Father-daughter duo delights Nelson Mandela Bay with acclaimed plays

Nelson Mandela Bay thespians were in for a treat as a highly acclaimed father-and-daughter duo brought their two critically acclaimed one-hander plays, Netphlix and The Beta Man Alphabet, to the Isithatha Theatre on Monday evening.

The productions by multi-award-winning comedian Sophie Joans and her father, David Schmidt, were performed at the 2025 National Arts Festival (NAF) and will also be performed at the 2026 NAF.

Joans said her return to Gqeberha was made even more special by not only bringing her production, Netphlix, but also by being accompanied by her father, who at the age of 65 in 2025 wrote his first theatre production, The Beta Man Alphabet, an autobiographical play.

Fresh from winning a prestigious Standard Bank Ovation Award at the 2025 National Arts Festival, Netphlix joins Joans’ debut play Île, which won the same award in 2022.

The play went on to be nominated for Best Female Solo Performer at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland in 2023.

Joans says her latest production takes on the online streaming conglomerates to restore the ancient art of live storytelling.

“I think people sometimes do not realise how wonderful theatre is and how good it is for us as a society.

“Like when you leave a really good play and you feel touched.

“However, trying to get people to come to a play can sometimes be tricky and that was a dilemma.

“Here you had people that were highly skilled at telling stories on stage.

“Then five years down the line they have not made a story in years because they have been hustling, going to auditions, hoping to get cast in a Netflix series.

I think people sometimes do not realise how wonderful theatre is and how good it is for us as a society.

—  Sophie Joans

“I myself found myself auditioning for a big Netflix show. I did not get it, so I decided if Netflix did not want me, I would put myself in Netphlix.

“The ‘h’ is silent so that I do not get sued for copyrights. I thought it would be a fun exercise of storytelling and live performance to see how many Netflix shows I could act out in an hour,” Joans said.

She said the production was a satire, a call to arms to save the state of the arts.

“I think my production is definitely a comedy, after performing the show as well as the reception for my shows over the years, and stemmed from deep authenticity, the audience feels seen and relates.”

Joans said she was proud of how her father got her into theatre and how she had since developed to direct his production.

“Out of all the shows that I have won awards for, my dad’s play is what I am most proud of.

“When I was young, I had a dad who loved to read me stories and took me to the National Arts Festival [then Grahamstown Arts Festival]. He, in turn, had a father who prized culture, knowledge and education.

“When I was 24, I wrote my first autobiographical play. Though he works as a strategy consultant, he has always been an artist at heart,” Joans said.

Schmidt said his venture into the performing arts proved that it was never too late to follow one’s passion.

The Beta Man Alphabet is a poetic, emotionally charged one-man show that speaks to the heart of change, both personal and political.

Set against the backdrop of an SA in the 1980s, this performance explores identity, legacy and memory through the lens of a man navigating his own history.

“I guess I have always been somewhat of a creative, though it has never been my day job,” Schmidt said.

“I attended Joans’ course on how to write a one-hand play. In a way this play emerged from that.

“I performed an extract and before I knew it, I had a play that I wrote last year.

“I took it to the NAF last year for the first time and I was very nervous, because I was a late bloomer, I had never performed in a play before.

“It was welcomed and invoked emotions.

“The story is about my journey about schooling in apartheid SA, the 1980s’ resistant years where I was very involved in the politics of the time, the resistance of the time, to our transition,” Schmidt said.

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