Ntando Cele – Sophiensæle | Freies Theater in Berlin

Ntando Cele was born in Durban, South Africa, and lives in Bern. She studied theater in Durban before continuing her artistic education at DasArts in Amsterdam. Together with Raphael Urweider, she founded Manaka Empowerment Prod in 2013. Her performances play with the boundaries between theater, video installation, concert and performance. With humor and deliberately politically incorrect statements, she addresses hidden racism in everyday life. She combines music, text and video to cheerfully dissect prejudices and stereotypes and confront the audience with their own perceptions.

In February 2020, Cele invited her fellow artists to discuss the limitations faced by artists of color in a satirical discussion titled Enemy of Progressas part of the it’s not that simple festival at the Schlachthaus Theater in Bern. In 2023, she won the Swiss Diversity Award for Wer hat Angst vorm weißen Mann? as well as the Swiss Performing Arts Award. In 2024, she was nominated for the Theo d'Or at the Netherlands Theater Festival and won Best Direction for SPAfrica, a co-creation with Julian Hetzel.