Oh Baby, I'm a Wild One

4.31 (48)

Oh Baby, I'm a Wild One

20 performances between Dec. 12, 2016 and Feb. 4, 2017
Theatre
Written and Directed by Louis Viljoen • Performed by Emma Kotze
45mins
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Oh Baby, I’m a Wild One is a new character study by multiple award-winning playwright Louis Viljoen (The Pervert Laura, The Emissary), starring Emma Kotze (Salt, Reparation).

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 doesn’t quite know where to begin. Does she start with the things the groom said to her while they were dancing or perhaps 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, Champ, Porno 88, The Kingmakers, The Pervert Laura, and The Emissary. 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). He was the recipient of the Rosalie van Der Gucht Best New Director award for his plays, 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 UCT 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. This production opened at the Muizenberg Ability Festival, where after 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 medium to support science teaching on 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.

Media & Reviews

Review

Review

Review Oh Baby, I'm a Wild One

Audience Responses

Amazing script, direction and acting!! Unfirtunately cant say the same about the Alexander Bar booking system - had priblems to pay on-line. More guests wanted to attend last night but the navigation system on your site made it so dufficult to booking that they decided not to come!! This is really not encouraging to draw audiences!!

Mare • Attended Jan. 30, 2017, 9 p.m.
5.0

I thought it was a good play. The actresses maintained the intensity through the show, but could have delivered the opening scenes more slowly with more playfulness, intrigue and subtleness. But it was about a serious subject, with sufficient cynicism and narcissism, as one slowly got into the alienated perspective of the narrative. This was a play that would have been further elevated with a questionsing as to morality, responsibility or guilt in the script. Without that it just seemed a little amoral, and it missed an opportunity to step up into another philosophic realm.

Laurence • Attended Feb. 3, 2017, 9 p.m.
4.0

5 x superb !!! GREAT IN ALL

Erica • Attended Feb. 4, 2017, 9 p.m.

I had this nightmare; went to see a Louis Viljoen play and there was no profanity, no explicit sexual content, no complex structure, no dark depths, no addiction, no confrontation .....no intelligence. Luckily I woke up and went to see OH BABY, I'M A WILD ONE. I need not have worried. it's all there. What's different - well it's a one-person play (Emma Kotze does well and will improve, I think) and it has a filmic structure, zapping back n forth, from gauche groom to dead dog to marginal paedophilia and suicide. All in 45 minutes. Oh, Louis, you're a wild one!

Nigel • Attended Dec. 12, 2016, 9 p.m.

I thought it was a good play. The actresses maintained the intensity through the show, but could have delivered the opening scenes more slowly with more playfulness, intrigue and subtleness. But it was about a serious subject, with sufficient cynicism and narcissism, as one slowly got into the alienated perspective of the narrative. This was a play that would have been further elevated with a questionsing as to morality, responsibility or guilt in the script. Without that it just seemed a little amoral, and it missed an opportunity to step up into another philosophic realm.

Laurence • Attended Feb. 3, 2017, 9 p.m.
4.0

The script, rich in original thought, successfully portrays the dilemmas facing the character as a consequence to her encounters with the forbidden.

Helen • Attended Dec. 13, 2016, 9 p.m.
5.0

Bit of a high school production on all fronts. Unfortunate, as he's a good writer.

Warrick • Attended Feb. 1, 2017, 9 p.m.
2.0

Incredible show! I love everything written by Louis Viljoen and I would appreciate seeing much more of his work (or re-runs of previous productions, like The Kingmakers).

Stephanie • Attended Dec. 14, 2016, 9 p.m.
5.0

Very well written and well acted. We greatly enjoyed this show and it is particularly suited for an intimate theater such as the Alexander.

Patricia • Attended Dec. 20, 2016, 9 p.m.
5.0

Emma Kotze was brilliant! Riveting from start to finish. The food was very good, wonderful atmosphere.

Paula • Attended Feb. 4, 2017, 9 p.m.
5.0

We thought for a Saturday night it was sub-standard.

Helene • Attended Jan. 28, 2017, 9 p.m.
3.0

EK flips back and forth with unnerving ease between the many registers embedded in LV's dense gauze of a script with all its fearful symmetries. Survivors remain breathing. Uneasily.

Paul • Attended Dec. 20, 2016, 9 p.m.
4.0

Louis Viljoen is fast becoming my favourite writer/director. Emma Kotze's performance was magnetic. Really dark and really good. More of the same please.

Fatima • Attended Dec. 20, 2016, 9 p.m.
5.0

Simply brilliant!

Robyn • Attended Feb. 2, 2017, 9 p.m.
5.0

Riveting performance, incredible script.

Dorothea • Attended Jan. 28, 2017, 9 p.m.
5.0

5 x superb !!! GREAT IN ALL

Erica • Attended Feb. 4, 2017, 9 p.m.

quite dark, but loved it!

Christel • Attended Jan. 31, 2017, 9 p.m.
5.0

beautifully subtle nuanced performance for such hardcore subject matter .. congrats to Mr. Viljoen and Emma ..

TERRY • Attended Dec. 22, 2016, 9 p.m.
4.0

belated feedback sorry, I wasn't sure whether to send less positive info this time: Emma performed well but Louis disappointed - I found the writing unvarying unsubtle one dimensional :(

shelley • Attended Dec. 13, 2016, 9 p.m.
3.0

Great script with a demanding and outstanding solo performance

Gary • Attended Dec. 15, 2016, 9 p.m.
5.0

I thought it was a good play. The actresses maintained the intensity through the show, but could have delivered the opening scenes more slowly with more playfulness, intrigue and subtleness. But it was about a serious subject, with sufficient cynicism and narcissism, as one slowly got into the alienated perspective of the narrative. This was a play that would have been further elevated with a questionsing as to morality, responsibility or guilt in the script. Without that it just seemed a little amoral, and it missed an opportunity to step up into another philosophic realm.

Laurence • Attended Feb. 3, 2017, 9 p.m.
4.0

Brilliant

Melissa • Attended Dec. 13, 2016, 9 p.m.
4.0

Amazing script and amazing performance. Great show!

Retief • Attended Feb. 1, 2017, 9 p.m.
4.0

Hi. Not a comment about the show, which was just as awesome the second time round, but about the florin programme. It suddenly occurred to me yesterday that it's been a while since I got florins, so I took a quick look at my own budgeting app, and I suspect that a small gremlin may have sneaked onto the website along with the shopping trolley, and that florins are now being awarded only for bar spend and not for shows. I could very well be wrong, but it might be worth checking out?

Gordon • Attended Jan. 28, 2017, 9 p.m.
4.0

Very well written and well acted. We greatly enjoyed this show and it is particularly suited for an intimate theater such as the Alexander.

Patricia • Attended Dec. 20, 2016, 9 p.m.
5.0

Nice venue for this type of production! Emma a great actor

Salome • Attended Dec. 14, 2016, 9 p.m.
5.0

5 Great show and intelligent script, as always, from Louis

Stanley • Attended Dec. 20, 2016, 9 p.m.

Good enjoyable production, excellent diction, but speed of delivery too fast to take in all the nuances and fantastic descriptive monologue.

Janet • Attended Feb. 2, 2017, 9 p.m.
4.0

Emma was excellent! Such talent right there. The theatre was intimate and the perfect setting for such a show

Rachel • Attended Dec. 15, 2016, 9 p.m.
5.0

The play: Incongruous title. Content was patchy and a sequence of emotional diatribes. Kotze displayed a limited repertoire of emotional dynamics. Her delivery was occasionally marred by memory lapses and imprecise diction. The production was somewhat simplistic, which undermined the performer's potential.

John • Attended Dec. 15, 2016, 9 p.m.
3.0

Incredible show! I love everything written by Louis Viljoen and I would appreciate seeing much more of his work (or re-runs of previous productions, like The Kingmakers).

Stephanie • Attended Dec. 14, 2016, 9 p.m.

Emma Kotze was brilliant! Riveting from start to finish. The food was very good, wonderful atmosphere.

Paula • Attended Feb. 4, 2017, 9 p.m.
5.0

Young dynamic actress, but the script sounded to me more like the soul of a man than a woman

Barbara • Attended Jan. 25, 2017, 9 p.m.
3.0

a sad and dark story beautifully told. I don't like dark themes but could appreciate it.