Mike Van Graan

Mike has two plays opening in August 2026.

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 runs at the new, intimate Antique Theatre in Kloof Street from 19 August to 12 September.  Tickets are available through the theatre's website https://theantique.co.za. A week before opening, the first four shows have sold out.  

Then, following the success of MY FELLOW SOUTH AFRICANS and similar multi-sketch satirical revues (PAY BACK THE CURRY, STATE FRACTURE and the BAFANA REPUBLIC franchise), FAMILY MEETING will have its premiere run in Artscape's Innovation Lounge from 24-29 August.  Awethu Hleli - who was part of the Baxter's resident company for two-and-a-half years - will perform this multi-sketch revue which uses comedy, song, poetry and movement to provoke, entertain and provide catharsis.  Tickets are available on Webtickets.co.za

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.

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.