Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 04/06/2026 20:36:00

The Artscape Theatre Centre opened on 19 May 1971 in the Foreshore district of central Cape Town under its original Nico Malan Theatre Centre name, on reclaimed land between Table Bay and the central business district that had been added to the city through the wider 1940s harbour expansion programme. The complex was renamed Artscape in March 2001 as part of the broader post-apartheid renaming of public institutions in the western Cape, and covers roughly 14,000 square metres across three principal performance spaces, rehearsal studios, gardens and an outdoor piazza. The main Opera House is the principal performance space of the wider complex, seating 1,487 across 23 rows in the orchestra stalls and 8 rows in the upper balcony, with provision for twelve wheelchair positions. The proscenium opening is 15.35 metres wide and the principal stage opens to a 17 metre depth, with full grid flying and orchestra pit facilities suitable for the largest scale opera and ballet productions. The opening 1971 production was scheduled to be Verdi Aida but was replaced at the last minute by the CAPAB Ballet Sylvia after an illness in the lead singer, with the subsequent inaugural season including Mozart Die Zauberflote in Afrikaans translation and Puccini Madama Butterfly. The wider complex also includes a 540 seat Theatre and a smaller 140 seat Arena Theatre on the side stage of the main theatre, alongside extensive rehearsal facilities and the principal South African opera and ballet training programmes. The Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cape Town Opera and the Cape Town City Ballet are all permanently resident in the building, with additional touring productions running through the principal annual season. Artscape also oversees the Maynardville Open-Air Theatre in Wynberg and houses the Fine Music Radio station broadcasting across the Western Cape region. The principal Artscape Opera House programming covers around 200 individual performance dates per year across opera, ballet, classical concerts, music theatre, contemporary dance and large-scale touring productions, with the wider South African National Lottery and the Department of Arts and Culture providing the principal annual operating subsidies that allow the wider performing arts companies to maintain a permanent full-time roster. The Cape Town Opera operates a principal seven to nine production season each year across opera and music theatre, with the Cape Town Philharmonic running a parallel classical concert season of around forty principal symphony nights. The wider building sits on D F Malan Street directly opposite the Cape Town International Convention Centre, with the Civic Centre offices of the Cape Town municipal government immediately adjacent.