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PRESS RELEASE:
Popcorn
28 Mar 2007
SA'S TOP TALENTS SERVE UP BEN ELTON'S 'POPCORN'
Some of South Africa's most exciting young actors are set to explode onto the stage of the Civic Theatre this May in the return of Ben Elton's smash hit, Popcorn. The play, which is a brilliant sideswipe at the movie industry and at directors like Quentin Tarantino in particular,had audiences laughing and gasping in equal measure during its first outing here in 1999.
The members of this sizzling cast have made their names on both stage and screen. Kim Engelbrecht (one of the plays two leads, psychokiller, Scout), shot to fame as Lolly in Isidingo and is now a regular in top cop drama Zero Tolerance. Her fellow lead actor is Carl Beukes (her partner in crime, Wayne), another Isidingo favourite. Samantha Peo (nude model Brooke Daniels) wowed audiences with her lead roles in Chicago and Thoroughly Modern Millie.
" Popcorn is an incredible play. It is brilliantly written and moves between comedy and unbelievable drama. The challenge as an actress is moving between those two and keeping the audience with you. After being part of huge musical theatre productions for the past few years, it is wonderful to be working with a small cast of such enormous talent."
Producers, Real Theatre, the people behind recent hits like Debbie Does Dallas starring Caprice, The Shaolin Monks – Wheel of Life, Red – The Indian Dance Spectacular and Thoroughly Modern Millie - were thrilled when the cast came together.
"We looked at each role and thought, if we could have anyone we wanted who would we go for" says Real Theatre's Roddy Quinn. "We were ecstatic when every one of our first choices said 'yes'. They are going to produce something truly electrifying."
The play, which premiered in London in 1997, takes place in the home of film director Bruce Delamitri (played by actor and TV presenter Ashley Dowds). He has just won an Oscar for a film in the mould of Pulp Fiction or Natural Born Killers, when he, his model girlfriend (Peo) and his ex-wife and daughter are taken hostage by two fugitive killers – Scout and Wayne (Engelbrecht and Beukes). The pair could have walked straight out of one of Delamitri's own films and their aim is make him confess on live TV that his movies have made them what they are. The resulting action is by turns comic, tense and deeply thought-provoking.
Other well-known names in the cast include actor and presenter Ashley Dowds, Martin Le Maitre, recently seen regularly as journalist Ivan Ferris in SABC 3's Hard Copy and singer and actress Angela Kilian, who played Miss Dorothy Brown alongside Samantha Peo in Thoroughly Modern Millie and who has appeared in a host of TV and theatre productions including Isidingo and Cats.
Popcorn opens on 25th May at the Tesson Theatre at the Johannesburg Civic Theatre and runs till 1st July. Tickets are R175 from Computicket
Notes for editors:
Complete cast list:-
KIM ENGELBRECHT: SCOUT
CARL BEUKES: WAYNE HUDSON
SAMANTHA PEO: BROOKE DANIELS
ASHLEY DOWDS: BRUCE DELAMITRI
ANGELA KILIAN: FARRAH DELAMITRI
NATASHA STAPLES: VELVET DELAMITRI
MARTIN LE MAITRE: KARL BREZNER
TESSA JUBBA: KIRSTEN
Real Theatre:-
Real Theatre is an off-shoot of Roddy Quin's company Real Concerts (Pty) Ltd, based in Johannesburg. Over the years, Real Concerts has been responsible in South Africa for bringing in top international acts as well as Nelson Mandela 46664 concerts featuring Queen, Peter Gabriel, Beyonce, Bob Geldof, Eurythmics and many others, as well as comedians Bill Cosby and Steven Wright. Real Theatre has been and is associated with The Johannesburg Civic Theatre in the presentations of The Shaolin Monks – Wheel of Life (February 2005), Red – The Indian Dance Spectacular (August 2006), Thoroughly Modern Millie and Ben Elton's Popcorn (June 2007).
Ben Elton
Ben Elton's TV writing credits include The Young Ones, three Blackadder series with Richard Curtis, The Thin Blue Line and The Man from Auntie. He has written numerous bestselling novels including Stark, Gasping, Inconceivable, High Society, The First Casualty and Chart Throb. As a successful stand-up comedian in the UK in the 1980s he was at the forefront of the 'new comedy' movement. Popcorn began life as a novel – Elton's fourth – which topped the UK best seller lists for many months.
