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The Cast
Although John Keevy now lives in Pretoria, he was born in Port Elizabeth.
Since 1994 he has been a professional actor and has acted in the Durban Playhouse starring in Equus, Hamlet (1994) and Story of an African Farm (1994). In an ironic twist, Keevy was cast to play in Twelfth Night 22 years ago, but because he was called up to do his national service, he was unable to perform. Over the festive season he was back in town and was convinced to perform in the same play for which he auditioned all those years ago.
In 2006 he acted in Much Ado About Nothing for the Port Elizabeth Shakesparian Festival, and in 2006 starred in Funny Business and Aladin for PEMADS.
The same year he was Co-Director in Wizard of Oz and Director of Sound of Music in 2008 for the Peoples Amateur Theatre.
Starting in 2009 he assited with Alice in Wonderland, 2009, Zenzele Talent Showcase (2010), Rockin’ Around the World, Annie and Desperate Measures (2010).
He was the Director and an actor in The Lunatic, The Lover, The Poet and Director for Bea’s Afternoon Delights (2011).
John is currently involved in projects for the George Arts Theatre – as both an actor and Co-Director of “A Cow, a Town and a Ghost – the Untold Story”.
He was nominated for two awards at the PE Annual Showtime Awards, in 2006 for Funny Business and as well in 2007 for As You Like It.
He won the PEMADS Annual Twelfth Night Noel Morgan Best Promising New Comer Actor Award in 2006.
Keevy plays Olivia's uncle, Sir Toby Belch, who lives with her, She does not approve of his rowdy behavior, practical jokes, heavy drinking and late-night carousing. She finds his friends, specially the idiotic Sir Andrew, objectionable.
Sir Toby also managed to earn Malvolio's annoyance. However, Maria, Olivia’s sharp-witted waiting-gentlewoman and Sir Toby become allies and they eventually become a couple. The two eventually triumph over the manipulative and arrogant Malvolio.
Port Elizabeth born Helen Flax is one of the best known actors in the city and has been on stage since 1980. She started her career selling programmes in the front of house for the Port Elizabeth Shakespearian Festival at Mannville.
She progressed from portraying a lowly fairy in A Midsummernight's Dream (1982) to playing "Phoebe," "Desdemona," "Juliet," "Beatrice" and "Queen Elizabeth". "The journey in the park has been richly rewarding and most of all, fun," she said. Helen produced Merchant of
Venice in 2001, Taming of the Shrew, in 2002, The Dream, in 2005 and As You like it, in 2007. More recently she played "Cleopatra" at the Opera House in 2012 and Lady Macbeth in 2014. Helen portrays Maria, Olivia’s astute, audacious young waiting-gentlewoman. Maria does not realise it, but she is surprisingly alike to her adversary, Malvolio, who embraces thoughts of elevating his status in society through marriage. But where Malvolio fails Maria succeeds — maybe because she is female, but, more probably because she is acutely more aware than Malvolio with the rebellious and confused attitude pervading through Twelfth Night.
Port Elizabeth born and bred Kelly Mucka was educated at Victoria Park High School and now works as a medical rep for Dr Reddy's Laboratories.
She has been active in PE Theatre for many years and some of her acting highlights include: Kinder Transport, Annie, Kismet, Evita, Chicago, Sweet Charity, My Fair Lady, The Producers and most recently, Fiela’s Child. She is currently studying with Robin Williams. It's always been a dream of hers to do Shakespeare and two roles she has wanted to play were "Kate" in Taming of the Shrew and Viola in Twelfth Night, - a dream now come true.
She loves all types of theatre but specially acting and musicals . "It has been a privilege working with director Lesley Barnard – I’m in awe,” she said.
In this performance Kelly plays the part of a young woman named Viola, the heroine of the play who had been shipwrecked off the coast of Illyria but who managed to make it to the shore. There she met up with a captain who helped her obtain a job disguised as a young man as this was the only way she would be able to obtain employment. Naming herself "Cesario," she became a page to Duke Orsino, eventually falling in love with him. Orsino’s girlfriend, Olivia, fell in love with "Cesario", not realising “he” is in fact a woman. Viola now finds herself trapped as she can’t tell Orsino she loves him and she can’t tell Olivia why she can’t love her. Her sad situation is the basis of the production.
Emily Bradley (21) comes from Portsmouth, England, and came to Port Elizabeth in 2009 and intends remaining here for another three years. She is a third year Musical Theatre student at Stageworld, here in Port Elizabeth. She is a teacher at Creative Noise and has starred in numerous productions including Oklahoma, Mark Hollmann's Broadway musical, Urinetown, Macbeth, Calendar Girls and others.
Emily auditioned for Twelfth Night because she loves Shakespeare and working with Lesley Barnard.
When she one day returns to England she would like to work with the Royal Shakesparian players.
Emily plays Lady Olivia, a gorgeous, rich and honourable Illyrian lady. Both Orsino and Sir Andrew Aguecheek are trying to date her but she keeps telling them she is in mourning for her recently deceased brother and will not marry for seven years. With Viola’s arrival as “Cesario” Olivia finally breaks free of her self-pity.
James Smith (16) is a grade 11 scholar at Westering High School in Port Elizabeth.
Despite his age he has already acted in the Pirates of Penzance and various other school productions. He auditioned for Twelfth Night as he wanted to perform in a Shakespearing production to try something different. He intends to follow a musical career after matriculating.
James plays the part of Sebastian, the brother Viola believes was lost during the shipwreck off the Illyria coast.
When he arrived in Illyria with his close friend and bodyguard he discoverd many people who believed they knew him.
He was very surprised when the beautiful Lady Olivia, whom he had never met before, asked him to marry her.
Bennie Gerber (29) grew up on a farm outside Cradock before moving to Port Elizabeth a few years ago. After studying at Stageworld, Tinity College London and NMMU he now holds degrees in the performing arts, musical theatre and public relations, marketing and linguistics.
He now works as a freelance choreographer, pr and marketing manager for a premium restro-bar. He has studied under Marlene Pieterse and works as a part-time tutor at NMMU.
Bennie danced and choreographed at Sun International for five years and his most notable performances have been "Emcee" in Cabaret and "Rooster" in Annie.
Other shows include Footloose, Thoroughly Modern Millie and various other shows for Gilbert and Sullivan.
Bennie plays the part of Malvolio, a prim and proper head servant in Lady Olivia's household who is very competent but also very haughty, has a low regard for imbibing, singing, and pleasurable entertainment and his conceited arrogance earn him the animosity of Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Maria.
The trio decide to play a unpleasant trick on him by dropping a letter where they know he will find it and lead him to believe Olivia is in love with him. In his illusions about marrying his employer, he reveals a powerful desire to rise above his social rank.
Neville Staples (38) is from Port Elizabeth and currently works as a corporate account manager for a global healthcare company, Molnlycke Healthcare.
He studied English, Drama and Philosophy at Rhodes University, whilst he also sings and plays the piano.
Recent roles include Magaldi in Robin Williams 2012 production of Evita. Before that a long break saw him on stage in 2001 as Kenickie in Robin Williams' production of Grease. Other roles include Seymour in the Little Shop of Horrors, Riff in West Side Story and Nick in Fame, The Musical.
Neville plays the role of the powerful nobleman, Orsino, who thinks he’s in love with the beautiful Lady Olivia. However, after employing a new page, Cesario, (who is actually Viola in disguise) Orsino becomes more and more affectionate towards this handsome new employee. Orsino broods about, declaring his feelings for Olivia, but it is clear he is mainly in love with the concept of being in love. He appears to enjoy making an idiotic display of himself while his magnetism to the supposedly male Cesario injects sexual self-doubt into his character.
David Emery (28) is a Port Elizabeth freelance cinematographer, screenwriter and editor who has also lectured in film, television, screenwriting, video production, animation and editing at NMMU.
Twelfth Night is the seventh Shakesparian production he has acting in, the more major roles being as Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing, Leartes in Hamlet and Banguo in Macbeth. He regards acting as a creative outlet outside his regular work.
David plays the role of the super-wealthy, out-of-town drinking friend of Sir Toby
Belch, Sir Andrew Aguecheek. The two of them spend most their time drinking, singing and attempting to dance. Sir Andrew, who fancies Olivia, may as well go fly a kite with regards to his attempts to court her and in that respect he doesn’t get very far. He believes he has a great sense of humour, is amusing, valiant, young, and great with languages and dancing, but he is actually just a moron.
Port Elizabethan Timothy Collier (20) studied drama at the Rother / Swain drama studio and has had a passion for theatre and acting. Ever since he was a child he loved the notion of climbing on stage and donning another persona.
This talented actor has been in numerous shows in his life, and says he still has much to learn about the craft.
He is a qualified sound technician and will be studying a BA in creative writing.
"Feste has been one of my favourite characters
to play and I hope you enjoy watching him as much as I did creating him," he said. Timothy plays the part of Feste, Olivia’s licensed fool or clown. This means he can say whatever he pleases and his job is to entertain. This he does by cracking jokes, singing, prancing about and taking the Micky out of everyone around him. He has a good time and basically gives “the finger” to those in authority. Feste is a genius with words and has a way of playing with words, punning and clever banter. Cesario says even though Feste is a fool, he’s the wisest cat in Illyria.
Brendan Rees (25) is originally from Pretoria and works as a photographer for Sleek Model Management, He is also a script writer and an actor.
Although he has acted in numerous humorous theatre show in Pretoria, Twelfth Night is his first Shakesparian production.
He has starred in three major shows in Port Elizabeth including, Disco Inferno, and Page to Stage.
He is intent on pursuing a career in acting and script writing.
Brendan plays the role of Fabian but not much is known of Fabian's previous
experience, simply that he's in Olivia’s service, with no given occupation.
He holds a grudge against Malvolio apparently because of a nasty bear-baiting occurrence. Bear baiting comes up many times in his lines, suggesting he is interested in or has experience with the sport. He is on friendly terms with Sir Toby.
Dave Roll (60) is an accountant originally from Cape Town. He has been resident in Port Elizabeth for 11 years and had his acting debut in 2014 when he played in Macbeth.
He won an award for the best supporting actor in that role.
Dave has two small parts in Twelfth Night, Viola's ship's captain friend in the first half and a priest in the second half.
He is Vioa's confidant when she decided to disguise herself as a eunuch—a castrated man. This plan is never mentioned again, and Shakespeare
appears to have either forgotten about it or changed his mind or forgotten about it. Later Viola simply describes herself simply as a delicate young man.
The idea of a eunuch is important as it represents another sign of gender uncertainty.
Erin-Ashleigh Palmer (20) was born in Port Elizabeth and is currently a personal trainer at Curves International.
She has starrred in various productions such as Beauty and the Beast and the musical pantomine Showtime. She received the award for the best ensemble and the best supporting ensemble. Erin has appeared in eight other shows.
In Twelfth Night she plays the role of Lady Olivia's handmaiden and a hula dancer.
Leo Hulsman (23) is from Port Elizabeth and is a software developer at Business Connection. Twelth Night is his first attempt at acting although he has worked backstage in shows such as Snow White and Disco Inferno (2014).
He intends continuing to participate in amateur theatre.
In Twelfth Night he plays the part of Antonio, the sea captain who saved Sebastian from certain drowning after he found him drifting in the ocean after the shipwreck.
Johnathan Minne (22) has just graduated with a Post Graduate Certificat in Education and English LO degree. He intends pursuing a teaching career but hopes to be able to use the Shakespearinan experience as part of his English language classes at school. Twelfth Night is his first stage production and he plays the part of Curio, one of Orsino's attendants.
Chloé Shelton (17) was born in Johannesburg and moved to Port Elizabeth seven years ago. She is currently a Grade 11 student at Pearson High School. The grand-daughter of John Shelton, one of the main movers to establish Mannville, it's not surprising acting is in her blood as she has already starred in a number of plays, from Hamlet, Disco Inferno, Macbeth, Pirates of Penzance, Soiree Under the Stars, Snow White, and the Pearson production of Springbok Radio. She is an intern studying Musical Theatre.
In this production of Twelfth Night Chloé gives a delightful redition of Viola's drunk attendant in one of the opening scenes as well as a hula dancer .
Banela Joe (13) is from King William's Town and is the youngest cast member in Twelfth Night. He is a Grade 8 pupil at the National Technical High School. This is his second show, the first being Snow White.
Banela intends following an acting career when he finishes school.
He plays the part of Valentine, one of Orsino's attendants.
Mia Schoemaker (16) is originally from Johannesburg and is now a grade 11 scholar at The Hill College, Port Elizabeth.
She has starred in a number of stage productions including Beauty and the Beast, Disco Inferno, Run, Stage Flight and Pinochio.
After matriculating she intends studying for a diploma in filmmaking in London. She intends making videos for Youtube.
(www.youtube.com/c/miaisnotmyname)
In Twelfth Night she is a hula dancer. She was responsible for painting the beautiful Hawaiin pillars on the set of Twelfth Night.
Marie Lotter (16) was born in Richmond Virginia, USA and has been living in Port Elizabeth for seven years.
She is now a scholar at Pearson High school. She acted in the Rother/Swain production of Back to Back and after matriculating intends going to university to study drama.
In Twelfth Night she is a hula dancer.
