ACTOR and writer Wiseman Mncube stages a piece that will tap into people and their many personalities at the Musho! Festival on Saturday at 4pm.
We asked him about the show, The Chameleon, which he explained is not actually about people with mental disorders.
“The Chameleon may look like it’s about mental disorder, but it isn’t. It’s about people who have different personalities and want to please every single one at once and that comes across like that person is mentally disturbed, meanwhile he isn’t, he just needs to deal with these multiple personalities in time before they get out of hand,” he says.
Mncube believes it’s this pressure that leads to a number of people committing suicide: “It’s because of what’s happening inside us that we lose control and we think the only way to deal with it is by putting it to rest. The only way to get to it, it’s by going through yourself first to get to it and that’s how we commit suicide.”
The Chameleon depicts a young man who is running away from someone into an open park. He is very angry. Someone has messed up his life. That person was his hero, his role model but has disappointed him. Why is he so angry? Who is that person? What has he done to him and why? What unfolds is a complex story that reveals the anger of this young man. Performed by Sipho Zakwe, Mncube said he a talented actor.
“I first saw him performing in a show called Sizwe Bansi is Dead at the Courtyard Theatre and that is where I told myself he is the guy I’m looking for to play the role of Leon in The Chameleon. Sizwe Bansi is nothing like The Chameleon but I saw the kind of a skilful actor that he is which showed that he can pull off whatever is given to him and he did absolutely that with The Chameleon.”
• The Chameleon, PG16. For more info, see www.mushofestival.co.za.