Nompumelelo Mayiyane will play Khwezi in Khwezi… Say My Name at the State Theatre from tomorrow. Nompumelelo Mayiyane will play Khwezi in Khwezi… Say My Name at the State Theatre from tomorrow.
Johannesburg - A great responsibility has been bestowed on talented actress Nompumelelo Mayiyane, who plays the lead role in the play Khwezi Say Her (My) Name starting at the State Theatre in Pretoria tomorrow.
Mayiyane was cast by Village Gossip Productions to play the main character of Fezekile Ntsukela Kuzwayo, who was known to many as Khwezi.
The play was an adaptation from the book Khwezi The Remarkable Story of Fezekile Ntsukela Kuzwayo by Redi Tlhabi and now turned into a stage play by the multi-award winner Napo Masheane.
“Playing this role I definitely carry a great sense of responsibility. From an acting perspective, often we are playing fictional characters, which might be a bit easier.
“But for a space where you are playing someone who is real, the responsibility sometimes, specifically at this time, is greater,” Mayiyane said.
The 30-year-old multifaceted performer told The Star that she wanted to do justice to Kuzwayo’s memory.
“I feel honoured to tell her story and to give her a voice and face,” she said.
In reading the script, Mayiyane said there was a deeper insight to the woman that South Africa and the world got to know as Khwezi.
“We were introduced to who she was, and the actual human being behind all these events. I got an opportunity to sympathise and to get to know the person behind the headlines and the various remarks made during that time.
“Now I have almost got to know uFezekile as a sister. Someone who I am allowing to live through my body for the duration of this play,” Mayiyane said.
The BA honours graduate from the South African School of Motion Picture and Performance has used her craft to perform on various productions, such as Africa Umoja, Songs of Jazz Town, Rock of Ages and Mad Buddies.
Having performed on international stages in about 10 countries, including New York and London,
Mayiyane said she had to go into her character by acknowledging Kuzwayo’s humanity.
“Firstly, I had to decide not to judge and not to take my opinion of what I have read whether through a book or what we are saying in the script.
“I needed to see her as a human being, and that was the first place that I had to go to. I had to get to a space of respect for humanity,” she said.
“Society is often looking for a way to disqualify, and I had to refuse to disqualify her because I care about her story and her as a person.
“For that space then I am able to get to know her in her truth,” she said.
Mayiyane will be performing alongside former Generations: The Legacy actor JT Medupe, who plays Jacob Zuma.
For Mayiyane, Kuzwayo’s story is a story for many women, and she says she is willing to surrender herself to the character.
“I look around me, and I think that for decades, women have struggled with just issues of abuse and things happening, and not having a voice. This is an opportunity to say something, though it might not be in a radical, shouting way. As an actor and storyteller, I am going to use my tool and surrender myself, to allow this woman to tell her story beyond the grave,” she said.
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