Stage: Edinburgh Fringe hit Spin Cycles comes home for Cape Town premiere at The Baxter 

“Spin Cycles is a one person show about spinning, grief, love, healing and everything in between”. Jamie-Lee Money is the writer/performer of this one person show which will be on in Cape Town in the Baxter Studio, February 19 to March 1, 2025. Bookings are open. Money is a South African living in the UK and the show made a successful debut at The Edinburgh Fringe in 2023. Money was born and grew up in Johannesburg. She moved to Cape Town (in 2012) in to study at UCT. She received her BA Honours Degree Theatre and Performance specializing in acting, at the end of 2015. Money works as a stage, film and television actress and has lived and worked in London, since 2019. It is wonderful to South African creatives doing so well abroad and it is great that we are getting to see Spin Cycles, which was a hit at Edinburgh. Read on for more. Info as supplied:

Edinburgh Fringe hit Spin Cycles comes home for Cape Town premiere at The Baxter 

After a successful debut at The Edinburgh Fringe in 2023, writer and performer Jamie-Lee Money and director Larica Schnell bring their hit play Spin Cyclesto The Baxter in 2025. 

The production has its Cape Town premiere at The Baxter Studio from February 19 to March 1, 2025.

Spin Cycles is a one person show about spinning, grief, love, healing and everything in between. 

Following its premiere at Edinburgh Fringe, media reviews included ‘impressive’ (The Scotsman);  ‘With laugh out loud moments, health awareness tips and flickers of sarcasm she keeps it real’ (Edinburgh Festivals Magazine) and, ‘managing to coax so much genuine empathy into a chaotic and sardonic parable for the modern woman is a truly great first step upon the stage.’(British Theatre Guide).

Performed predominantly on and with a spinning bike, Spin Cycles explores the processing and suppression of grief through the strange cult-like world of spin classes. 

It’s time to sweat out the sadness – Spin Cycles gives a cathartic look into why we search for something deeper when the inconceivable happens to us. After an earth-shattering year, can the journalist spin herself out of a slump as the thumping dance music envelopes her? She’s not in a cult … yet? Is she?

“I am thrilled to be bringing Spin Cycles home and making both the play’s and my own debut on The Baxter stage,” says Jamie-Lee Money.

“Grief is something we all experience in some way during our lives. Merging the line between spin class and theatre, the show explores what it is about passionate exercise studios that gives us a feeling of purpose and the sense that everything that was once upside down, can be turned the right way up again.”

Presented by Two Bits, Spin Cycles is written and performed by Jamie-Lee Money, directed by Larica Schnell with Lighting Design by Kieran McGregor.

Comments about the run at Edinburgh Fringe include:

“This is Money’s debut play, and it’s fair to say that it’s a significant achievement, managing to coax so much genuine empathy into a chaotic and sardonic parable for the

modern woman is a truly great first step upon the stage.” British Theatre Guide

“Jamie-Lee Money makes her impressive Fringe debut with Spin Cycles.” The Scotsman

“Jamie-Lee Money performs it beautifully. With laugh out loud moments, health awareness tips and flickers of sarcasm she keeps it real…[H]er tale symbolizes an ongoing journey. One that many of us will be on.” Edinburgh Festivals Magazine

Jamie-Lee Money is a South African Actor and Writer based in London. She has worked as an actor on various film and television projects including SONY Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Universal Studios, Netflix, BBC and most recently Breathing In, Directed by Jaco Bouwer for Kaapland Films. 

In 2016 Jamie-Lee was one of the founding members of ‘Avant Guava’ where the trio, revived, workshopped and toured In Whorefish Bloomers: The Waitresses Lament, a feminist cabaret which sold out at the Cape Town Fringe Festival and was nominated for Best of Fringe. 

After being in between age brackets and a few life events worth writing down, she created Spin Cycles, which had its debut in 2023 at the Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh Fringe. 

Larica Schnell is a South African actress, director and visual artist based in New York City. Her career started on stage in Cape Town, before she moved to the USA to further her training. In 2018 she received an MFA in acting, with an emphasis on Shakespeare and classical theatre, from The University of San Diego, California. 

Larica has appeared in several plays at The Old Globe theatre in San Diego, including Romeo and Juliet (Juliet), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Helena), The Importance of Being Earnest (u/s Cecily) Much Ado About Nothing, Richard II, Hamlet and many more.   She has worked as a teaching artist for the acclaimed off-Broadway theatre company, Red Bull Theatre, in New York. 

Jamie-Lee and Larica have recently established production company Two Bits. This will be their debut at The Baxter.

Spin Cycles will be performed at The Baxter Studio in Cape Town from February 19 to March 1, 2025. 

Performances are:

Tuesday to Saturday at 20h00

Saturdays at 14h00 

Ages 16+

This show contains strong language, scenes of a sexual nature and references potentially triggering themes.

Bookings can be made at Webtickets

For discounted block or schools bookings , charities or fundraisers contact Carmen Kearns on email carmen.kearns@uct.ac.za and Mark Dobson on mark.dobson@uct.ac.za

✳ Sponsored content. Featured image: Jamie Lee Money in Spin Cycles. Photo: (c) Alex Brenner. Images supplied.