25/01/2026
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TSEKO THUKANI PRESENTS
DEAR SON: A LETTER FROM MY ABSENT FATHER
Supported by the National Arts Council of South Africa (NAC)
Bloemfontein, Free State – February 2026
Tseko Thukani, supported by the National Arts Council of South Africa, proudly presents Dear Son: A Letter from My Absent Father, a powerful choreopoem written and performed by Tseko Thukani, set to premiere at the Bloemfontein Civic Theatre on 6 and 7 February 2026 at 18:00.
Dear Son is a deeply intimate and poetic theatrical work that explores the emotional landscape of growing up without a father. Blending spoken word, monologue, live vocals, percussion, and movement, the production confronts themes of absence, memory, inheritance, identity, masculinity, and healing in contemporary South Africa.
At the heart of the piece is a son engaging with letters from the father who was never present. Letters filled with silence, longing, love, anger, and spiritual reflection. The performance becomes a dialogue with absence itself, where memory moves through the body and unspoken truths find voice.
In this way, Dear Son becomes a meditation on how sons inherit not only names and bloodlines, but also unspoken histories, unresolved wounds, and patterns of absence. The performance asks:
What do we carry from fathers we never knew?
What stories live inside us without our consent?
The production features:
Actor: Tseko Thukani
Vocals: Ishmael Mohlabi, Tukela Pepeteka
Percussionist: Brine Nhabe
Choreographer: Selina Lebeko
Stage Manager: Maureen Setlhare
Project Assistant: Seipati Semenyane
Project Coordinator: Zachia Lucia Leepa
Through a minimalist yet evocative aesthetic, Dear Son invites audiences into a sacred space of listening, where silence becomes memory, the body becomes an archive, and inheritance becomes something that can finally be spoken, questioned, and transformed.
This work is not about blaming fathers, it is about allowing sons to speak. It is about giving language to what many men carry quietly in their bodies.
Event Details:
Venue: Bloemfontein Civic Theatre
Dates: 6 – 7 February 2026
Time: 18:00
Ticket Prices:
R80 (Standard)
R60 per person (Group of 5)
R50 (Scholars)
Bookings & Enquiries:
📞 067 765 4278
📧 [email protected]
Dear Son: A Letter from My Absent Father is a bold contribution to South African contemporary theatre — a necessary conversation about fatherhood, memory, inheritance, and the emotional lives of men across generations.
