A second chance to catch the ‘Unruly’ play!

Today we are very excited to announce the dates for a second tour of ‘Unruly,’ which will again tour communities around the Peninsula as well a series of shows at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town. This time Andrew Buckland is joined by Chantal Willie-Petersen, a brilliant musician bringing the double bass score to life in a beautiful way. We really hope that those of you who missed the first tour can make it to this one!

Please book your tickets soon via Quicket – we are currently focusing on encouraging residents in baboon-visited areas, but from next week we will also advertise more broadly to the general public. So please spread the word in the relevant communities!

This re-run is possible thanks to a grant from our funder Formas, specifically to allow us to bring the play and the research to a wider audience. This has several components:

• The show will run again in the communities where the interest was highest last time: Simon’s Town and Kommetjie. We are also doing a show in Scarborough, which was excluded last time since baboons had only returned there after our 2023 survey. One show will also take place in Kalk Bay, which is not regularly visited by baboons but lies in between several neighbourhoods that are, so we hope it is easy to reach by as many as possible.
• Several shows will also take place at the Baxter Theatre, partly because it takes larger audiences and is more accessible for Capetonians who do not live near baboons, and partly because it gives us a chance to film the whole play with better lighting and set design. The filmed version will also be available to the public later, along with a short guide to help anyone who wants to organise a viewing and post-show discussion in their community.
• We have also listened to the feedback from audiences during the first tour. Something many asked for is baboon rangers’ perspective, and that the play be brought to high schools. We are therefore arranging for the rangers of the Urban Baboon Programme to also see the play and share their thoughts and feedback, and a show at the Constantia Waldorf High School. The school show will be a bit of an experiment – the plan is to also offer the filmed version of the play to more schools in 2025, as a way to invite youth into the discussion about human-wildlife relationships on the Peninsula and beyond.