A Season in Hell / Hillbrow – Rimbaud Rewritten, a youth-led performance project by the Windybrow Arts Centre, will take to the Market Theatre stage this August and September. Supported by the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS), the production reimagines Arthur Rimbaud’s A Season in Hell (Une Saison en Enfer, 1873) through the writing and experiences of young people living in and around Hillbrow.
Written by Rimbaud at just nineteen, A Season in Hell challenged the literary and social conventions of its time and became an influential work of modern French literature. Developed through collaborative workshops with more than 30 young writers, the Hillbrow reinterpretation uses Rimbaud’s text as a starting point to explore economic uncertainty, social pressures and inherited histories, alongside the cultural life and creative expression of young people in contemporary Johannesburg.
The production premiered on 29 July at the 2026 Towards Critical Apartheid Studies Conference at Wits University. It will next be presented at the Kaza Kamba Pan African Festival at the Market Theatre on 22 August, before returning to the venue for ASSITEJ South Africa’s Cradle of Creativity from 1 to 6 September.
The project continues a longstanding collaboration between IFAS and the Windybrow Arts Centre, dating back to 2016. Previous projects include KWASHA! Theatre Company’s adaptation of The Little Prince and, in 2024, a reinterpretation of Aimé Césaire’s Notebook of a Return to the Native Land.
For more information on upcoming performances, visit the Windybrow Arts Centre’s Facebook page.
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