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Speaker 1: Lis is Breakfast with Bongani on seven o two.

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Speaker 2: Let's walk the talk.

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Speaker 3: As you know, of course on the show, we are

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Speaker 3: big supporters of the arts and we try and tell

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Speaker 3: you as we wrap up the show, after all the

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Speaker 3: serious political discussion, what can you go and watch to

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Speaker 3: enjoy yourself? And of course sometimes that is also serious

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Speaker 3: everyone and again comes along a story that doesn't end

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Speaker 3: when the lights go down, but it stays with you.

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Speaker 3: Man with No Surname is just one of those stories.

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Speaker 3: It's written by the legendary Fundi Vundla and directed by

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Speaker 3: James Nobo. It essentially follows the story of Tabor, a doctor,

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Speaker 3: a freedom fighter whose moral compass begins to spin after

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Speaker 3: a woman he loves becomes the victim of a sexual predator.

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Speaker 3: Opposite him is Mruti, a writer returning from exile from

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Speaker 3: the States, memory identity and the unresolved tension of both

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Speaker 3: his personal and our national history. It does sound cerebral,

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Speaker 3: but it is also, of course a story that reflects

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Speaker 3: not only the times, but indeed where South Africa has

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Speaker 3: come from. And I'm so pleased to tell you we've

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Speaker 3: got two actors who are absolutely phenomenal at their craft.

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Speaker 3: Both of them taking two the stage in Man with

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Speaker 3: no surname, Paca Mesa Zidwala and Bonco Causa A very

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Speaker 3: good morning to you both, and welcome to seven or

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Speaker 3: two Breakfast.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, good morning to YouTube.

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Speaker 3: You can catch us, by the way live on our

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Speaker 3: YouTube stream so that you can see this conversation. I'm

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Speaker 3: so excited to watch this play. I've been talking for

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Speaker 3: a while that to me as a theater goer, as

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Speaker 3: a theater lover, it feels as if we're going through this,

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Speaker 3: you know, renaissance of South African theater. There's this excitement

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Speaker 3: at the moment, Pacamesa, would you agree with that?

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Speaker 4: Oh?

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Speaker 2: Yes.

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Speaker 1: The beauty is that there's always been a theater culture.

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Speaker 1: There's always been a theater culture. And but what's beautiful

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Speaker 1: about this particular piece is Howna has put these two

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Speaker 1: characters on stage. I mean, usually it's you know, we

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Speaker 1: theaters are dealing with certain you know, certain topics and whatnot.

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Speaker 1: But now you've got two intellectuals on that stage, you

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Speaker 1: know what i mean. So the way they talk, the

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Speaker 1: way they banter, it now just transgresses like it just

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Speaker 1: goes up and transcends to another level of just a

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Speaker 1: different form of entertainment that that way, you know that

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Speaker 1: we're not.

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Speaker 2: Used to bonco.

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Speaker 3: I mean, for a long time, the feature of South

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Speaker 3: African theater in terms of what people thought about, was

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Speaker 3: around struggle theater as we used to call it. These

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Speaker 3: stories don't necessarily get away from that, but at the

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Speaker 3: same time, they're telling the realities we face today.

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Speaker 2: What excited you about this project?

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Speaker 4: I think for me, what excited me. See, I think

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Speaker 4: with any artist, it's the ensemble, right, It's it's the

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Speaker 4: team that puts it together. Working with Paramisa uh you know,

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Speaker 4: on on on the floor together, being directed by James Wilbert,

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Speaker 4: and really getting into the mind of bubble Fundy Woundza.

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Speaker 4: What excited me the most was that I think I'm

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Speaker 4: also one of those people. For a long time, we

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Speaker 4: thought he was a TV man and when we when

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Speaker 4: we got to know him and working in the process,

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Speaker 4: we learned that he's he's been a playwright for a

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Speaker 4: very long time in America, you know, doing off Broadway

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Speaker 4: writing plays. In fact, playwriting was from what I understand,

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Speaker 4: was his first love of how he got into into

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Speaker 4: the arts, you know, and you know, being able to

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Speaker 4: help him facilitate this process of bringing his passion onto

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Speaker 4: the stage and in a country where he he's become

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Speaker 4: so acclaimed and so legendary that that became my first

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Speaker 4: drawing point to the to the project.

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Speaker 2: You talk about the ensemble.

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Speaker 3: Who was cast first, and that in decisions to say yes.

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Speaker 4: I had know. I think we were. We were both

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Speaker 4: in the same process. We're probably like to call on

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Speaker 4: the same day. But as soon as I heard it

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Speaker 4: was Para. I've known Power for about ten eleven years years.

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Speaker 4: We worked on a project called Roots for BBC back

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Speaker 4: in back in the day, and we've always had a

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Speaker 4: great rapport. We've never worked on stage together. In fact,

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Speaker 4: this is my first professional theater endeavor.

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Speaker 1: How are you feeling, Oh, this man is flying. I'll

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Speaker 1: tell you that it doesn't show that. It's as far

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Speaker 1: as he's flying.

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Speaker 4: He's doing amazing. He's doing amazing. Yeah, brother, I'm anxious.

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Speaker 4: I'm anxious to tap into another part of my body,

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Speaker 4: another part of how I perceive this, this craft, it's

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Speaker 4: been you know, it's been one way for a long time,

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Speaker 4: and I'm grateful to have had some success in that

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Speaker 4: in that way. But I think theater for me is

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Speaker 4: just like the man. It's the fundamentals of this craft.

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Speaker 4: And as Denzeal would say, this is the actors medium,

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Speaker 4: the stage.

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Speaker 2: Pakamsa.

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Speaker 3: We're dealing with themes of sexral predation and we know

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Speaker 3: the scourge of gender based violence in South Africa and

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Speaker 3: the ripple effects of that. Doing so in front of

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Speaker 3: a live audience, she can you will feel, you will

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Speaker 3: hear the gasps certainly as people react and respond to

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Speaker 3: what will unfold on this stage. Just give us a

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Speaker 3: sense of how to deal with that kind of subject

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Speaker 3: matter authentically in a real way, but also sensitively.

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Speaker 1: Firstly, let me just talk about this. In this particular production,

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Speaker 1: my character Uttabu loses his woman right to a predator.

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Speaker 1: So already that's one side of it, right that you

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Speaker 1: as the man, as the partner suffering with your partner, right,

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Speaker 1: how do you then what's the word? How do you

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Speaker 1: then move about that? That's one thing. So that's one

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Speaker 1: point of view, the demons that you are left with

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Speaker 1: that you must carry to help this person. But does

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Speaker 1: this person come back or not? In the Tabo situation,

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Speaker 1: he loses his partner, he's killed, she's killed. So now

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Speaker 1: on stage, how do you then handle that topic is.

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Speaker 1: You can either just go into it and shock people

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Speaker 1: and you know, or you can just finesse it in

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Speaker 1: a way that makes people walk away and they have

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Speaker 1: the conversation Bonko likes to say in the parking lot.

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Speaker 2: You know, so as much as you want to.

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Speaker 1: Shock them, you gotta be you have to be gentle

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Speaker 1: with your audiences, you know, because you do want people

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Speaker 1: to come back. You gotta be gentle with them.

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Speaker 3: All these years in America coming back to explore this tension,

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Speaker 3: I suppose between wanting to come home, wanting to return,

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Speaker 3: wanting to contribute, and yet he himself being a person

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Speaker 3: full of demons.

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Speaker 4: Hmmm, that's a very interesting interpretation. No, I don't think

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Speaker 4: Mruti is a It's different from a lot of basically

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Speaker 4: what I'm saying. I think a lot of South Africans

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Speaker 4: will identify the rout the story. It's an exile story, right,

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Speaker 4: it's it's it's it's pre uh, it's pre the cusp

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Speaker 4: of a bout dat story where a lot of a

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Speaker 4: lot of men or you know, people that were exiled,

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Speaker 4: moved to America, encountered a different life, had to consolidate

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Speaker 4: where they come from being stuck in another country, uh

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Speaker 4: in a way and coming back with this, I guess

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Speaker 4: this new global view, global view of politics, whether you know,

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Speaker 4: is having experienced a civil war in American and and

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Speaker 4: then consuliating that, consolidating that with a butt date in

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Speaker 4: South Africa. But you know, it's it's it's a story

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Speaker 4: of people. I know, it's the story of people we know,

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Speaker 4: probably our grandparents, our parents, everyone, anyone who's even encountered

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Speaker 4: someone who went to exile, went to school in America

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Speaker 4: and you know, lived in America for a couple of

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Speaker 4: years and it's the end of about date.

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Speaker 2: Now they're allowed to.

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Speaker 4: Come back in and just that human being and how

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Speaker 4: they're consolidating these two worlds and what they those worlds

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Speaker 4: have done to them as a person.

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Speaker 2: Accents for you stressful or fun? Fun fun.

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Speaker 4: And the funny thing is that a lot of people

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Speaker 4: thought that I'm from kz N, but it was all

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Speaker 4: of the Myzula stuff is an accent.

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Speaker 3: Guys, Pakama, do you want a long monologue or do

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Speaker 3: you want this shorty, short, punchy dialogue pieces in your repertoire?

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Speaker 1: In my repertoire, because the long monologues is in my repertoire.

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Speaker 1: You know, I'd love these punchy dialogues that you know

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Speaker 1: that are written out there and and with this particular

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Speaker 1: piece you get both of that, you know, you you

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Speaker 1: get the beautiful bands of these two minds and then

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Speaker 1: you get the inner reflections.

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Speaker 2: So people are in for a treat. I will tell

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Speaker 2: you that.

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Speaker 3: It's on at the Jobic Theater from the twenty seventh

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Speaker 3: of March and it runs until the twelfth of April.

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Speaker 3: You can get your tickets at web tickets. Man with

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Speaker 3: No Surname is the name of the play from the

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Speaker 3: pen of Fundi Wundla, directed by the great James Noble.

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Speaker 3: I mean, I don't know what you will be seeing,

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Speaker 3: what else will there be to see at the Liciti

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Speaker 3: Theater at the Djoebek Theater. Appreciate you both coming in

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Speaker 3: and I look forward to seeing you on stage.

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Speaker 2: Thank you for having you.

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Speaker 1: Then seven two podcasts are on seven O two dot

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Speaker 1: co dot