Meet the people

PJ Sabbagha and Athena Mazarakis

Artistic and managing director and development manager, respectively, of The Forgotten Angle Theatre Collaborative

PJ Sabbagha was the Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for Dance in 2005. He started The Forgotten Angle Theatre Collaborative in 1995, and it has been operating from his parents’ farm outside Machado since 2015. “When my parents bought the place 40 years ago, everything was falling apart,” PJ says. “We used to come here over weekends or holidays, and live in a caravan under an oak tree.”

Various aspects prompted the company’s move from Johannesburg, especially a shift in the funding landscape towards rural development. “We became tired of the ego-centred industry and the backstabbing – everyone is competing for the same resources to do the same thing,” PJ says. Here, they run a Community-Builders Dance Training Programme for local young people, as well as a national youth leadership programme.

Running a theatre collaborative from a farm setting doesn’t come without its challenges. Isolation, internet connectivity and the dirt road to town test their patience daily. “A lot of trucks take this road to Dullstroom to skip the tollgate. They churn up the path when it rains… then we are stranded,” says PJ, grinning at the situation. “But we all have bakkies and 4x4s, and we are used to driving in mud.”

Athena admits that the rough roads can affect the programming for a special event they run annually. The fifth My Body My Space Public Arts Festival, held in April at locations throughout the municipality, involved artists from all over the world. “The focus is about placing critical social issues in the public space,” PJ says. “We don’t try to hide Machadodorp or any of its challenges.”

“We do it in front of shop facades that are closed or crumbling,” Athena adds.

“The route this year