Encore Season for OH BABY, I'M A WILD ONE at the Alexander Bar's Upstairs Theatre

Following its premiere last year, OH BABY, I'M A WILD ONE will play an encore season at the Alexander Bar's Upstairs Theatre in January and February. The play is a character study by multiple award-winning playwright Louis Viljoen and stars Emma Kotze.

A young teacher arrives home from her sister's wedding to an empty apartment, a bottle of wine and a pack of cigarettes. She has a story to tell but does not quite know where to begin. Does she start with the things the groom said to her while they were dancing, or perhaps discuss her efforts to quit smoking? Does she explain that her first year of teaching was not what she expected it to be? What she does not want to talk about is the shy boy who sat in the back of her class and knew something terrible about his favourite new teacher.

Louis Viljoen is a Cape Town-based playwright and director. He has written and produced numerous plays, including THE BILE BOYS, THE FRONTIERSMEN, THE VERBALISTS, PORNO 88, THE EMISSARY and DANGLED. He is one of the creators, along with playwrights Nicholas Spagnoletti and Jon Keevy, of the successful short-play initiative ANTHOLOGY, which has had four successful seasons at The Alexander Bar's Upstairs Theatre. Viljoen has won Fleur Du Cap Theatre awards for Best New South African Script (CHAMP in 2013 and THE KINGMAKERS in 2015) and was the recipient of the Rosalie van Der Gucht Best New Director award for THE KINGMAKERS and THE PERVERT LAURA. Viljoen is currently the Writer In Residence for The Fugard Theatre.

Emma Kotze completed her studies in Theatre and Performance at the University of Cape Town in 2013, where she worked with director's Christopher Weare, Luke Ellenbogen and Sandra Temmingh. Thereafter she was nominated for a 2014 Fleur Du Cap award for Most Promising Student. She made her professional theatre debut in the premier of Wynne Bredenkamp's SALT at the 2014 National Arts Festival, which she reprised in 2015 and 2016. In 2015, she performed in IN THE WINGS, produced by the Chaeli Campaign and directed by Philip Rademeyer. The latter production opened at the Muizenberg Ability Festival, whereafter it travelled to the National Arts Festival and continued a further tour of the Eastern Cape. In 2015 and 2016, she performed in THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY by Stefan Erasmus. 2016 also saw her starring in Bredenkamp's WARRIOR GREEN, which made its debut at the National Arts Festival. In addition, she is co-developer of an education program called Junior Geniuses, which specialises in using performance as a medium to support science teaching at the primary school level. She has worked alongside Tinarie van Wyk Loots, Antoinette Kellerman, David Minnaar, Cintaine Schutte and Stian Bam in a stop-animation film based on N.P. van Wyk Louw's RAKA, produced by Ysterfang Puppetry and Animation Company, which is set to premiere in 2017. Furthermore, she has studied film acting under Bonni Rodini.

OH BABY, I'M A WILD ONE runs from 23 January - 4 February at 21:00. Tickets cost R100 (R90 prepaid) and can be booked online at the Alexander Bar website or purchased at the bar. For telephone bookings and enquiries, call 021 300 1652. Alexander Bar & Café is situated at 76 Strand Street in the Cape Town city centre and can be followed on Facebook and Twitter.

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