Life and Times of Michael K

JM Coetzee’s Life & Times of Michael K, adapted for the stage by Lara Foot, in collaboration with the Tony Award-winning Handspring Puppet Company (of War Horse and Little Amal-fame) comes to The Market Theatre, following its internationally acclaimed tour to the USA.

Written and directed by Foot, it is one of the largest and most illustrious undertaking by The Baxter over the past decade. It is the culmination of more than two years of planning. It marks the first time that Lara Foot will be working with the Tony award-winning Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler from Handspring Puppet Company.
Since its debut the production has received high praise from leading arts critic in SA, Germany, China, Edinburgh, Ireland and the USA. It was named as the New York Times Critic’s Pick and the Playbill Pick, with several five-star reviews.

The production won The Scotsman Fringe First award 2023 and two Fleur du Cap awards for Best Production and Best Puppetry Design. Joyce MacMillan from The Scotsman wrote, “Among all the teeming possibilities of the 21st century Fringe, there is still the occasional show that somehow feels like the year’s main event, the one every Fringe-goer should not miss. The Baxter Theatre of Cape Town’s new version of JM Coetzee’s mighty 1983 novel Life & Times Of Michael K is one of those shows; a great tale of oppression and the struggle to overcome it, set in a fictional South Africa during the dying years of apartheid.”

Epic in scale, the multi-layered theatrical staging which combines puppetry, performance, film and evocative music, gives life to Coetzee’s Booker Prize-winning novel and brings together some of South Africa’s most revered, multi-award-winning artists and creatives.

The creative team is made up of Lara Foot (adaptor, writer, director), Handspring Puppet Company (adaptors, puppet directors, design and makers), Patrick Curtis (set design) Kyle Shepherd (original music composition), Joshua Cutts (lighting), Fiona McPherson and Barrett de Kock (directors of photography and film), Yoav Dagan (videography and editing), Kirsti Cumming (projection design), Phyllis Midlane (costumes) and Simon Kohler (sound design).

The hauntingly beautiful story follows Michael K, a simple man who embarks on a journey through South Africa, ravaged by civil war, to return his mother to die on the farm where she was born. He finds strength in his own humanity, his profound connection to the earth and his unique path which, as it unfolds, reveals to him, his reason for living.
Nobel Prize-winning author, JM Coetzee’s Life & Times of Michael K, adapted for the stage by Lara Foot, in collaboration with the Tony Award-winning Handspring Puppet Company (of War Horse and Little Amal-fame), received high praise from leading arts critics locally and abroad. It was the New York Times Critic’s Pick, this after winning The Scotsman Fringe First award at the Assembly Fringe Festival in Edinburgh in 2023, where it earned six five- star reviews and was described as ‘The standout Fringe show,’ by the New York Times.

The Scotsman, British Theatre Guide, Broadway World and Everything Theatre, have given the production five stars. Winner of the South African Fleur du Cap Best Production and Best Puppetry Design awards, it also nominated for Best Lighting Design, Best Costume Design, Best Performance by an Ensemble, Best Sound Design, Original Music, Soundscape or Live Performance (for Original Music and Sound Design).

Epic in scale, the multi-layered theatrical staging which combines puppetry, performance, film and evocative music, gives life to Coetzee’s Booker Prize-winning novel and brings together some of South Africa’s most revered, multi-award-winning artists and creatives.

Written and directed by Foot, it is the largest and most illustrious undertaking by The Baxter over the past decade. The world premiere was livestreamed from The Baxter to Düsseldorf and in November 2021 and 2022, the company travelled to Germany to perform live for the first time, to great acclaim.

The creative team is made up of Lara Foot (adaptor, writer, director), Handspring Puppet Company (adaptors, puppet directors, design and makers), Patrick Curtis (set design) Kyle Shepherd (original music composition), Joshua Cutts (lighting), Fiona McPherson and Barrett de Kock (directors of photography and film), Yoav Dagan (videography and editing), Kirsti Cumming (projection design), Phyllis Midlane (costumes) and Simon Kohler (sound design).