CALVIN RATLADI
Profile: 2025 Standard Bank Young Artist for Theatre
By Mohale Manyama and Zoliswa Mdawini
Calvin Ratladi has made a name for himself from Mzansi to Germany and Luxembourg as a multi-talented, award-winning director, writer, performer, and choreographer.
Born and bred in Witbank, Mpumalanga, but proudly identifying as someone who is from Limpopo [where his parents reside full-time], this award recognises his challenging and thought-provoking storytelling performance on the stage.
This milestone adds to his trophy cabinet, which consists of notable awards such as the Outstanding Person with Disability Award from SAFTA (South Africa Film and Television Award), the Naledi Award, and the Lesedi Spirit of Courage Award, for which he was the first Black recipient since its inception seven years ago (in 2019).
Winning the 2025 Standard Bank Young Artist award is a huge honour for him. “The award is an affirmation. I not only get a direct chance to tell a story, but a funded one in South Africa,” he said. For him, it is a symbol of validation and recognition of all the effort he had put into his work on stage with his unique performances.
“The story I will be telling, for Makhanda, is about Robert Mugabe,” he said. “It has never been told before in film and theatre,” he adds. Ratladi believes that even though Robert Mugabe, a former president of Zimbabwe, was a well-known political figure on the continent [Africa], his story was never told. “He is a figure we never touched,” Ratladi said.
His love for theatre was inspired by a childhood curiosity. “Being very concerned about the place [Witbank] that I grew up knowing and seeing, I got curious as to where the stories about it were,” he said. He noticed that there were stories of hard-working miners in Witbank who were ignored and never brought to light. This motivated and inspired him to tell the stories that people don’t usually get to hear – such as the story of miners who worked beyond their break time but were never acknowledged or recognised. “Storytelling helped me write a story in my father’s eyes, who worked as a miner,” Ratladi said. Miners – like his father, who worked as a miner and contributed to the South African economy, had no narrative light shed upon them. While mine owners are remembered, the names of those who went into the mines and risked their lives digging for gold are still not mentioned.
Ratladi is changing this culture of ignorance. And his storytelling extends beyond just words. “Whenever I tell a story, I make sure that it reaches everyone in the audience, even the deaf,” he explained, He believes that visual presentation thus plays a major role on the stage. “The emotions and physical gestures are important in theatre,” he said. Ratladi believes that one’s movements and how they portray feelings can help everyone in the audience follow the story and understand it better than if they just watched it.
Drawing inspiration from storytelling, imagination, and curiosity, Ratladi is living proof that theatre matters. His journey and work stand as a powerful voice for the forgotten and honouring the silenced and insisting that every story deserves a stage to be heard by all.
“Theatre also helps us know who we are socially, culturally, and politically,” he said. He believes that theatre is a way of knowing one’s status in society and what they ought to stand for. In other words, theatre is the perfect way to know who we are.
This is the sixth (and last) of our profiles of this year’s Standard Bank Young Artist Award-winners. We introduce the six of them to you as part of our build-up to the 51st National Arts Festival.
