Unruly with Andrew Buckland at the BaxterEmpatheatre, in collaboration with The Baxter, the Stockholm Resilience Centre and the Unruly Natures research project, will present a return, full-length season of Unruly.

Starring theatre luminary Andrew Buckland, accompanied on stage by award-winning jazz performer and composer Chantal Willie-Petersen on double bass, Unruly will be performed for a limited season from 17 July to 2 August 2025 in The Baxter Studio. Buckland offers audiences a dynamic performance brimming with humour, compassion and his trademark physical theatre mastery alongside Willie-Petersen’s evocative live music.

Directed by esteemed theatre maker Neil Coppen, this immersive storytelling performance, based on extensive academic and creative research, explores the coexistence of urban baboons and humans in the fictional town of Skemer Baai, where tensions rise following the mysterious disappearance of a baboon matriarch.

Unruly invites audiences to engage with the complexities of human-animal relationships, Cape Peninsula’s shared ecology, and the unpredictable forces of nature.

Exploring solutions and understanding

Unruly is co-written by Neil Coppen, Andrew Buckland and Dr. Dylan McGarry. Completing the creative team, the production features a new original score by Braam DuToit, working in collaboration with Chantal Willie-Petersen. Lighting design is by Tina le Roux and set and costumes by McGarry.

Unruly has previously nominated for three Fleur De Cap Theatre Awards including Best Theatre Production, Best Solo Performance (Andrew Buckland) and Best Sound/Music (Chantal Willie-Petersen).

“With this topic more salient than ever, the return of Unruly at The Baxter as a fully developed theatrical work is important timing,” says director Neil Coppen. “We devised this piece following research into residents’ own lived experiences and challenges of coexisting with urban baboons on the Cape Peninsula. The feedback at our post-show discussions has been invaluable for interrogating the question, ‘How should we, as humans, act towards a nature that doesn’t always behave the way we expect it to?’ The debate remains ongoing to explore solutions and understanding on both sides,” says Coppen.

What: Unruly

Where and when: Baxter Theatre from 17 July to 2 August 2025

Tickets: Webtickets

WS