks 30 years of democracy is significant, “not only as a reminder of the part that theatre and artists played in the struggle, but as a continued reminder to artists today of the power that their work holds to critique and question the many injustices that surround us.”

The Centre for the Less Good Idea is partnering with The Market Theatre to provide audiences with a special R250 double ticket* that allows access to both the HOW | Showing the Making at The Centre on 13 August, and the PREVIEW NIGHT of the performance at The Market Theatre on 15 August.

For more information about the performance at The Market Theatre, click here. 

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