Written by Mike van Graan 

Directed by Toni Morkel

Performed by Erika Breytenbach

Produced by MVG Productions and Unlikely Productions

Erika Breytenbach - Artist

Erika started off doing educational theatre and puppeteering programs, with a special focus on the disadvantaged communities of the Mamelodi Township. She has also spent several years teaching drama at Amoyo Performing Arts in Imizamo Yethu Hout Bay.

Her theatre credits include THE WISDOM OF EVE, INSPECTOR DRAKE AND THE BLACK WIDOW, THE HOUSE GUEST, SUNSHINE BOYS and THE BARRETTS OF WIMPOLE STREET. Erika performed her first one-woman show, JAM EVERY OTHER DAY, from the memoir of Emmaleen Kriel. The show toured to the National Arts Festival and Hermanus FynArts in 2018. She has also co-written and performed in YOUR PERFECT LIFE which won a Standard Bank Ovation Award at the National Arts Festival in 2019 and again in 2021.

Erika performed the role of Eleanor Kasrils in THE UNLIKELY SECRET AGENT, for which she received a 2022 Fleur du Cap Theatre Award nomination for Best Actress. As the founder of Unlikely Productions, she also produced the play, which was nominated for a total of eight awards, with Paul du Toit winning Best Director. The production had successful runs in Cape Town, Johannesburg and recently in 2024 at the Marylebone Theatre in London.

Erika also produced and performed her second one-woman show DIE GOEIE PA / THE GOOD DAD, written by Gail Louw, for which she received another two Fleur du Cap nominations for Best Solo Performance in 2023 and 2024.

Toni Morkel – Director

Toni’s most recent theatre work includes directing Op die Hoek van Styx en River… with Sandra Prinsloo and David Viviers; the award-winning theatre piece Firefly with Andrew Buckland and Sylvaine Strike; Balloonacy with Craig Morris; The Agents, with Roberto Pombo. And co-directing 1789 for Sibikwa. 

Toni’s other directorial work includes Stom with Jaques van Jaarsveld; Kidcasino and Father, Father, Father for Roberto Pombo. Dancer/choreographer Nelisiwe Xaba's Black...? White...! and Sarkozy says No! to the Venus; Robert Colman’s Fuck Politics, Lets Dora(2010). As a performer, work includes her solo show Cottonwool Kid, directed by Sylvaine Strike, (Naledi nomination for Best Independent Theatre production); The Boy who Cried Ninja for Contagious Theatre (Naledi nomination for best performer in a show for young audiences);Tobacco, and the Harmful Effects Thereof  with Andrew Buckland, directed by Sylvaine Strike (Naledi nomination for Best Supporting Actress); Izithombe 2094 directed by Alex Halligey; Hearts Hotel directed by James Cuningham; Roach directed by Khutjo Green; The Last Show with Roberto Pombo, directed by Jemma Kahn; The Merry Wives of Zuma written/directed by Pieter Dirk Uys; Jenine Collocott's High Diving; Grimm Tales at the Market Theatre (Naledi nomination for Best Female Comedy Performance); Fortune Cookie Theatre’s Coupé and The Travellers. For The Travellers Toni was voted Best Female Physical Theatre Performer at the Grahamstown Festival 2005 by Die Beeld and a Naledi nomination 2006 for Best Female Comedy Performance. Two Straight Queers (Awarded the 1997FNB Tonight Comedy Actress of the year).

Mike van Graan - Playwright

Mike matriculated from Harold Cressy High School and completed a BA Honours Degree in Drama at UCT with drama being his 'permit subject'. He has extensive experience in cultural policy advocacy and in building artists' networks, both in South Africa and globally. After the 1994 elections, he was appointed as a Special Advisor to the first minister for arts and culture where he played an influential role in shaping post-apartheid cultural policies. With 40 plays under his belt, he is regarded as one of the country's foremost playwrights having garnered numerous  awards and nominations for his work, most recently the 2024 Independent Theatre Best Script Award or My Fellow South Africans. He is the 2018 recipient of the Swedish Hiroshima Prize for Peace and Culture, the same year that he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Pretoria in recognition of his work as a playwright, and as a cultural activist.

Producers

MVG Productions is the vehicle through which playwright Mike van Graan produces and tours his plays. The company's mission is 'to change the world by changing minds' through theatre that addresses uncomfortable themes, asks difficult questions and humanises 'the other'. To sustain its independent work, MVG Productions is recruiting Angels/Patrons and building a subscriber base who, in exchange for a monthly or annual fee, receive various benefits such as free access to staged readings of Mike's existing plays, invitations to readings of new works as part of their development and free attendance at interviews, talks and panel discussions with arts-related practitioners.

Unlikely Productions was founded by Erika Marais in March 2021 to produce The Unlikely Secret Agent that toured South Africa and played in London in 2024. In 2022/23, Unlikely Productions staged a second play Die Goeie Pa/The Good Dad, which addresses issues of GBV, sexual abuse and the empowerment of women. The company's vision is to promote and facilitate healing and connection between diverse communities through developing and staging live theatre productions that have a positive impact both on the individual and the collective.