Joseph Stone Auditorium
Location: Protea + Klipfontein Rd, Athlone, Cape Town
Architects: Revel Fox with Lindsay Falck
Date completed: 1969
Style: Brutalism
Status: Extant
Source: M&G, 2022 (Ryan Enslin)
Contextual timeline
Map
Notes
The Eoan Group was founded in 1933
by Helen Southern-Holt, an English businesswoman involved in social work, who
had emigrated to South Africa in 1930, as a cultural and welfare society in Cape Town's District Six. It was initially founded as an aftercare facility for young children, then moved towards community upliftment through education, arts, and social activities for the coloured community. In 1935, she
was joined by her daughter, Dr A. Maisie (Maisy) Southern-Holt, a trained ballet dancer, who started dancing
classes.
Helen Southern-Holt
(1893 - 1972 Canada)
(Unidentified photographer)
The late 1950s and early 1960s were the apex of the Eoan Group activities. The group initially rehearsed and operated from venues like the donated Isaac Ochberg Hall in District Six, which served as their central headquarters for many years. For major public performances - especially operas - they frequently used the Cape Town City Hall, where they were able to perform to ethnically mixed audiences (though often with segregated seating sections under early apartheid rules). This venue was particularly significant as it was one of the few places permitting such integrated audiences during certain periods. Southern-Holt managed the Eoan group until 1958, after which she and her daughter Maisy emigrated to Canada.
Isaac Ochberg Hall in Hanover Street, District Six
(Unidentified photographer, n.d.)
In 1966, District Six, where
its headquarters were located and where many of its activities took place, was
declared a “whites only area” under the Group Areas Act. Thee Eoan Group was
forced to abandon its building in Hanover Street and moved to the city centre,
in Bree Street. The Group was not allowed to stay there long. These changes, combined with modifications to the City Hall stage and stricter enforcement of segregation laws (including bans on mixed audiences without special permits), forced the Eoan Group to relocate their activities to Athlone.
In 1969, they inaugurated the Joseph Stone Auditorium (also called the Joseph Stone Theatre) in Athlone. The venue included a 500-seat theatre, rehearsal rooms, and offices. Philanthropist Joseph Stone donated R100,000 towards the new facility, which was designed by architects Revel Fox and Lindsay Falck.
After the group's relocation from the Cape Town City Hall to Athlone, their white supporters largely stopped attending performances.
The Eoan Group faced significant rejection from segments of the coloured community during the 1970s and beyond, often due to its acceptance of state subsidies and perceived political accommodation. This contributed to declining audiences, calls for boycotts (e.g., from anti-apartheid groups like the South African Council on Sport), and a broader loss of support. This perception stemmed from the forced move out of central Cape Town (following the destruction of District Six under the Group Areas Act) to a township designated for coloured residents. The new theatre, built with partial government funding through the Coloured Affairs Department was seen by critics as aligning the group too closely with apartheid structures - even if the relocation was largely imposed by law rather than chosen.
By 1980, Eoan had grown to having 15 branches located throughout the Cape Peninsula.
Images
Source: Eoan Group
Source: Eoan Group
Floor Plan
Source: revelfox.co.za
Floor Plan
Source: revelfox.co.za
Building style
The Joseph Stone Auditorium building embodies the typical austere idiom of New Brutalism (also known as Brutalist architecture), prioritizing functionality, sharp angular structures, and raw, unfinished materials—most notably exposed concrete in its raw, unadorned form. (Willemse:1207).
Isaac Ochberg
(1878 Ukraine - 1937 at sea)
(Unidentified photographer)
Ochberg donated the Isaac Ochberg Hall in District Six. A South African philanthropist and Zionist, Ochberg was born in the Ukraine and came to South Africa in 1895. A successful Cape Town businessman, he was best known for his humanitarian project in bringing some 200 Jewish pogrom orphans from the Ukraine and Poland to South Africa after World War I. He served on the Cape executive of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies and other communal bodies.
Newspaper article, 1956
Sources
Comments
Post a Comment