PRESS: LISTENING TO WALLS WEAR OFF THEIR COLOUR, a Rolex collaboration, at the Baxter Theatre

Baxter Theatre Centre

---

LISTENING TO WALLS WEAR OFF THEIR COLOUR - a collaboration by three internationally acclaimed artists and Rolex mentoring fellows at The Baxter for three performances only in January 2026.

Photo Supplied.

Three internationally acclaimed artists and Rolex mentoring programme’s fellows - Maya Zbib (theatre, Lebanon), Lee Serle (dance, Australia) and Mateo López (visual arts, Colombia) - unite in a unique creative collaboration to present Listening to Walls Wear Off Their Colour, for three performances only, at The Baxter on 16 and 17 January 2026 at 7.30pm with a Saturday matinee at 2.30pm.

Blending movement, image and performance, this evocative work explores how to find moments of connection and reflection in a world marked by displacement, isolation and constant change.

Presented by the Baxter Theatre, in partnership with the Rolex Perpetual Arts Initiative, Zbib and Serle will perform alongside two South African dancers (Loring Sookool and Grant van Ster) in a shifting landscape of stories and bodies - where individual journeys intertwine to reveal a powerful collective narrative.

A profound and visually arresting experience from three celebrated former Rolex mentoring programme fellows, which looks at how a space for contemplation and reflection can be created. In today’s metropolises people cross paths continuously and rarely meet. Fear of ‘the other’, intolerance, isolation and loneliness plague contemporary societies.

The performance forms an ever-shifting landscape and architecture of frames, revealing and concealing a myriad of fictional characters and moving bodies. Their stories are followed in abstract narratives; they can be anyone. How can an individual story trace the lines of a collective one?

Photo Supplied.

When we flit from one topic to another, we float between the past, present and future, between our memories, fears and desires, between external and internal worlds as an active observation of our stream of consciousness. Allow the mind to wander, reflect, fantasize and relive stories. Can this elicit new and surprising thought connections leading to new emotions? A new way to see the world? Opening a space for love amidst overwhelming Xenophobia?

Maya Zbib is a Lebanese theatre director, performer, writer and co-founder of Zoukak Theatre Company. She is one of more than 200 renowned artists and arts leaders from South Africa and around the world who gathered at the Baxter Theatre Centre in February 2020, to attend a prestigious Rolex Arts Weekend. Her work has been shown in the Middle East, Europe, the United States, Africa, South America and South Asia. Maya has taught theatre internationally in academic and non-academic contexts. She’s been commissioned to create work for NYU-Abu Dhabi’s Performing Arts Center, the University of Houston, Williams College, the Theater Krefeld Mönchengladbach in Germany, Festival Schwindelfrei, LIFT Festival and the Royal Court Theatre in London, among others.

Lee Serle is a choreographer and performer based in New York, working across stage, site-specific, interactive and intimate performance. His commissions include new works for the Lyon Opera Ballet, Sydney Dance Company, Lucy Guerin Inc., ACCA, Dancenorth and the Victorian College of the Arts. As a performer, he has collaborated with leading artists and companies internationally, including the Trisha Brown Dance Company. Serle is the former Dance Protégé for the Rolex mentoring programme, mentored by Trisha Brown, and an inaugural recipient of the Australia Council’s Creative Australia Fellowship.

Mateo López’s multidisciplinary practice investigates cartographies, journeys and construction processes, drawing on themes of chance, encounter, time and the interconnected events of daily life. His conceptual approach spans drawing, installation, architecture, film and sculptural choreography. López has exhibited and performed internationally, including presentations at The Drawing Center (New York), Museo de Arte de la Universidad Nacional (Bogotá), Lismore Castle Arts (Ireland), Casey Kaplan (New York), the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (Beijing) and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. His work has also been shown at the 8th Mercosul Bienal (2011) and the 29th Bienal de São Paulo (2010). He was awarded a fellowship in 2012.

LISTENING TO WALLS WEAR OFF THEIR COLOUR runs for three performances only on Friday 16 January 2026 at 7.30pm and Saturday 17 January 2026 at 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Booking is now open at Webtickets online or at Pick n Pay stores.