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LISA BOBBERT has a large and adoring following among South African theatre audiences, as well as thousands of fans on air, following her hilarious appearances from time to time on East Coast Radio. Hit productions starring Lisa Bobbert include Belly Laughs, Sex Bugs, Abbamaniacs, The Rocky Horror Show, Defending the Planet, Brutal Tunes and Laughing Wild. A comedienne at heart, she infuses her performances with a wide palette of emotional undertones and razor-sharp perceptions that bring her many-sided stage characters to life. Equally adept as a singer-dancer, mimic and dramatic actor, she has made a significant contribution to the South African theatre industry, both as a solo star and working in collaboration with her husband and partner, actor-producer Aaron McIlroy. Lisa's appearances over the past few years have been in her one-woman shows, Bobbert Uncut directed by Caroline Smart and Chronicles of a Car Guard, directed by Sue Monteregge; in Ben Elton's Popcorn, directed by Steven Stead for Kickstart Productions, and in a return season of MacBob Productions' Abbamaniacs, both seen at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre. In 2006 she co-starred with Carol Trench as Eliza Doolittle in The Playhouse Company's production of My Fair Lady, directed by Steven Stead and designed by Greg King and Neil Stuart-Harris. Lisa's stage appearances this year have been in return seasons of the popular two-hander, Convent Girls, with Tonya Koenderman at the Heritage Theatre in Hillcrest, and of Sue Clarence Promotions' runaway hit, Brutal Tunes, redirected by Caroline Smart. Bobbert's performances in the latter production at Durban's Rumbelow Theatre set a new bench-mark in virtuoso comic exuberance that will remain indelibly imprinted in the memory of those fortunate enough to have seen the actress winging from one calamitously funny high point to the next. Her current assumption of the classic role of Shirley Valentine testifies to the ever-expanding range of an artist at the height of her powers.
