South African performer is doubly blessed by Mandela as he takes lead role in Madiba the Musical
Perci Moeketsi has been doubly blessed by Nelson Mandela.
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PERCI Moeketsi has been doubly blessed by Nelson Mandela.
The first blessing came when Moeketsi attended a mixed-race South African school. Between the ages of six and 17, he learned and played alongside children of many racial backgrounds. Such a thing would have been impossible under apartheid, the dehumanising segregation entrenched in South African society before Mandela’s presidency.
Moeketsi’s second blessing was the opportunity to step into Mandela’s shoes — the 30-year-old plays the lead role of Mandela in the musical that opened in Sydney last week.
Madiba The Musical, named for the affectionate clan name for Mandela, tells the legendary story of the brilliant and courageous young lawyer who faced down the white minority rulers of his nation.
South Africa was riven with hatred and brutality before Mandela became the first black president in 1994.
It remains a troubled nation.
But Moeketsi says it is only because of Mandela that he can stand on the State Theatre stage in Sydney, raise his right arm and proclaim “Amandla” — a Xhosa and Zulu word meaning power.
Amandla was the rallying cry of the African National Congress, established in 1912 and later led by Mandela as he pursued an epic journey through 27 years of jail to an eventual role leading his country.
Moeketsi, of Pretoria, completed his National Diploma in Musical Theatre only last year at the Tshwane University of Technology. He has appeared on South African television, was part of Africa’s first dance feature film, called Hear Me Move, and played Romeo in what his biography describes as a “township orientated rendition of Romeo and Juliet: Rorisang And Julie”.
The word “township” has a particular connotation in South Africa, Moeketsi says. Under white rule, townships were set up on the outskirts of cities so black workers were kept on the margins — out of the way of the whites, but still able to travel into the cities to do mundane work.
Those bus commutes, however, would often take many hours each way. For evidence of how gruelling they were, you have only to see the painful images of black workers sleeping on commuter buses in the MCA’s current show, David Goldblatt: Photographs 1948-2018.
In the townships, life is hard. There is “corrugated iron everywhere”, Moeketsi says.
Moeketsi’s mother works as a teacher in a township school, where all the students are black.
Moeketsi started school in a township, but moved to mixed-race schools after Mandela’s election. He went to Klipdrif Laerskool until he was 12, followed by Hillview High School.
“(Those schools) were much more liberal. The times were changing,” Moeketsi says.
“There were a lot more black students in a lot more schools.”
As a black youth, mixing with many other races at school was a big bonus.
“You get much more insight,” Moeketsi says.
“You get more confident. You start to see that people are people. You grow. When you exploit such knowledge it allows you to one day play Nelson Mandela.”
Performers joining Moeketsi on stage in Madiba the Musical include Australian singer-songwriter Tim Omaji as activist Sam Onatou, Barry Conrad who impressed in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Ruva Ngwenya as Winne Mandela, and David Denis as The Narrator. Denis played artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in Jim Sharman’s film Andy X.
Madiba The Musical is about apartheid, interracial love, and the triumph of Mandela’s own contention that “it is impossible until it’s done”.
They are words that Perci Moeketsi lives by.
State Theatre, 49 Market St, City; Madiba The Musical, until November 18, from $79, ticketmaster.com.au