Bryan Hiles Will Put On Four Shows At Hilton

One of Durban's most recognised and respected actors, Bryan Hiles, has a busy patch ahead of him at the 26th Hilton Arts Festival in four productions with seven performances over the three day festival.

He will be front-and-centre in the gentle telling of the tale about an unusual boy named Jakob. The story is an interesting melange of mythology, folk tale and rural narration exploring Jakob's life. Based on the short story by lighting designer, Michael Taylor-Broderick, it is brilliant and enigmatic theatre filled with riddles and questions.

The effervescent actor will be flexing his vocal cords in the three other productions, the first is the third episode of the Knotted series, this time entitled Get Knotted, where he shares the stage with Rowan Bartlett, and Darren King and the stony-faced Lola the Mannequin. The trio will be whisking you away with their forays down sordid alleyways and into neon lit harems that form the backbone of Las Vegas.

Cardboard Carnival is an hour long cabaret show featuring Hiles and King alongside Marion Loudon and Leigh Meyer. They delve into well known, popular, tried and tested tracks that take a closer look at the life of relationships.

In his final show at the fest, Hiles will be a guest of the KZN Youth Orchestra in their production Classic Blast where he will be singing renditions of Africa, Doo Bee Doo, the Lions Sleep Tonight and the phenomenal Leonard Cohen song, Hallelujah.

Hiles reveals, "The Hilton weekend is always a favourite and this year is no different. Everything is fab, the vibe, the coffee, the people and this year we have Michael Broderick's new show to look forward to!"

Hiles has had a busy 2018 having worked on six productions already, including KickstArt's Play That Goes Wrong and Roald Dahl's the B,F.G. , "I love that you can constantly challenge yourself with performing. And you get to take your audience along a journey."

He lists Little Shop of Horrors, Cabaret and Into the Woods as his favourites, "They rank very highly in my mind. Oh, and Enemy, I performed in this production in my third year at Tech! It is so difficult to single out a BEST!"

Asked if he could perform with anyone in the world, he states, "The list of who I would love to perform with can go on for days! Gary Oldman, Tim Roth, Geoffrey Rush, Michael Richards, Charlotte Gainsborough, Naomi Watts... I guess the simple answer would be - I don't know where, what or with whom, but I love tackling gritty challenges. And if I could perform with someone who pushes and stretches me; I would do so anywhere in the world."

But for now, Hilton audiences have the honour of catching this world class actor at Hilton College from 14 - 16 September.

And then, he will be taking to the Sneddon stage as one of the Ugly Sisters in KickstArt's family pantomime, Cinderella during the Festive season.

"I am plotting a plan to play in my workshop or head out road tripping as form of relaxing after this fabulous busy 2018." Hiles concludes.

The festival would not be possible without the generous support of Hilton College, Grindrod Bank, Black Coffee Design, DWR Distribution, Extreme Events, Bidvest Car Rental, KZN Dept of Arts & Culture, Redlands Hotel, Assitej South Africa, Loud Crowd, Sappi, BASA, RMB and Corona.