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Barbara Loots
Writer and performer Jamie-Lee Money is bringing her hit play SPIN CYCLES to the Baxter Theatre this February. SPIN CYCLES is a one person show about spinning, grief, love, healing and everything in between. She shares her personal journey and process in creating the show.
Originally from South Africa, now based in London, Jamie-Lee Money is the type of performer we highly appreciate and admire, the type who doesn’t just sit around waiting for work to find her; she makes theatre happen.
SPIN CYCLES is the result of just such a pursuit. But Money is also very honest about the obstacles she encountered in the birth of this play – inspiration was a road sowed with personal (and emotional) obstacles. She shares that at the start of it all, she was struggling to find her niche as a performer, she wanted to create something, but did not have any strong idea that appealed to her enough to put pen to paper. No one ever wishes for loss to present itself as inspiration, but sometimes the depth of the emotions linked to loss begs to be transformed in a cathartic manner.
When you ask Money which came first, the concept of the exercise bike, or the story she is telling, her response is that “the bike planted the seed, but the story came as I tried to contextualise my own experience of grief and the suppression of grief.”
Money shares that during that time a very close friend was dealing with the loss of her mother, and “was exercising as a bit of an escape”. At the same time, her family was processing her grandad’s cancer diagnosis the Christmas before. “I went with her to a spin class and released myself to the process”, shares Money. “The entire time I thought ‘wow, what a bizarre experience, this has to be a play’.” She reflected that everyone in the class was knowingly agreeing “to pedal with no destination, while sweating in a dark room, with an over-enthused instructor shouting at us through a mic”.
She described the experience as farcical: “I have asthma so cardio is not generally for me but there was something about being in that room that inspired me in some way, I even felt a bit emotional during one of the songs in the dark. Although that could have just been how unfit I was. I cycled home and started brainstorming.”
From that moment Money knew that the show she was about to create would have to be one “about using exercise to deal with something”, but she was still not clear on what that something would be. She initially started writing about “anticipatory grief”, but not long after her grandad died, her mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. She found herself reading Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking and put a pause on her writing, while taking a sabbatical away from London.
“When it rains it pours”, says Money. Coinciding with her mom’s cancer treatment she was also shooting a film and found herself traveling between Cape Town and Johannesburg, and felt as if she was missing out on some of the in-person moments of her mom’s experience.
There was a silver lining at the end of the emotional rollercoaster, with her mom being given the all-clear and Money picking up her playwright’s pen again.
“I had been making notes all through her treatment, but I didn’t ever want it to feel as though I was using her diagnosis for my story. Ironically, I think I was using the story as catharsis. The storyline developed organically, and I wove together my phone notes, Google Doc ideas, and scribbles in my Moleskine.” As the process unfolded, Money spent the next year working through Google Meets with her director, Larica Schnell (based in New York) in preparation for the debut of SPIN CYCLES at the Edinburg Fringe in 2023.
Even though personal experiences and shared grief, got her to the point where she could stage SPIN CYCLES, she explains that it was never her intention for her one-person play “to be fully autobiographical”, she wanted it to “feel adjacent to the story” of her own wellbeing. But she confesses, as with most stories of this nature “you always have to come back to what is truthful”.
The play may call on Money to cycle a lot, but she doesn’t regard herself as any form of a fitness fundi and has no idea how many kilometres she has racked up on the exercise bike since the first performance. Even though she describes herself as a novice, she did “spin for 28 days straight during Fringe” and have “gone to spin studios in New York, Edinburgh, London and Cape Town during the workshop and rehearsal processes”. That must count for something, even for a novice. “You could say I know a thing or two about a hill climb”, she jests.
SPIN CYCLES, is not just the conclusion of an emotional journey, but also the product of friendship if one considers the dynamic between Money and Schnell:
“I am extremely fortunate not only to have a director, but also a friend. Larica and I met at drama school over 12 years ago, so we really have been through it all. She had written a one person show for her final Master’s showcase at The Old Globe in San Diego and so she was the perfect person to help me carve out our little story. She is extremely patient with me and knows how to give feedback without it sounding like criticism. We speak every day in preparation for the show and if we don't it feels like something is missing from my day. She is constantly thinking about the show, as am I, and so we are always tuned in to each other. She is a dynamic director with a great vision and I’m so lucky that she sees and understands my wild ideas and helps me bring them to life.”
The fact that both Money and Schnell have sampled the “kooky woo-woo world” of spin classes, also gives them a shared lived experience to draw from in staging the play.
Apart from the creation of SPIN CYCLES being a personal journey, it’s also very personal for Money to bring her play home to South Africa, as she hasn’t been on stage here since she moved to London in 2019. Her last show on home soil was in Whorefish Bloomers: The Waitress Lament, just before she left, when she performed alongside Donna Cormack-Thomson. Although she has been back and forth for film work, this is the first time since 2019 that she will be stepping onto a South African stage.
“It feels really special that I get to bring a story that is very close to my heart back home, while sharing the experience with one of my closest friends… It’s great to be able to show our family and friends what we have been tinkering away with across the pond.”
One then has to ask, whether it is safe to say that Money will do another play in South Africa, if given the chance?
“Definitely, I am working on a few strands of new ideas at the moment, so if I get the chance to bring another show back I definitely will. I still work closely with my agents in Cape Town, so if anyone wants to put me in a play, I’m always game.”
She also professes to be inspired by many South African artists when it comes to style and approach in creating theatre.
“I think we are so lucky to have incredible practitioners in South Africa, some of whom I was fortunate enough to learn from at Drama School. I’ve admired Kate Liquorish since I was in high school, and I absolutely adored anything the Mechanicals produced when The Little and Intimate Theatres still existed. I think watching Scott Sparrow and Emily Child in Decadence by Steven Berkoff at Theatre on the Square when I was 16 is the reason I am an actress today. I worked at Alexander Bar and Theatre for a few years during and post drama school and saw so many incredibly talented artists cross the stage, Wessel Pretorius, Jemma Khan, Daneel van der Walt, Jefferson Shabalala, Billy Langa and Mahlatsi Mokgonyana to name a few. Louis Viljoen’s drive to write and put on shows will forever be an inspiration to me. While writing this show I was so lucky to have worked with Jaco Bouwer on a film based on Reza De Wet’s play Breathing In. Jaco’s perspective and approach to his creative work will forever inspire me too. As will Reza De Wet’s capacity to see a world and bring it to life on stage. I think inspiration is a pot that is continuously being filled, and I don't think I can pin point a single influence while creating this specific piece. All of these artists and so many more over the years have shown me that if you have a story to tell, just write it.”
While it sounds glamorous to be an artist with one foot in South Africa, while also making an impact internationally, Money says she won’t sugar coat it if anyone asks for advice on how to carve out an international career for yourself.
“It’s hard to break through and I don't really feel like I have at all. I’m really not an international artist just yet. I still very much feel like a tiny fish in a massive ocean. With that being said, you really just have to network and insert yourself into the spaces where people are making work. The key is to have your finger on the pulse… especially at The Edinburgh Fringe. Read about the shows that did well in previous years and look to those artists as a benchmark. It’s all about research and knowing if the space you want to play in is right for your story. Record a performance of your show and create a show pack so that you can sell your piece and show people what it’s all about. There really is no formula, you just have to do it. It’s all about the Work in Progress (WIP) here so you have to be open to failure and know that it doesn’t mean that is the end for your show, it really is only just the beginning.”
SPIN CYCLES will be performed at The Baxter Studio in Cape Town from 19 February to 1 March 2025. It carries an age restriction of 16+, as the show contains strong language, scenes of a sexual nature and references potentially triggering themes. Tickets can be booked online through Webtickets.