Lesedi Job to direct award-winning cast in Macbeth at Maynardville Open-Air Festival’s 2027 edition
Macbeth lands at Maynardville Open-Air Theatre from 5 February – 13 March 2027 with all its fury, power and deceit. One of Shakespeare’s darkest and most intriguing plays will be staged under the directorship of award-winning director, Lesedi Job. who reimagines Shakespeare’s tragedy in a post-apocalyptic world, where survival, loyalty and ambition collide.
Nat Ramabulana has been cast in the lead role of Macbeth and Lizelle Pike as Lady Macbeth. This is the 71st edition of the annual festival that returns to honour and reimagine the classics across theatre, music and dance.
About the director
Job is one of South Africa’s most acclaimed theatre directors. She won the Naledi Award for Best Director for her debut, When Swallows Cry, and is a recipient of the Sophie Mgcina Emerging Voice Award and the Mbokodo Award for Theatre. Known for an emotionally intelligent lens that exposes the truth of the human condition, Job explains that Macbeth requires intense emotional commitment and that was one of her guiding principles during casting. “I will be staying true to Shakespeare’s text because it holds the story so well, while reimagining its world. Our Macbeth is set in Southland, a post-apocalyptic society rebuilt after a great collapse. Together with the cast, we’ll shape its conventions, values and ways of being, discovering how Shakespeare’s story can speak to audiences in 2027.”
About the cast
Job leads a formidable cast of well-known stage and screen performers. Nat Ramabulana, a Naledi and SAFTA winner known from Blood Diamond, The Bang Bang Club and Netflix’s Fatal Seduction, plays Macbeth, opposite Silwerskerm Award-winning actress Lizelle Pike as Lady Macbeth. They are joined by André Lötter, familiar as Rickus Welman on 7de Laan, Francis Chouler from The Crown and Fleur du Cap Best Actor winner Brent Palmer.
Several members of the company are returning to the Maynardville stage. Jock Kleynhans plays Malcolm after playing Demetrius in Midsummer Nights Dream, in 2023, Tybalt (Romeo and Juliet, 2024) and, most recently, Orsino in 2026’s Twelfth Night. He’s joined by Thulani Nzonzo, who appeared in the 2024 Romeo and Juliet. Mateo Komlosy makes his Maynardville debut as Donalbain. The ensemble also includes, Anna Olivier who won the Naledi for Best Choreography and Natalie Robbie who won a Naledi for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for in Spring Awakening. The company is completed by Katlego Chale, Kensiwe Tshabalala, Tamzin Daniels, Katlego Lebogang and Jake Maisel.
The creative team
Job’s creative team includes set designer Nadine Minnaar, costume designer Ntokozo Fuzunina Kunene and lighting designer, Oliver Hauser. Sound designer, David Classen, and Composer, Wessel Odendaal, complete the team.
Says Maynardville Open Air Festival’s Executive Producer, Jaco van Rensburg: “Macbeth is taut and relentless, with no pause in which to look away. Under the Maynardville night sky, with the dark closing in around the stage, the atmosphere of the theatre becomes a key part of the experience. Lesedi Job’s direction is very exciting. She brings a deep understanding of human nature and of the forces that shape it, which is what this play demands. With this company, I believe audiences will find Macbeth at Maynardville both thrilling and unsettling.”
Macbeth will be performed from 5 February till 14 March.
The full Maynardville Open-Air Festival runs from 13 January – 14 March 2026.
Booking is open and tickets are available at quicket.co.za.
Book for Macbeth here.
School group bookings and accessibility enquiries: schools@maynardville.co.za
Deaf & Hard of Hearing patrons: boxoffice@maynardville.co.za
For more information visit maynardville.co.za/deaf-hearing-impaired-audiences
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Facebook: facebook.com/maynardvilleopenairtheatre
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Creative Team
Lesedi Job | Director
Lesedi Job is an award-winning theatre director, actress and voiceover artist. She won the Naledi Award for Best Director for her 2017 debut, Mike van Graan’s When Swallows Cry, which went on to the African Union Conference in Ethiopia, Geneva Peace Week and the Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development. Her other directing credits include Itsoseng, Congo: The Trial of King Leopold II with Dr John Kani, Brutal Legacy and Kill Move Paradise. She is a recipient of the Sophie Mgcina Emerging Voice Award and the Mbokodo Award for Theatre.
Nadine Minnaar | Set Designer
Nadine Minnaar is a production designer, scenographer and theatre practitioner whose work spans theatre, opera, television and immersive environments. Her recent designs include Aida for Cape Town Opera at Artscape, and she has done scenic work on Mamma Mia!, Kinky Boots and West Side Story. She runs Scene Visual Productions and mentors emerging designers at the University of Pretoria, where her research explores scenography as installation.
Ntokozo Fuzunina Kunene | Costume Designer
Ntokozo Fuzunina Kunene is a costume and production designer from Vosloorus, Johannesburg, working across film, theatre and fashion. She was researcher and assistant production designer on The Woman King, and her recent work includes the film Sabbatical and the Netflix series Bad Influencer. Her theatre work has been staged at The Public Theater, Steppenwolf Theatre and The Atlantic Theater in the US. She holds an MFA in Design for Stage and Film from NYU Tisch.
Wessel Odendaal | Composer
Wessel Odendaal is a South African composer, arranger, musical director and pianist. His original compositions include The Little Prince, The Jungle Book, Hamlet, The Tempest, The Mystery of Irma Vep and Star+Crossed, for which he received a 2023 Fleur du Cap Theatre Award nomination for Best New Score. His international musical theatre credits include The Lion King, Cats, The Phantom of the Opera and Jersey Boys amongst others. He holds a BMus degree (cum laude) from the University of Pretoria and serves on the Maynardville Executive Team.
David Classen | Sound Designer
David Classen is a sound designer and system technician with 16 years’ experience in theatre, locally and internationally. He won the Naledi Award for Best Sound Design for Spring Awakening and was associate sound designer on the Naledi-winning The Rocky Horror Show. His credits include West Side Story, Kinky Boots, Dear Evan Hansen and Pretty Woman: The Musical, and he has managed audio at Woordfees, KKNK and Rocking the Daisies.
Oliver Hauser | Lighting Designer
Oliver Hauser is an award-winning lighting designer known for creating mood across South African live performance. His designs span drama, opera, musicals and dance, and include Twelfth Night, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Tosca, Aida and Rock of Ages. His work has been seen in venues from Paris and Berlin to Beijing and New York.
Cast
Nathaniel Ramabulana | Macbeth
Nathaniel Ramabulana is an actor, writer and director, equally at home on stage and screen. He is a Naledi Award winner (Hayani), a SAFTA winner for Best Supporting Actor for Netflix’s Fatal Seduction, and one of the Mail & Guardian’s Top 200 Young South Africans. Audiences may know him from Blood Diamond, The Bang Bang Club and Fatal Seduction.
Lizelle Pike | Lady Macbeth
Lizelle Pike is an award-winning South African stage, screen and voice actress, known for her emotional depth in complex roles. She won the Silwerskerm Award for Best Actress for the feature film Musiek vir die Agtergrond, and her screen credits include Pretville, Stuur Groete aan Mannetjies Roux and Bloedbroers. On stage her roles range from Equusto the one-woman show Ingrid: ‘n Vlam in die Sneeu, and she was recently praised as Krissie O’Brien in As die Tuig Skawe.
Brent Palmer | King Duncan / Porter
Brent Palmer is an award-winning actor, playwright and producer. He won the 2024 Fleur du Cap for Best Actor for King George, and in 2025 shared the Best Ensemble Fleur du Cap for Metamorphoses, as well as a Naledi Best Actor nomination. His other stage work includes The Dumb Waiter, Hamlet, Othello and The Tempest, and he toured Venezuela and Russia in Janni Younge’s puppetry Hamlet. On screen he has appeared in Tali’s Wedding, Those Who Can’t, Our Girl and The Shakedown. He also runs the public speaking coaching brand Own Your Voice.
Jock Kleynhans | Malcolm
Jock Kleynhans is a UCT graduate (Acting, distinction) making his fourth Maynardville appearance, following Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet and Orsino in Twelfth Night. He earned a Naledi Best Actor nomination for The Dumb Waiter, played the Beast in Janice Honeyman’s pantomime, and made his musical theatre debut as Sky in Mamma Mia. His screen work includes How to Make a Killing, Lioness and Devil’s Peak.
Francis Chouler | Banquo
Francis Chouler is an actor, writer and director, and a UCT graduate (cum laude). He won a Naledi Award for Best Supporting Actor for Sylvaine Strike’s Spring Awakening. Macbeth is his fifth Maynardville Shakespeare, after Cardenio, The Taming of the Shrew, As You Like It and Twelfth Night. He has appeared in 35 film and television productions, including The Crown, Dam, Invasive and Beter as Gister.
André Lötter | Macduff
André Lötter is an actor with nearly two decades of experience across stage, television and film. He won the 2015 Royalty Soapie Award for Best Male Villain for Villa Rosa, and is most recognisable for eight-plus years as Rickus Welman on 7de Laan and later as Robbie Hugo in Legacy. Other screen credits include Binnelanders, Getroud met Rugby, Reyka and Diepe Waters. On stage he appeared in the Naledi Award-winning Sarajevo, and has toured Onderwereld annually since 2023.
Mateo Komlosy | Donalbain
Mateo Komlosy is a young actor and writer making his Maynardville debut. A cum laude Stellenbosch drama graduate, he is completing an honours degree in scriptwriting. His university roles include Lurch in The Addams Family Musical and Leontes in The Winter’s Tale. He co-wrote and performed in Carrion Communion (Best Text and Best Design, Première 2026) and Poppycock (Best Ensemble, now at Artscape New Voices).
Katlego Chale | Ross
Katlego Chale is an actor, playwright and lecturer in the English Department at UWC, with a PhD from the University of Pretoria. He earned a 2023 Naledi nomination for Best Lead Actor for James Ngcobo’s The Brothers Size and played Boy Willie in Ngcobo’s The Piano Lesson. He performed at the Market Theatre’s 50th anniversary celebration and chairs The Writers’ Lab, which teaches playwriting and screenwriting.
Kensiwe Tshabalala | Lennox
Kensiwe Tshabalala is a performer and theatre-maker whose career spans South Africa, Europe and America. She performed Off-Broadway for three years before working as a professional dancer in Los Angeles. Her stage credits include Hlakanyana (eight Naledis) and My Fair Lady, which won Fleur du Cap and Naledi awards for Best Production. On screen she appeared in Orange Is the New Black and Generations: The Legacy. She has toured Under the Shade of a Tree I Sat and Wept across Europe and co-directed the original musical On the List.
Thulani Nzonzo | Angus
Thulani Nzonzo is a Zimbabwean actor and voice artist who graduated from AFDA Cape Town with distinction. He made his television debut as the recurring antagonist Sijuwola Adebisi in BBC One’s Noughts and Crosses, and has since appeared across Showmax, Netflix, Amazon Prime and Tubi, including the horror Hive. On stage he appeared in Maynardville’s Romeo & Juliet (2024). He also works in casting, animation and illustration.
Tamzin Daniels | Witch (Past)
Tamzin Daniels is a UCT graduate and a former member of the Baxter’s Fires Burning Company. She was in the Fleur du Cap-winning ensemble of Metamorphoses and played Bianca in Lara Foot’s Othello. More recent roles include The DJ in La Ronde (ensemble nomination, Cape Town Theatre Awards 2026), The Woman in Zakes Mda’s And the Girls in Their Sunday Dresses and Nina in Stupid Fucking Bird.
Anna Olivier | Witch (Present)
Anna Olivier is a musical theatre performer and choreographer, and a Luitingh Alexander Musical Theatre Academy graduate. She won the Naledi for Best Choreography with Naoline Quinzin for Spring Awakening. As a performer she has played Columbia in The Rocky Horror Show and appeared in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Katlego Lebogang | Witch (Future) & Lady Macduff
Katlego Lebogang is an award-winning actor with a UCT honours degree in Theatre & Performance (distinction). Her screen credits include Average Joe (Paramount+), Yoh! Christmas and Yoh! Bestie (Netflix), Noughts + Crosses and White Lies. Her performance in Delela earned a 2024 Fleur du Cap nomination for Best Lead Actress, and she won the NFTA Award for Best Newcomer in 2025.
Jake Maisel | Male Swing & Resident Director
Jake Maisel is an award-winning actor and producer with over a decade of experience. He co-founded Baked Shakespeare, whose As You Like It won an Ovation Award at the National Arts Festival and has toured internationally, including to the Edinburgh Fringe. His screen credits include Black Sails, Justice Served and No One Saw Us Leave.
Natalie Robbie | Female Swing
Natalie Robbie is an award-winning actress trained at the Oxford School of Drama. She won a Naledi for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for Spring Awakening and returned as Lady Loch and Rose in Orpheus McAdoo. On screen she has appeared in Raised by Wolves, Catch Me a Killer, Justice Served and Suidooster. She is also a voice actor (Love Nature documentaries, Zizi) and an improviser with The Long Shots.
