Mike Van Graan

2026 has been a most productive year for Mike van Graan (MVG) Productions!

Two plays are running in November, with Superfan at the Baxter Theatre and Desert Chess in Artscape's Arena Theatre.

SUPERFAN is a commission from veteran broadcaster, John Maytham, his second after their successful collaboration on TO LIFE, WITH LOVE in 2025.  SUPERFAN is inspired by the unity that Springbok rugby appears to be engender across the country, even if only temporarily and superficially when the team is doing well.  The character in the play played by Maytham seeks to build on this to make 'unity' a more real and sustainable reality. This comedy drama sold out all 16 of its shows at the new, intimate Antique Theatre in Kloof Street from 19 August to 12 September.  It runs at the Baxter till 7 November.

DESERT CHESS recounts the remarkable story of Stephen McGown, the South African who was doing a motorbike road trip from London to Cape Town when he was captured by an Al Qaeda cell in Mali and subsequently held for nearly six years in the Sahara Desert.  Wessel Pretorius brings this monodrama to life under the direction of Wolf Britz, both of whom have numerous awards under their respective belts.  It runs at Artscape from 3-14 November.

A Swedish company commissioned Mike to write a play on the theme of climate changes to complement theirs in Stockholm with the two plays connected to each other in real time through technology.  UNDER PRESSURE was produced by the Windybrow Theatre for the Market Theatre with Kyla Davis directing the piece.  It had performances from mid to late October, with a final show on 5 November before it continues its life independently from the Swedish play.

Other Van Graan works currently doing the rounds are HUMANS OF THE STREETS in which three people who once lived on the streets of Cape Town, tell their moving, real-life stories; PET-FRIENDLY, a piece of stand-up commentary that uses our love for animals to make broader social commentary; HELEN OF TROYEVILLE, a solo show that interrogates the intersection between privilege and poverty in contemporary South Africa and OLD KING COAL, a commission from an NGO, Life After Coal, that invites audiences to debate post-coal economies and social relations.  

Two scripts that have been written but await full production are FAMILY MEETING, the multi-sketch satirical sequel to My Fellow South Africans and SAMARITAN, a poetic lamentation for Gaza. 

Mike also has a scripted dialogue - ABRAHAM's PROMISES - in which representatives of the Abrahamic faiths debate the role of religion in Middle East conflicts and possible likely future scenarios. The recent wave of Afrophobia has been broached in another scripted reading, NEVER, NEVER AND NEVER AGAIN.      

In addition to writing plays, Mike has extensive experience in cultural policy, building artists' networks both locally and across the African continent, and in advocacy.  He has served as the Secretary General of Arterial Network, as the Director of the African Arts Institute and the Coordinator of the Sustaining Theatre and Dance (STAND) Foundation.  Mike is currently concentrating on building a sustainable theatre practice as a writer/producer while also engaged in activities related to the Palestinian Arts and Culture Solidarity Collective (PACSOC), an informal network that seeks to support the Palestinian creative sector at this time when Palestinians as a whole are facing the most brutal existential assault by Israel and its liberal democracy enablers.