Labia Theater

The Labia Theatre in Cape Town is the oldest independent art cinema in South Africa. Princess Labia opened it on 16 May 1949 as a ballroom of the Italian Embassy, a stage for the performing arts. The first owner was a consortium that included the SABC and the Department of Sea Fisheries. In those years, film filled the breaks between live acts.

Hard times came in the early 1970s, when the new Nico Malan Theatre in the city centre drew audiences away. The house answered by renting itself out for independent arthouse films. During apartheid, the theatre largely ignored segregation laws. Mario Veo and Ingrid Burnett owned it from 1979 to 1989. Richard E. Grant studied nearby and visited so often that he called the place a second university. In September 1989 Ludi Kraus took over, steering the programme towards cult, classic and art films. A crowdfunding campaign in 2014 paid for digital projectors and a round of upgrades.

Step inside and the ballroom years remain visible in a vintage ticket booth and a sweets counter. Extra screens, a bar and a terrace joined the original rooms, and the expansion kept the intimate, cosy atmosphere. Afterwards, the terrace keeps the evening going: an outdoor room where the conversation outlasts the final reel.