‘Keep The Lights On’ brings awareness to socio-economic (in)accessibility in the City of Cape Town. In low and low-to-medium income communities, public lighting is sometimes so inadequate that it's dangerous for residents to move around in the dark. As the nation battles with rolling blackouts, many in poorer neighbourhoods cannot afford solar energy and back-up batteries. This work calls attention to Apartheid’s spatial planning still in effect in South African cities today, and talks back to the egregious persistence of economic apartheid.

Themba Stewart is a theatre maker, lighting and installation artist, designer, builder, teacher, curator, and a technical, tour and production manager. He blends technical production with creative flair and has run shows for multiple companies, site-specific venues and festivals in South Africa and beyond, including Edinburgh and New York City. Now working as a production manager at Magnet Theatre, Stewart wrote and directed Red Aloes, and was nominated at the 2022 and 2023 Fleur du Cap awards.

Qondiswa James is a freelance cultural worker and an award-winning writer and theatre-maker, performance artist, film and theatre performer, installation artist, arts facilitator and activist. Living between Cape Town and Johannesburg, James has staged public art interventions in France, Holland and across South Africa. She received her Master’s Degree in Live Art, Interdisciplinary and Public Art and Public Spheres from the Institute of Creative Arts. Her work engages the socio-political imagination towards mobilising transgression.

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