Theatre in the Dark - An Evening in the Company of Grief
drama
Performed by Robyn SCOTT| Directed by Lara BYE | Written by Karen JEYNES , Robyn SCOTT and Lara BYE
PG
The literal darkness of loadshedding has much in common with the physical darkness of grief. We live with constant reminders that all is not well. We adjust, we rally, we continue, but our world is constantly jarring us.
Join Robyn Scott for an intimate evening of conversation, for a small audience, in a lounge. Robyn shares insights about her own mourning process, where she shares her own journey of grief, where she's at, and where she's walking towards. There'll be rituals to help us process grief, and opportunities to laugh, cry, and let go.
These are the conversations we feel safest having in the dark. We will gradually bring them into the light.
Robyn Scott matriculated from Johannesburg Art, Ballet, Drama and Music School and came home to Cape Town to study Drama at UCT; she graduated in 1995 with a Performers Diploma. She has worked across the board in Theatre, TV and Film for the last 20 years. Her Highlights include playing Elizabeth 1 in Dario Fo's 'Elizabeth 1- Almost by Chance a Woman ' in which she played the 60 year-old queen when she was 22 and won Best Actress and Best New Comer (Vita Awards 1997); playing the 86-year old Rosa Kaplowitz in Nicholas Spagnoletti 's 'London Road' when she was 36, which toured South Africa for 4 years and went to the Edinburgh Festival in 2013, where Robyn won Best Actress (The Stage Award). She is the first South African actor to win this award. She also won Best Actress (Fleur du Cap Awards 2010) and Best Actress (Naledi Awards 2011) for this role.
Robyn's last theatre performance was playing Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (2022) for which she was nominated for Best Actress (Naledi Awards).
Robyn played one of the lead roles, Marlene Heinkel, in the mockumentary 'Those Who Can’t' on SABC3 for which she won her 1st SAFTA award in 2016 (Best Actress in a lead role-TV Comedy).
She is currently in ‘Vagrant Queen’, a Canadian TV series for the SYFY Channel in which she plays Admiral Rykal Agent Lesley and is the voice of the AI Winnibot. She plays the School Secretary alongside Emmy Award and Golden Globe Nominee, Joey King in The Kissing Booth 2 (2019) and Val,the Guardian Angel to Victoria Justice's character Cassie in After Life of the Party (Netflix). On MNet's Recipes for Love and Murder, Robyn plays the Scottish Sister in-law opposite Maria Doyle Kennedy. She plays the feisty matriarch Haroula in A Good Life (Netflix) and coming soon to KykNET, the feature film #Love My Selfie. She has just finished shooting an American feature film which will be out early 2024.
Scott along with her bestie of over 28 years Jason K Ralph, currently have a YouTube channel, Scott and Ralph - a series of satirical comedy sketches that deal, predominantly, with the absurdity of the year 2020.
Robyn is a leading Voice Artist and dialect coach on International Films and Commercials. She is known as the Accent Girl.
Lara Bye is a prolific, versatile and multi-award winning South African theatre director and educator whose work has travelled extensively locally and abroad. She directs across genres from Opera to physical comedy, large scale outdoor events and more intimate dramas in both English and Afrikaans. Very committed to growing and developing new South African texts she has worked closely with writers in developing and staging 13 new plays. Her productions have won and been nominated for close to 70 theatre awards.
She studied for two years at the Ecole Internationale du Theatre Jacques Lecoq in Paris and thereafter travelled with companies to Havana Cuba and Barcelona. She has a Master’s Degree with Distinction from UCT in Theatre Direction and Theatre Making.
As a passionate educator she has lectured in theatre and actor training at the University of Durban and the Drama Department of Cape Town University as well facilitating many acting/performance/movement workshops, including for the Afrovibes festival in Amsterdam and for the National Arts Festival of which she was member of the Artistic Selection Committee over a six-year period.
Lara is currently Senior Lecturer in the Live Performance department at AFDA bringing all of her experience as educator/lecturer and professional director to her work with the student performers of the department. She teaches acting and movement for the students who study both stage and screen performance. In 2020 she was awarded an award for Excellence for her innovative teaching practice. For the 5 years in a row, AFDA graduates have been nominated for the prestigious Fleur du Cap Most Promising Student Award.
Prior to focusing on directing and teaching, Lara was an award winning actress and spent time in a circus as the bareback horse rider- Mademoiselle Lullabye.
Lara is currently engaged in an Advanced Breathwork Practitioner course with Breathwork Africa.
Karen Jeynes has worked extensively as a writer and director for stage and screen, most recently as the writer, co-director and creative producer of comedy series The Morning After and drama series Recipes for Love and Murder, now in development of its second season. Other productions she has developed and overseen with creative partner Thierry Cassuto at Both Worlds are Point of Order, Comedy Central News, Parlement Parlement, and the documentary Africa and I, as well as working as the head writer for ZANews: Puppet Nation (Winner of 27 SAFTAs, 2 WGSA Muse Awards, and twice nominated for International Emmys).Before joining Both Worlds she also wrote numerous films for Mzansi Magic, served as head writer for 90 Plein Street season 5, wrote for Vaya Mzansi and Moferefere Lenyalong and has done work in children’s television. Her theatre work include the multi award-winning Everybody Else (is F*cking Perfect), Kiss Kiss, Backwards in High Heels, I’ll Have What She’s Having, Laying Blame, as well as Vaslav. She is currently busy with her PhD in screenwriting through the University of Pretoria.