Universe on Stage returns with Dark Matter
Universe on Stage returns with Dark Matter, a new production exploring the limits of what we know.
Following a series of sold-out performances and growing critical recognition, Universe on Stage returns with its most conceptually ambitious work to date. Dark Matter opens this season as a new production that moves beyond scientific storytelling into something more introspective, examining not just the universe itself, but how we respond when our understanding of it begins to fracture.
Founded by South African physicist Dr Luca Pontiggia and actuary, pianist and composer Yasheen Modi, Universe on Stage has established itself as a distinctive live format, bringing together orchestral composition, contemporary performance and scientific thought into a single, immersive experience. With Dark Matter, the platform enters a new phase, one that shifts the focus from explaining the cosmos to interrogating our relationship with the unknown.
At its core is a simple, disquieting scientific reality: the vast majority of the universe cannot be seen, measured or directly understood. What we recognise — galaxies, stars, matter itself — represents only a fraction of what exists. The rest remains unobservable, known only through the gravitational imprint it leaves behind.
The production does not attempt to resolve this. Instead, it uses it as a framework to explore a deeper question – what happens when the systems we rely on to understand the world prove incomplete. The narrative unfolds through three pivotal moments in scientific history, each marking a rupture in how reality was understood.
The first centres on Aristotle, whose model of the universe shaped human understanding for nearly two millennia, until Galileo’s observations revealed a cosmos that no longer aligned with that structure.
The second follows Arthur Eddington’s 1919 expedition, undertaken during the uncertainty of World War One, to test Albert Einstein’s theory that light itself bends – a discovery that would fundamentally alter the perception of space and time.
The third turns to the modern realisation that the mathematics of the universe does not reconcile – that the visible matter we can account for is insufficient to explain the behaviour of galaxies. What emerges is not a discovery in the traditional sense, but the recognition of an absence – a vast, unseen presence now referred to as dark matter. Across each of these moments runs a consistent thread: the experience of standing at the edge of established knowledge, and choosing to continue into uncertainty.
“The show isn’t about providing answers,” says Pontiggia.
“It’s about the moment where certainty breaks, and the decision to approach what follows with curiosity rather than fear.”
Modi adds, “Music allows us to access that space differently. It creates a way to feel scale, ambiguity and tension – to sit inside something that isn’t fully resolved.”
Visually and sonically, Dark Matter is constructed through contrast. A live grand piano anchors the performance, accompanied by real-time electronic looping, narration and projection design that renders the invisible perceptible. Each element is built live in the moment, with no pre-recorded sequences – reinforcing the central idea of emergence from uncertainty.
The result is not a conventional performance, but a live enactment of the very concept it explores: something taking shape in real time, without a fixed outcome.
With Dark Matter, Universe on Stage signals a clear evolution – from translating scientific ideas into performance, to using performance as a way of engaging with the philosophical implications of those ideas.
About Universe on Stage
Founded in 2022 by Dr Luca Pontiggia and Yasheen Modi, Universe on Stage is a multidisciplinary platform that brings together science, music and storytelling to explore the universe in an engaging and accessible way. What began as an intimate performance has grown into large-scale productions across South Africa, establishing a new category of live experience that sits between education, art and entertainment.
If the name already rings a bell, it’s because the physicist and actuary behind the Universe on Stage have been building their following over time. Their first show launched at The Bioscope three years ago, and since then they have sold out more than 30 performances in the country, working with special collaborators like the Joburg Ballet and now the JPO.
Yasheen started playing piano at eight and won the Sanlam National Music Competition at 11. He later graduated summa cum laude in actuarial science from Wits and today he works as Head of Technical Marketing for Discovery while composing original scores for Universe on Stage!
Luca holds a PhD in theoretical physics (string theory) but has also directed films, run a photography business, officiated weddings, and even placed as first runner-up in Mr South Africa last year. Raised by an engineer father and an artist mother, he naturally moves between science and storytelling.
Dark Matter by Universe on Stage
Everything you have ever seen, touched, or known makes up just 15% of the universe. The rest?
Dark matter — invisible, undetectable, and yet responsible for holding everything together. Science calls this one of the greatest mysteries in human history. We call it a mirror. Universe On Stage’s Dark Matter is a live science-entertainment experience exploring our relationship to the unknown — what we believe, what we fear, and what becomes possible when reality turns out to be larger than we imagined. Featuring live narration, original composition, grand piano, electronic soundscapes, and cinematic projection – a new era in live entertainment by sell-out duo, Universe On Stage.
Dates and Times:
Thursday 11 June 2026 at 19:30
R200 – R650. Early Bird: R180 – R585
Friday 2 June 2026 19:30
R200 – R650. Early Bird: R180 – R585
Saturday 13 June -2026 at 14:00
R200 – R650. Early Bird: R180 – R585
Saturday 13 June 2026 at 19:00
R200 – R650. Early Bird: R180 – R585
Sunday 14 June 2026 at 14:00
R200 – R650. Early Bird: R180 – R585
Tickets are available on Webtickets.
For general enquiries
083 725 1234 (WhatsApp)
Instagram: @theuniverseonstage
Media contact
Katie Coetzee
081 851 275
katie@lumeagency.co.za
Bongani Maseko
bongani@joburgtheatre.com
083 275 1230
Joburg Theatre
http://www.joburgtheatre.com
