welcome to Playmate
(Photo@Diego Monsiváis
Kevin Benn
Malmö-based British stage performer, actor, storyteller and voiceover artist, veteran Kevin Benn is well known to audiences in Malmö from his years of performing, particularly so with Teater 23. Kevin trained at Rose Bruford, London, has over 26 theatre productions for schools under his belt and regularly tours southern Sweden with his award-winning childrens' play Nasse Hittar en Stol.
For ITM - The International Theatre of Malmö - Kevin played the male lead in The Goat or Who is Sylvia? by Edward Albee (2010), and the lead in The Shawl by David Mamet, in Malmö & Lund, (2015). Previous roles in English include The Zoo Story by Edward Albee and Sweet Eros by Terence McNally, for KOKO-Teatern.
For Playmate, of which he is the founding member - Kevin skillfully played the antiquarian in Talking Heads by Alan Bennett in Malmö/Copenhagen (2017) and the delightfully hilarious lawyer Bardolph in Peter Shaffer's Lettice and Lovage (2018). Kevin won critical acclaim playing the lead Martin Gray in Albee's "The Goat or Who is Sylvia?" for Playmate, in Malmö and Copenhagen. He delighted us as 3 wildly different characters in "Sylvia" in 2020. Kevin regularly delights audiences in Malmö and Lund with his one-man storytelling shows and short story monologues.
(Photo@David Möller)
Robin Gott
Malmö-based British actor, voiceover artist, director. Member of Teaterförbundet, Spotlight Casting UK. Robin is an Alexander Technique professional and tutor, and strong character actor who has played against Kenneth Branagh i BBCs "Wallander" series, in Caroline Ingvarsson's film "Tamed" and in the web series "Gabriel Klint". He also successfully directed Lettice and Lovage for Playmate in 2018 and played Ross Tuttle in Playmate's "The Goat or Who is Sylvia?" Robin delighted audiences as th elead as hapless Greg in "Sylvia" in 2020.
Stage roles include Todd in Caryl Churchill's "Far Away" in Lund and Copenhagen, Charles in David Mamet's "The Shawl" ; Graham in "A Chip in the Sugar", based on Alan Bennett's monologues from "Talking Heads". Robin is also a gifted improv actor who started performing as a youngster in the UK where his roles include Mr. Antrobus in Thorton Wilder's "The Skin of our Teeth", Eliot in "Private Lives" and Peter Abelard i "Abelard and Heloise" . Robin trained with Spectrum Theatre - 1974-1977 in the UK, at Goldsmiths College and qualified in Alexander technique for the performing arts 1997 - 2000.
(Photo@Diego Monsiváis)
Vanessa Poole
British actress, voiceover artist. Member of Teaterförbundet, Spotlight Casting UK, based in Malmö/ Copenhagen. Vanessa started working professionally recording English radio plays for schools at the age of 8 in Malta. She is one of the founding/board members of ITM, the International Theatre of Malmö, of HIT- House of International Theatre, and of Down the Rabbithole Theatre Copenhagen. (www.houseofinternationaltheatre.dk) Vanessa was named one of the “Top Five English-Language Trailblazers” (2015) in theatre, by The Copenhagen Post.
She played Max's mother in the Swedish TV series SVT/UR "Max's Movie", has had dance training, is equally at home playing drama or comedy. Vanessa is known for her strong characterisations on stage, her comedic timing and facility for accents. She has played secondary, chorus and lead roles in classical theatre, pantomime, Shakespeare and contemporary theatre, in Scandinavia and also at the national theatre in Malta.
Vanessa has a lifetime of English-language recordings behind her, more than 50 quality voiceover jobs and corporate film appearances.
Leading stage roles include:
Sonia (2018) in Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike (Down the Rabbit Hole Theatre Copenhagen); Lotte Schoen (2018) in Lettice and Lovage (Playmate, Malmö); Vanda Jordan (2017) in Venus in Fur for Down the Rabbithole Cph/ Playmate Malmö; lead female (2017) Lovers, Authors & other Strangers (ManusArts, Hamburg/ Copenhagen); (2016) Lead Elsie in Elsie & Norm's MacBeth (Down the Rabbithole, Cphgn/UK); lead female in The Dining Room, Ruth in Calendar Girls, Madam X in Strindberg's The Stronger, the homicidal nurse in The City (Why Not Theatre), Copenhagen and more.
Vanessa has had drama training in Sweden, Denmark and the UK with among others Giles Foreman, Simone Reynolds, Patsy Rodenburg, Kirk Baltz, Judy Kuhn and Declan Donnelan.
Vanessa also won critical acclaim playing the lead female Stevie Gray in Albee's "The Goat or Who is Sylvia?" for Playmate, in Malmö and Copenhagen. Plus as the wife in "Sylvia" 2020.
Audiences in Malmö remember Vanessa as the comedienne Lesley in Talking Heads for Playmate, lead Edith in the drama Sunday in Sodom (2022) directed by Matthew Short, the laughing patient in HAP in Malmö and at the English Theatre of Hamburg (2021), directed by Paul Glaser, which sold out at prestigious Teatret ved Sorte Hest in Copenhagen (2024). Vanessa played the sister in HIT production VODKA TALKS (2023) directed by Lars Junggreen, in Malmö and at Teatret ved Sorte Hest, Copenhagen.
(photo@MÃ¥rten HÃ¥rd)
Boel Marie Larsson
Swedish-born actress and director with superb comic timing and versatility. Boel has spent a lifetime performing in a huge variety of comic and dramatic roles, from Goldoni to Shakespeare, including standup, Beowulf , puppetry, cabaret and childrens’ theatre. She has worked in film, TV and theatre, acted with Kenneth Branagh and worked with directors such as Pernilla August, Bille August , Jan Troell, performing the length and breadth of Sweden, and at Wasa teater in Finland.
Leading dramatic and comic roles include the Marquise de Merteuil in Dangerous Liaisons, Malvolio in ”Twelfth Night”, and Varieté Vauduvill which involved 2 summers of tapdancing, playing the fiddle and magic tricks!
Boel trained and lived in the UK and at Teaterhögskolan in Malmö and in Lund. She has appeared in both the Swedish and British versions of the Wallander TV series. Boel's many film appearances include ”Den goda viljan”. TV roles include Ann-Louise in ”Halvvägs till himlen”, several episodes of the Wallander series – both the English and Swedish, most recently ” The Troubled man”. Since 1993 Boel has run her own theatre company Thales Teater based in Österlen, which regularily performs and tours in southern Sweden. Boel plays the delightful Lettice Douffet - originally played by Maggie Smith - in Playmate's "Lettice and Lovage". She also successfully directed Edward Albee's "The Goat or Who is Syliva?" for Playmate in Malmö and Copenhagen.
Evdokia Kelessidi
Actress & director
Evdokia Kelessidi, now based in Malmö, gained her degree in performance, drama, voice, music and theatre studies in Greece, where she attended among others the POSTGRADUATE PROGRAM IN POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY AND ANTHROPOLOGY concentrating on the works of Jean Paul Sartre. She is a GRADUATE OF THE THEATRICAL CENTRE OF RESEARCH OF THESSALONIKI ( 2 years) and a GRADUATE OF THE THREE-YEAR THEATRICAL WORKSHOP TRAINING "DUENDE" which specialises in music and theatre improvisation, as well as being a GRADUATE OF "ARHI" DRAMA SCHOOL (2014).
Evdokia studied classical guitar for 8 years. She has worked with music, performance, dance and movement on stage and off in Athens and in Thessaloniki as a singer, actress, performer and director for more than 10 years. She has taught drama and music to all ages, from pre-school to high school to special needs communities; as well as animated children’s tales for the stage and directed childrens’ theatre in Athens.
Through many years of teaching drama and performing theatre Evdokia has worked on chorus, movement and storytelling on, among other “Waiting for Godot” by Samuel Beckett , "The Ceremony" by Pavlos Matesi, “Lebensraum” (2016) “ Jean Cocteau” and “Avlea” both at the Theater of Thessaloniki; “A Midsummer night's Dream” by William Shakespeare; "The Butterfly’s Evil Spell’" by Federico Garcia Lorca; “No exit” by Jean Paul Sartre.
Since arriving in Sweden Evdokia has performed vocally on the classical guitar for Playmate’s monologues People in Shorts in 2023, directed “The Busy Business Lady’s Xmas” a feminist fringe play in Copenhagen, played a role in the upcoming Gothenburg feature film Checklist, in Copenhagen completed a week’s residency and directed her own performance for ’My site-my space” at Huset KBH with Assemble Theatre Collective. She is director of Playmate’s staged reading of LULLABY FOR A GROWN MAN. Evdokia was part of the ensemble in the big summer production AMADEUS at Skillinge Teater Österlen in 2024 and in the ensemble of Playmate's Autumn 2024 production "THE TWO CHARACTER PLAY" by Tennessee Williams
(headshot pic: Joseph Sherlock)