MACBETH lands at Maynardville Open-Air Theatre from 5 February-13 March 2027 in 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 (pictured above).
This is the 71st edition of the annual festival that returns to honour and reimagine the classics across theatre, music and dance.
Job (pictured below) is one of South Africa’s most acclaimed theatre directors. She won a 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.”
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 Night’s Dream, in 2023, Tybalt in 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, both for Spring Awakening. The company is completed by Katlego Chale, Kensiwe Tshabalala, Tamzin Daniels, Katlego Lebogang and Jake Maisel.
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 creative 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.”
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