- The Queen actress Shannon Esra heads the one woman show My Left Breast, a role she played in her teen years.
- Shannon is a SAFTA-nominated actress and has worked alongisde Hollywood stars like Daniel Craig.
- She explains how she hopes audiences will know it is okay to laugh at life's difficulties.
Internationally acclaimed one woman play, My Left Breast, makes its South African debut on 7 May 2024 at The Theatre On The Square in Sandton with award-winning actress Shannon Esra reprising a role she played in her younger years.
Ruthless honesty mixes with gentle humour as Obie Award-winning author Susan Miller explores universal themes including a mastectomy after breast cancer, the death of a child, parenthood and painful rejection from the woman she loves and transformation.
Shannon Esra brings pathos and wit to her performance in this poignant play, taking the audience on a journey into the soul, allowing them to identify with the pain, suffering, redemption and rebirth of the character she plays.
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Renowned television actor Shannon’s body of work includes roles in The Queen, The River as well as the hit show Lioness – which earned her a SAFTA nomination for best actress in a TV Drama.
Growing up in Johannesburg, Shannon Esra is no stranger to taking on big roles and working alongside acting greats.
She was cast in her first professional acting role at 16, playing Siri in the feature film I Dreamed of Africa, alongside U.S. seasoned actors Kim Basinger and Daniel Craig. In 2007, Shannon even made Bollywood history by being the first Caucasian woman in a starring role, which saw her in a star-studded cast as one of the six heroines in the Bollywood film Salaam-E-Ishq.
She returns to the stage, having first performed My Left Breast in her first year of drama school in 2000 with her high school drama teacher and mentor Janet Baylis as director. The play, which lasts 50 minutes, is simply staged with just two chairs.
Shannon tells TRUELOVE how it feels reprising this complex role.
“It's not every day, as an actor, that we get to revisit something 24 years later. I've lived an extraordinary life. It's been filled with adventures and hardships, and that has created a robust depth in my humanity. I feel I have more to draw from as a woman and as an actor.
"I hope audiences will know that it’s okay to laugh at hard things (we must laugh), life is filled with light and shade. It’s okay if healing feels hard - it’s not a straight line; love is love; and we are here on this planet to connect... to find a sense of belonging and purpose and so much of that is experienced through sharing space and vulnerability. Life is dynamic and complex and it is also really simple. We are all more alike than we think we are.”
The one-woman production will take place between 7 and 11 May 2024 at The Theatre on the Square at Sandton City's Nelson Mandela Square. Tickets are available at computicket.
