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LOUIS VILJOEN’S ‘CHAMP’
4 Oct, 2012 - 20 Oct, 2012
The next play in Artscape’s 8th Spring Drama Season is the highly anticipated Champ, written by Louis Viljoen and directed by Greg Karvellas.
Champ is about a group of actors, scraping the bottom of the barrel whilst working in a Mall, dressed as oversized teddy bears to entertain small children – three guys, covered in hot, dirty fur suits, cute on the outside and disgruntled on the inside. This is a trio the audience will love to hate, with their propensity for (very) bad language – the swear bears.
Elliot, Stanley and Melvin are struggling to hold on to their remaining dignity in a thankless job made all the worse because they are trained actors. During one of their shopping centre shows, they encounter a devious child who seems hell-bent on making their day worse than it already is. Through a combination of exhaustion, wounded pride, middle-class disaffection and a little too much alcohol early in the day, they enter into a battle with the mischievous little boy and set in motion a series of events that will not necessarily change their lives, but perhaps make the day a little more interesting. Champ is a dark comedy about haves, have-nots, want-nots, up-starts, young bucks, old farts, little men, big boys and an inevitable slide into booze-fuelled depression.
The absorbing production, with its funny, fast paced script and naughty bad bear language, features an outstanding cast of actors including Fleur du Cap award winning Nicholas Pauling, with Darren Araujo, Adam Neill, Kerstin Francis and Mark Elderkin, a past winner of the Fleur du Cap Most Promising Student award.
Louis Viljoen has worked as a writer, director and producer in theatre, film and television for ten years. Together with Greg Karvellas he owns Dark Red Productions which has produced the plays Rocks, The Abusers, The Bile Boys, The Frontiersmen and The Verbalists, as well as the feature film Cowboy, all of which were written by Viljoen.
Champ Director Greg Karvellas, along with Sanjin Muftic, is one of the two new young Directors on Artscape’s New Writing Programme. He graduated from UCT in 2004 with a BA honours equivalent in Theatre and Performance. He has since worked extensively as a stage and production manager as well as director. His directing credits include Frank ‘n’ Stein (co-directed with Christopher Weare) The Frontiersmen and The Abusers as well as having co-produced and co-directed numerous projects, both for stage and film, with his creative partner Louis Viljoen, under their brand Dark Red.
Dark Red has a keen eye for collaboration and sees the value of partnering with people and companies who share their vision and goals for specific projects. Dark Red’s main focus for the last few years is the creation of independently minded, personal and challenging theatre shows. The goal is always to create work of high integrity and quality, coupled with a strong creative element. At Dark Red the integrity of the work always comes first and the end result goes beyond mere satisfaction.
Champ runs from 4 to 20 October with tickets R85 via Computicket outlets and 0861 915 8000. Special discounts are available for students and groups of 10 or more and additional offers are available via Artscape box office on 021 421 7695.
Absolutely no persons under the age of 18. Warning: explicit language.
