The Playhouse Company is Ethekwini’s premier theatre organization, based at the Playhouse theatre complex in Anton Lembende Street (formerly Smith Street) in the heart of the coastal city of Durban, KwaZulu-Natal on the Eastern Seaboard of South Africa.

As a Cultural Institution The Playhouse Company receives public funding from the South African National Government and the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government.
The Playhouse Company is mandated to produce an equitable programme of live theatre productions in the fields of music, drama and dance, representative of the diverse cultural groups that comprise the population of KwaZulu-Natal, both in terms of audiences and artists based in the Province.

In addition, the company holds the responsibility of devising and managing a dynamic education and development programme in the performing arts with respect to growing youth audiences as well as nurturing community based artists, groups and organizations that are in need of back-up from the company’s marketing expertise and technical resources.

Playhouse Theatre also has the responsibility of managing the Playhouse complex’s various performance and public venues that are for hire when not in use for the Company’s own productions, or those presented in association with The Playhouse Company. The Playhouse Company aims to produce live theatre in all its forms of an international standard commensurate with its stature as one of South Africa’s leading performing arts bodies.