The Killing of a Union Leader | John Maytham & Emma Kotze on Breakfast Club
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CapeTalk drive-time host and stage veteran John Maytham and acclaimed actress Emma Kotze join Caleb and Jade on Breakfast Club ahead of the world premiere of The Killing of a Union Leader, the new political thriller by award-winning playwright and director Louis Viljoen, running at Artscape's Arena Theatre from 12 to 30 May 2026.
Maytham and Kotze are no strangers to Viljoen's world. Maytham received a Fleur du Cap nomination for his performance in Viljoen's one-man production The Outlaw Muckridge before reuniting with the playwright — and with Kotze — in The Sin Drinkers.
Kotze, a UCT graduate and Fleur du Cap nominee, has collaborated with Viljoen since 2016, building a body of work that has established her as one of the most compelling performers in contemporary South African theatre. In this production they play Burke, a captain of industry brought low by guilt and conscience, and Margot, his daughter whose unrealised ambition becomes the play's dark engine.
The conversation is as layered as the play itself. Maytham reflects on the adrenaline of live theatre and what Viljoen demands of his actors — stillness in the body, fierceness in the words — while Kotze unpacks what draws her back to a playwright who refuses to give his female characters anywhere to hide.
Together they describe a production stripped of props, CGI, and distraction: nothing between the audience and the words but four actors and the tension that builds, scene by scene, towards a bloody breaking point.
What we cover in this episode:
- The world of the play: A decaying city, a deadly strike, and a battle for power between industry, politics, and organised labour — set nowhere specific, yet immediately recognisable to any South African audience.
- Burke's arc: Why Maytham calls this the most complicated role of his stage career, and how he approached a character who moves from absolute certainty to devastating collapse.
- Margot's ambition: What Kotze finds in a woman who wants power on her own terms — and what Viljoen gives his female characters that other writers routinely withhold.
- The Viljoen method: How a stripped-down, language-first approach to theatre creates an experience of sustained, accumulating tension that stays with audiences long after the curtain falls.
- Responsibility and resonance: What it means to bring a play about strikes, political operators, and the machinery of power to a South African audience — and why Maytham and Kotze believe the story belongs to every audience member differently.
- Why you should book: In Kotze's words — "You simply won't see something like that on stage anywhere in South Africa. If you miss it, you missed."
The Killing of a Union Leader runs at the Arena Theatre, Artscape, from 12 to 30 May 2026. Tickets from R170 to R200 via Webtickets. Age restriction: 18.
Stream MFM 92.6: www.mfm.co.za
Follow us on socials: @mfm926
Maytham and Kotze are no strangers to Viljoen's world. Maytham received a Fleur du Cap nomination for his performance in Viljoen's one-man production The Outlaw Muckridge before reuniting with the playwright — and with Kotze — in The Sin Drinkers.
Kotze, a UCT graduate and Fleur du Cap nominee, has collaborated with Viljoen since 2016, building a body of work that has established her as one of the most compelling performers in contemporary South African theatre. In this production they play Burke, a captain of industry brought low by guilt and conscience, and Margot, his daughter whose unrealised ambition becomes the play's dark engine.
The conversation is as layered as the play itself. Maytham reflects on the adrenaline of live theatre and what Viljoen demands of his actors — stillness in the body, fierceness in the words — while Kotze unpacks what draws her back to a playwright who refuses to give his female characters anywhere to hide.
Together they describe a production stripped of props, CGI, and distraction: nothing between the audience and the words but four actors and the tension that builds, scene by scene, towards a bloody breaking point.
What we cover in this episode:
- The world of the play: A decaying city, a deadly strike, and a battle for power between industry, politics, and organised labour — set nowhere specific, yet immediately recognisable to any South African audience.
- Burke's arc: Why Maytham calls this the most complicated role of his stage career, and how he approached a character who moves from absolute certainty to devastating collapse.
- Margot's ambition: What Kotze finds in a woman who wants power on her own terms — and what Viljoen gives his female characters that other writers routinely withhold.
- The Viljoen method: How a stripped-down, language-first approach to theatre creates an experience of sustained, accumulating tension that stays with audiences long after the curtain falls.
- Responsibility and resonance: What it means to bring a play about strikes, political operators, and the machinery of power to a South African audience — and why Maytham and Kotze believe the story belongs to every audience member differently.
- Why you should book: In Kotze's words — "You simply won't see something like that on stage anywhere in South Africa. If you miss it, you missed."
The Killing of a Union Leader runs at the Arena Theatre, Artscape, from 12 to 30 May 2026. Tickets from R170 to R200 via Webtickets. Age restriction: 18.
Stream MFM 92.6: www.mfm.co.za
Follow us on socials: @mfm926
