11 - 23 May 2010
Comedy

Having enjoyed standing ovations and packed houses at this year’s National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, Monkey  Nuts, the hilarious new show from acclaimed writer/director Geraldine Naidoo, begins it’s national tour.  Performed by multi-award winning actor Matthew Ribnick, this is the latest offering from the creators of Hoot and The Chilli  Boy.

The play tells the story of Edgar Chambers; an odd bod obsessed with entering all sorts of competitions.  Edgar, a bank teller by profession, also has the unusual knack of sniffing out free stuff and special offers.  Edgar’s main hobby though is monitoring the prices of grocery items in various stores.  So skilled is he at his hobby that he can tell you the price of any grocery item, anywhere and at any given time.  It is, however, his obsessive competition entering that sparks off the madcap story that has had audiences gasping for breathe.  Edgar’s only friend is a monkey that lives in the back of a pet shop but as the story unfolds audiences are spoilt with a bevy of brilliantly portrayed (hysterical) characters – all with some sort of connection to Edgar.

The new show again has Ribnick portraying characters from vastly different backgrounds and it is also the show with the most characters out of Naidoo’s three plays.  The script has drawn a huge positive response from audiences with countless audience members repeating numerous lines out loud as they exit the auditorium excitedly at the end. 

Ribnick's outstanding vocal and physical ability as a performer is wholly infused with the empathy he uncannily manages to draw from audiences as the stories he tells expertly unfold in brilliant realization on the stage.  Ribnick is the winner of the 2005 Naledi Award for Best Comedy Performance and the winner of the 2006 Fleur Du Cap Award for Best performance in a one-hander.  He has been nominated for numerous other awards.  A journalist from the Daily News in Durban summed up Ribnick’s performance ability in one simple sentence:  “Matthew Ribnick is mind-blowing on stage.”  Another journalist from the Weekend Witness remarked:  “With Hoot, Matthew Ribnick has achieved something quite astounding … Seldom do intelligence, emotional truth and pure entertainment intersect with such precision and so little pretension.”              

Following the phenomenal success of the previous two shows, South African theatre audiences have been waiting in anticipation for the next crazy Ribnick/ Naidoo comedy.  That wait is over and Monkey Nuts will certainly not disappoint audiences with its clever mix of situational comedy, storytelling and hilarious (unforgettable) characters.  All advance booking is through Computicket, with half-price specials on Tuesdays & Sundays.  There is an age restriction of  NO UNDER 12’s.

Don’t miss the hysterical brilliance of this hour-long comedy that will mesmerize and entertain you.