Ordinary People, Extraordinary Day | Tiisetso Mashifane wa Noni on Rise 76 and the Story of June 16th
Loading player...
Fifty years ago, ordinary schoolchildren had breakfast, worried about maths class, and walked into history.
Rise 76: The Story of June 16th is playwright Tiisetso Mashifane wa Noni's attempt to hold both of those truths at once.
Commissioned jointly by the Baxter Theatre and the Market Theatre — which opened just three days after the Soweto uprising on 19 June 1976 — Rise 76 marks the 50th anniversary of one of South Africa's most consequential moments.
Mashifane wa Noni joins the Breakfast Club to talk about how she built the play from over 40 interviews, archival records, and three months of research — and why she chose to begin the story weeks before June 16th, not on the day itself.
Mashifane wa Noni is no stranger to recognition. She has won back-to-back Fleur du Cap Awards for best new South African script — for Zilala in 2024 and Neighbourhood in 2025. Rise 76 is her most ambitious work yet.
In this conversation:
- Why the uprising was not against Afrikaans as a language — but against a language weaponised by a government
- How composite characters allow one play to carry thousands of stories
- The domestic details — a cup of tea, a conversation about maths — that make history human
- What the Market Theatre's 50-year legacy of resistance means to a young theatre-maker in 2026
- The ripple effects of 1976 that South Africa has still not fully reckoned with
Rise 76: The Story of June 16th runs at the Baxter Studio Theatre until 30 May, then transfers to the Market Theatre's Mannie Manim from 5 to 28 June. Book via Webtickets or at any Pick n Pay store.
Rise 76: The Story of June 16th is playwright Tiisetso Mashifane wa Noni's attempt to hold both of those truths at once.
Commissioned jointly by the Baxter Theatre and the Market Theatre — which opened just three days after the Soweto uprising on 19 June 1976 — Rise 76 marks the 50th anniversary of one of South Africa's most consequential moments.
Mashifane wa Noni joins the Breakfast Club to talk about how she built the play from over 40 interviews, archival records, and three months of research — and why she chose to begin the story weeks before June 16th, not on the day itself.
Mashifane wa Noni is no stranger to recognition. She has won back-to-back Fleur du Cap Awards for best new South African script — for Zilala in 2024 and Neighbourhood in 2025. Rise 76 is her most ambitious work yet.
In this conversation:
- Why the uprising was not against Afrikaans as a language — but against a language weaponised by a government
- How composite characters allow one play to carry thousands of stories
- The domestic details — a cup of tea, a conversation about maths — that make history human
- What the Market Theatre's 50-year legacy of resistance means to a young theatre-maker in 2026
- The ripple effects of 1976 that South Africa has still not fully reckoned with
Rise 76: The Story of June 16th runs at the Baxter Studio Theatre until 30 May, then transfers to the Market Theatre's Mannie Manim from 5 to 28 June. Book via Webtickets or at any Pick n Pay store.
