Neil McCarthy

Neil McCarthy (1957-), playwright, actor, television personality, writer, producer and director.

Biography
Neil was born in 1957 in Cape Town.

Training
BA-degree in Drama at University of Cape Town (1980).

Career
In the early 1980s he worked for the Troupe Theatre Company and the People's Space.

As actor
One of the leading juvenile leads of the late 1970s and early 1980s he had roles in The Threepenny Opera, Agamemnon, National Madness, Another Country (**, 198*), Black Dog-Inj'emnyama!, Forbidden Fruits, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, The Woman in Black, The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, It's a Boy!, Othello, Strider, The Labyrinth, Burn This, A Midsummer Night's Dream (1988), title role in Richard II, Under the Oaks, First Monday in October, Pleasure and Repentance, Tom and Viv (1986), Scavenger's Dream, The Government Inspector, The Lisbon Traviata, Guinea Fowl, Camelot, Total Eclipse, Born in the RSA, Hedda Gabler (1994).

As playwright
Wrote Superheroes, Stormriders, Rainshark, Veldfire, The Great Outdoors (2000), Far Cry, Making Good.

As director
He directed Claw (1981), One Fine Day (1982, Space), West (1984), Good (1990), Richard III (1992), Mojo (1996) and his own play Superheroes (198*). He also directed the novel which he adapted, The Good Soldier Svejk (1986). Directed and designed Alfrded Jarry’s Ubu Roi Upstairs at the Market.

He wrote and appeared in a cabaret, Forked Tongues.

He designed the set for The Last Trek (1989).

In 2001 he came to prominence as the supervising ** of the South African version of the TV-“reality” show Big Brother.

Awards, etc
Fleur du Cap for Most Promising Student (1981), Vita Award for Best Newcomer (1984), Robert Mohr Young Directors Award (1986), Vita Award for Best New Play (1987), DALRO Award for Playwright of the Year (1987), Vita Award for Best Director (Transvaal) (1990), FNB Vita Award for Best Director for Mojo (1997), FNB Vita Award for Best Script of a New South African Play for The Great Outdoors (2001).

Return to
Return to ESAT Personalities M

Return to South African Theatre Personalities

Return to The ESAT Entries

Return to Main Page