WITH THE SMILE of a classic real estate agent, that is practiced and lightly polished in its benign-ness: not too happy or too threatening, Lynette (Mary-Anne Barlow) sums up a significant tale, sophisticated in its ability to poke hilariously and dangerously at the preciousness of a thirty-year old democracy in a world coloured and somewhat crippled by political correctness. A Good House, by Amy Jephta is a muscular contemplation on housing in South Africa that will have you cringing so hard, you’ve got to laugh and sometimes you might want to weep. It’s on at the Mannie Manim Theatre, Market Theatre complex until 30 August.

Picture the scenario: A brand new high-end suburban complex with all the checks and balances that define privileged living. Everyone tiptoes around everyone else with a developed sense of conversational hygiene, carefully clicking every ‘c’, ‘x’ and ‘q’, with different parts of their tongues which are not used to doing such things, as far as they can. Proverbially speaking that is. And then Sihle (Nhlakanipho Manqele) meets Chris (José Domingos) during the most stressful part of renovations and the Pandora’s box of assumptions and no-no’s begins to show its flaws.

But this is not a simple yarn of politically incorrect faux pas. No. It’s an evolved understanding of what matters to you because of where you come from. Is it a problem to be laughed at by some people while you are on the road up? Is it an issue that others make grotesque assumptions about you because of the tracksuit you are wearing? It is hurtful to be served water in an enamel mug because the neighbours secretly think you unworthy of a ceramic one? It’s the old story of assuming having the power to make an ‘ass’ of you and me.

With a strong cast representing six stereotypes, reaching from mung-bean-eating yogis to yuppies to people who come from a history of not being enough or of being too much, the work is a pungent essay on the multi-headed beast of real estate – and this doesn’t allow us to forget the informal house being built in bits and pieces through an inset on stage. But in the context of the play, it’s on the cul-de-sac around the corner, just out of eyeshot of most of the complex’s residents. The shack that serves as a conversation opener through this work. Everyone fears the unknown residents of this little house, for different reasons.

The work is beautifully scripted, performed with careful nuance and a wise cast and splayed out in a space which has been reworked to be widely horizontal and tennis-court like, grouping audiences along both long sides of the space and forcing their heads to turn this way and that as the discourse bounces into dangerous and discomforting terrain. It’s also very cleverly designed,  in terms of what subtleties can change one high-end cardboard cutout home into another. And it’s about the dynamic of relationships and triggers.

But more than all of this, A Good House is a razor sharp bit of contemporary SA repartee, which evokes the writing of theatre-makers such as Mike van Graan, while retaining its own identity. It’s the kind of production which does local theatre proud.  

• A Good House is written directed by Amy Jephta. Featuring creative input by Wilhelm Disbergen (set), Sheli Masondo (costumes), Nomvula Molepo (lighting), Benjamin Jephta (composition and sound design), it is staged managed by Ali Madiga and performed by Mary-Anne Barlow, José Domingos, Conrad Kemp, Nhlakanipho Manqele, Lesoko Seabe and Christine van Hees at the Mannie Manim Theatre, Market Theatre complex in Newtown, Johannesburg, until August 30, 2026.