(A light-hearted exploration of life’s journey through the eyes of the Bard)
NAME: 4 Voices
In this, the 400 year anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, we take a look at our journey from infanthood to old age through the wonderful words of Shakespeare. Funny, heart warming, dramatic and at times heart wrenching, Shakespeare’s poetry and prose provide an enduring insight into our passage through life.
The 4 Voices comprises of four thespians from Cape Town with a love of Shakespeare, poetry and the stage. With 2 male voices and 2 female voices, as well as 2 Ms and 2 Js, this is a balanced group that brings a variety of theatrical and life experience to an exploration of life’s journey through the works of Shakespeare.
Michele Belknap graduated from UCT Drama School more years ago than she would care to mention, and then worked at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg for some years before returning to Cape Town and becoming involved in educational theatre programmes. She has also worked in corporate training, and ran an educational NGO for many years. She is active in both professional and amateur theatre as well as film work in Cape Town. Her most recent stage role was in the highly acclaimed production of “Sillage” at the Alexander Bar and at the Grahamstown Festival.
Mark Wilkes was born and raised in the United Kingdom and made the move to Cape Town 10 years ago. With no formal acting training, becoming involved in theatre was a long standing personal goal that took him some time to fulfill. November 2015 saw his stage debut in Noises Off at the Milnerton Playhouse, for which he received both the 2015 CATA and Milly’s Best Supporting Actor Awards. His next production was Noel Coward’s Fallen Angels at the Masque Theatre. Mark is excited to be part of the 4 Voices and is also looking forward to catching the other performances at the festival.
James Skilton first appeared on stage in a 1976 production of the musical "Camelot" and he has since gone on to appear, both here and in the UK, in over fifty productions, among them, "The Lion in Winter", "Habeas Corpus", "She Stoops to Conquer", "Absurd Person Singular", “Run for your Wife", "An Inspector Calls", "Macbeth", "Abigail's Party", "One for the Road", "Noises Off" and most recently "Cock" at the Alexander Bar and at the Grahamstown Festival. When not on stage James can be periodically spotted on TV screens around the world, appearing in a (thankfully) "ever growing" number of TV commercials.
Jane De Sousa has always had a passion for theatre, but after many years of speech and drama at school she was “sensible” and did a BSc before abandoning the laboratory and following a career as an organisational and management consultant and trainer, sharing her love for theatre in her facilitation and training styles. She found her way back to theatre 10 years ago and has been involved in community theatre ever since. She has been in many productions, some of the highlights being “Unoriginal Sin”, “Separate Tables“, “The Collector”, “Abigail’s Party”, “Noises Off” and “ Macbeth”.
The 4 Voices all share a love of Shakespeare, and like all actors enjoy the chance to explore his words, experiment with different deliveries and bring his work to life. It is wonderful to be part of commemorating the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death through his witty, poignant, dramatic, tender, irreverent and brilliant poems at the 2016 Poetry in McGregor event.
