Meet Parkmore’s resident thespian
PARKMORE - With a new one man show slated for the Grahamstown National Arts Festival, actor and Parkmore resident Tim Plewman has proven to be one of South Africa's theatrical legends.
Originally from KwaZulu Natal, Plewman’s performing career began in the ’80s at university when he would play guitar for extra-money, but soon he fell into the complex and wonderful world of theatre. He said, “My brother was a stage manager so I started going to theatre shows and I was fascinated by it. I got to meet all the actors, so the passion was already there.”
But his involvement in theatre began by chance. “It all started by accident. A friend of mine and I thought of taking dance classes, primarily for girls because we’d be the only men there. But then the dance studio held auditions for a local production of Chicago and I ended up being the only one getting a part in the show. It all snowballed from there.”
He dropped out of university to focus on acting which he said was met with fear from his parents. “Both of my parents are academics of note. My father was the dean of engineering at the University of the Witswatersrand and my mother headed the Paris office of IBM. So they were completely horrified by the idea of their son doing theatre,” said Plewman.
From then the offers for more shows came in and led to the development of his writing and acting abilities. He has shared the stage with actors such as Bill Flynn and Paul Slabolepszy, enjoying a prosperous career.
He is in the process of finishing his hit one man show The Last Moustache, a satirical mockery of the life of Adolf Hitler and is currently preparing for an exciting run of his new show Designer Genes XXL, which he said was very much following the Tim Plewman tradition. He said, “Its like my other shows. I bring a setting forward, which in this case is a doctors office, and fly mentally. And this show humorously looks at the differences between women.”
