STAR DRUM WRITER
Can Themba’s world takes centre stage
Veteran TV and stage actor Sello Maake ka-Ncube encourages South African journalists to see The House of Truth, writes Edward Tsumele
When veteran TV and stage actor Sello Maake ka-Ncube stumbled on a copy of The World of Can Themba as a student in the 1980s, he was soon engrossed in the book. "I enjoyed the writing so much I ended up putting together a play about the pieces I read in the book. Can Themba’s narrative about life in general in SA, and the colourful lifestyle he and those from Sophiatown of the 1950s and 1960s lived was well documented in the book. "The writing was as colourful as it was exceptionally tight and perceptive. His command of the English language was out of this world," he says. "The fact is that Can Themba and his colleagues were actually the Models Cs of that time — well educated, well read and quite conscious of the human condition in SA then." Ka-Ncube stars in The House of Truth, which opens the Market Theatre’s 2017 season — in which he portrays the solo character Themba, one of the most famous Drum writers of the 1950s. The bio-play was written by Siphiwo Mahala and is directed by ...
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