A hilarious and insightful play about the ways men and women relate to each other – Defending the Caveman – will be staged at the Guild Theatre for the first time in more than 10 years.
The one-man show starring actor, dancer, humorist, director, writer and producer Tim Plewman is the longest-running and most successful solo comedy in South African theatre history.
The Saturday Dispatch spoke to Plewman, who despite more than 1600 performances across the country, still loves doing the show which comes to the Guild for four days next week.
“I live for the audience reaction. Whenever I perform this show, I always just watch them and I love seeing them come alive and I see couples start to react and to see them eyeball each other gives me so much joy.
“I write and produce other productions but I always return to this one because it’s meaningful and fun,” said Plewman.
The original script for the show was penned by Rob Becker, which Plewman adapted for Southern Africa and went on to win the Vita Award for Best Actor in a comedy.
Caveman has been seen in 45 countries and translated into 18 different languages and still holds the record of the longest running non-musical solo comedy of all time on Broadway.
Plewman said he started doing Caveman in 1998 and over the years had to only slightly tweak the script because “ultimately differences between men and women don’t change”.
He said the emotions that come with relationships are the same whether its 1990 or 3005.
“The script is the reality of what we all are but it’s been presented in an affectionate and playful way and will have you looking at your partner with new eyes,” he said, adding that some people have even told him that watching this show helped save their marriages – and, in one extraordinary case, even brought a divorced couple back together to remarry after they had seen the play together as friends.
Plewman said that because the best time to watch the show was during a new relationship he found his audience often has a high number of young people.
“That is another thing I enjoy about doing Caveman because there is always a new audience and for the East Londoners that saw the show before, they should attend again for a refresher course on relationship management,” said Plewman.
lCaveman starts at 8pm from May 18, tickets cost R150 and are available at Computicket. The Guild can be contacted on 043-743-0704. — ziphon@dispatch.co.za
‘Caveman’ back after a decade
The one-man show starring actor, dancer, humorist, director, writer and producer Tim Plewman is the longest-running and most successful solo comedy in South African theatre history.
The Saturday Dispatch spoke to Plewman, who despite more than 1600 performances across the country, still loves doing the show which comes to the Guild for four days next week.
“I live for the audience reaction. Whenever I perform this show, I always just watch them and I love seeing them come alive and I see couples start to react and to see them eyeball each other gives me so much joy.
“I write and produce other productions but I always return to this one because it’s meaningful and fun,” said Plewman.
The original script for the show was penned by Rob Becker, which Plewman adapted for Southern Africa and went on to win the Vita Award for Best Actor in a comedy.
Caveman has been seen in 45 countries and translated into 18 different languages and still holds the record of the longest running non-musical solo comedy of all time on Broadway.
Plewman said he started doing Caveman in 1998 and over the years had to only slightly tweak the script because “ultimately differences between men and women don’t change”.
He said the emotions that come with relationships are the same whether its 1990 or 3005.
“The script is the reality of what we all are but it’s been presented in an affectionate and playful way and will have you looking at your partner with new eyes,” he said, adding that some people have even told him that watching this show helped save their marriages – and, in one extraordinary case, even brought a divorced couple back together to remarry after they had seen the play together as friends.
Plewman said that because the best time to watch the show was during a new relationship he found his audience often has a high number of young people.
“That is another thing I enjoy about doing Caveman because there is always a new audience and for the East Londoners that saw the show before, they should attend again for a refresher course on relationship management,” said Plewman.
lCaveman starts at 8pm from May 18, tickets cost R150 and are available at Computicket. The Guild can be contacted on 043-743-0704. — ziphon@dispatch.co.za
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