MAMBA Proudly SA

ABOUT

GENRE:           Comedy/Satire 60 mins

CREATORS:    Work-shopped, written and performed by Ben Voss and John van de Ruit.

After winning Ovation awards in 2017 for Bend it like Beauty and in 2019 for their collaboration on Benny Bushwhacker, John Van de Ruit and Ben Voss reunite in 2023 for the MAMBA – Proudly SA.

This will be the 4th Mamba production after Green Mamba 2002, Black Mamba 2005, and Mamba Republic 2017. All three previous Mamba productions premiered at the National Arts Festival, with the 2017 production premiering on the main festival programme and between them have won all of South Africa’s major comedy and theatre awards.

With a brand of satire, physical and character comedy, sketch, song, sound, wit and movement, MAMBA – Poudly SA will humourously interrogate the socio-political realities of South Africa right now, exposing excess, contradiction, stereotype, and rank idiocy. Unlike more traditional dramas that examine many of the same societal issues and frailties with utter seriousness, Mamba Awards takes a contrarian view, that South Africans need to laugh at their own shortcomings, challenges, and foibles to overcome their fear of them. Whether it be cultural crises, service delivery failures, the KZN floods and riots, rampant capitalism, the rise of mafias, xenophobia, crime, gender, the power of social media, or the state of the arts in SA, the Mamba Awards will find the funny, and leave the audience thinking about why they were laughing in the first place.

Ben and John have always appealed to an audience hungry for hilarity but also stimulated by the cleverness, relevance, and quick-wittedness of their comedy style.

ABOUT THE CREATORS

BEN VOSS - Ben Voss is an actor, comedian, writer, and producer who wrote, produced, and starred in the hit shows Green Mamba and Black Mamba to launch his stage career. These shows toured in over 10 countries and received critical acclaim scooping all South Africa’s major theatre awards. Ben revisited the Mamba series with Mamba Republic in 2017.

He is perhaps best known for his alter-ego Beauty Ramapeleple who has been a regular voice on Jacaranda FM, East Coast Radio as well as the 5Fm. His two stage productions, Bend it like Beauty and Beauty and the BEE both toured Southern Africa and had acclaimed runs at London’s Oval House theatre. He is also a much-loved regular in Janice Honeyman’s annual Pantomime spectacular at the Nelson Mandela Theatre.

Bens most recent movie credits include Mr. Lilly in the Spud series, the lead in Robert Fraser’s Game and the supporting lead in Craig Friemond’s Beyond the River. Ben can be seen as the lead in the Mnet series Desert Rose in 2022, a part in Reyka in 2023 as well as the lead in the local movie Bosai due for release in 2023. He is also touring his first full one-hour stand up show titled Irrelevant in 2023.

JOHN VAN DE RUIT - John van de Ruit is an actor, playwright and author who was been educated at Michaelhouse and received a Master’s degree in Drama and Performance studies from The University of KwaZulu – Natal. His highly successful stage shows of Green Mamba, Black Mamba and Mamba Republic (in collaboration with Ben Voss) performed to sell-out audiences around South Africa as well as receiving numerous awards.

His debut novel, Spud, has been a publishing phenomenon in South Africa, smashing all local publishing records and was awarded the Bookseller’s choice award in 2006. Following Spud’s release in September 2005, Spud - the Madness Continues (April 2007) has been hot on its heals, also receiving rave reviews and both books have since been published in The USA and UK as well as being translated into Italian (Patata) Russian (Manek) and Portuguese (Cotoco). The penultimate book in the side-splitting series, Spud - Learning to Fly was released in June 2009. This novel received the Bookseller’s choice award 2010. The last book in the series, Spud - Exit Pursued by a Bear was released in South Africa in August 2012. Spud has crept into the hearts of readers across the world and was recently placed 11th on Exclusive Book’s 101 books to read before you die. A feature film of John’s first novel, Spud, was released in Southern Africa in December 2010 staring John Cleese as the eccentric Guv and Troye Sivan in the title role. The movie debuted at number one at the South African box office and is now being distributed internationally. Also available in December 2010 was The Making of Spud the Movie and How a Wickedly Splendid Plan Came Together written in conjunction with the film’s producer, Ross Garland. A film based on Spud - The Madness Continues was on screens nationwide in June 2013. The film of Spud – Learning to Fly released in November 2014.

He is also in collaboration with Voss on their comedy, Benny Bushwhacker, in 2019.

John has been working on his new novel which is due to hit the shelves in 2023 and is currently with the publisher.

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