Written and performed by Vuyelwa Maluleke, The Blue Album is an autobiographical one-woman theatre production that traces the return of Khumo, a young Black lesbian woman, to her township of Makaleng after three years in exile. Called back by her father's illness, she confronts the family and community structures that enabled the violence that drove her away. The work stages, through monologue and movement, the realities and consequences of corrective rape.
Maluleke is an award-winning writer, performer, and lecturer with an MA in Creative Writing (with distinction) from Rhodes University, and a BA in Dramatic Arts from the University of the Witwatersrand. Her portrayal earned her the 2025 Kippies Fringe Award for Outstanding Performer and a nomination for Best Performance in a Fringe Theatre Production at both the 2025 and 2026 Naledi Theatre Awards.
The production is directed by Ernest "Ginger" Baleni, a Johannesburg-based movement director and choreographer nominated for a 2026 Naledi Theatre Award, who shapes the piece through a physical vocabulary described as precise and architecturally considered.
The Cape Town run at Theatre Arts in Observatory opens on Youth Day, 16 June. Following these performances, the production makes its debut at the 2026 National Arts Festival in Makhanda.