Arrogance comes naturally to many successful artists. But Vusi Kunene is different. He is modest — some may say even boring — in his mild manner. He proposes the idea that as far as his career goes he is still teething. It’s hard to believe that legions of audiences have been more than attracted to his stage presence.
Kunene’s rise to the South African version of stardom began in 1993 when he was a second year dramatic art student at the University of the Witwatesrand.
He appeared in the controversial TV series The Line, having constructed the character of a tough African National Congress Youth League member fighting marauding Soweto hostel residents who were out murdering train commuters. From then he started working as a professional actor partially deserting his studies and blaming his agent for delaying his graduation.
Born and raised in Meadowlands, Soweto, Kunene has not forgotten to pay tribute to his township for “playing a vital role in my aspiration”.
His amateur association with theatre began with regular visits to the Kopano Community Centre in Soweto. “Initially when I joined the centre I wanted to become a singer,” he confesses. “But as I hung around Soweto, going to watch shows, I was struck by the work of Gibson Kente. I instantly became interested in acting.”
Today the 36-year-old argues that mainstream South African theatre is no longer the privileged domain of white performers and audiences. “The number of black people coming to theatre is growing today. Theatre is becoming a big thing. There are some black people today from the townships who come to the city for theatre alone.”
In the late Nineties, Kunene featured in the controversial TV series, Yizo Yizo: The Return, portraying a teacher who actively involved himself with the dramas in the lives of the kids of Supatsela High. Ever-present was Kunene’s serene commitment to his craft, a value that has become something of a career trademark. Added to his credits are appearances in Zakes Mda’s The Hill, Darryl Roodt’s feature-film adaptation of Alan Paton’s Cry, The Beloved Country and Jeremiah Mofokeng’s production of Mothobi Mutloatse and Barney Simon’s staging of Can Themba’s The Suit. For his lead role in The Suit, Kunene on August 4 received the 2001/2002 FNB Theatre Gauteng Award for best lead actor.
Kunene can be seen currently performing in Lara Foot-Newton’s Sophiatown period production of Tennesee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire.
In this all-black production he takes the role of Stanley Kowalski, set up as a paragon of the South African working class, a young man driven by the desires of ordinary people. Stanley lives a chaotic life with his wife, Stella (Lindiwe Chibi) and his sister-in-law, Sis Blanche (Moshidi Motshegwa).
Stanley drinks and suffers through an ambiguous discord with Sis Blanche. Ultimately he rapes her while Stella is away giving birth to their child.
Although the American classic play is set in New Orleans in the 1940s, Vusi notes that “it is very relevant to South Africa today — the characters deal with the issues that we deal with every day. We should know that everyone is driven by desire.”
Kunene says of his award-winning role as Philemon in The Suit, set in the Sophiatown era: “Among all my shows I love The Suit best. It’s beautifully written. It was challenging — it’s written in the third person but it had to be performed in first person … And I felt deeply for it because it is written by a black person, a black South African.”
Kunene has excelled in his portrayal of ordinary men — ordinary characters who, one can argue, have been victims of an adverse fate.
When asked if he has an ideal woman, Kunene becomes a little shy. “To other people it is a very simple question to answer. But it’s not an easy question for me.”
He has played many romantic leads. But in his own life it is a role he has yet to play.
The details
A Streetcar Named Desire is on at the Wits Theatre until August 10. Book at Computicket. For more information Tel: (011) 717 1372