The Chance
On the 12th of May 2025, the first batch of white South African ‘refugees’ arrived in Dulles Airport, Washington DC. Their refugee claim – fuelled by South African right-wing lobby groups – was facilitated and fast-tracked by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.

International award-winning multidisciplinary visual artist, performer and playwright, Aldo Brincat, opens his new play, The Chance, on the one-year anniversary of one of the most controversial race-related events to play out in recent South African history.

The Chance is a solo performance starring the phenomenal Henu Baden. Theatre audiences will remember Baden from productions such as The Cardinal, At Horizon’s End, and his breakthrough solo performance, Every Brilliant Thing.

In The Chance, Baden plays both Martinus and his wife, Leticia – a fictitious white South African couple who were among the first batch of ‘refugees’ to arrive in Washington on 12 May 2025. We meet this couple some time in the future – 700 days since they landed, to be exact – and things are not quite going according to plan.

The Chance is written and directed by Aldo Brincat, who was also the playwright and actor behind the multi-award winning The Moon Look Delicious From Here, which won the Special Jury Award at the Bitesize Theatre Festival in London (2025), and the Standard Bank Silver Ovation Award at the National Arts Festival (2025).

The Chance will stage its premiere at Toneelhuis in Cape Town at 7pm, on 12 and 13 May, 2026. Following each performance, the audience will be invited to give constructive feedback, before the script is translated into Afrikaans (Die Kans), and begins its national tour in August 2026.

Cast: Henu Baden
Director: Aldo Brincat
Playwright: Aldo Brincat
Duration: 60 minutes
Age restriction: 13 years
Language: English and Afrikaans