/ 26 March 2020

Slice of life: Living her own life again

Elzabe Zietsmanimg 4372
Elzabe Zietsman (Robert Hamblin)

What actually started out as a good idea basically took over my entire life. 

I was forced, basically, to stop performing to look after the kids. And this year it is the first time in close to 10 years that I am doing a new show.

That really made a dramatic impact on my life when I said “yes, I’ll take the kids” … I suddenly had five teenagers in my house and, even though I still tried to perform, it really became a problem because I couldn’t leave the kids at home.

It enriched my life tremendously to see the growth and to walk the journey with them through all their trials and tribulations. But I’m ready now for my own life again.

So it was an amazing experience and in the bargain I got two children who will be mine for the rest of my life … But it was also that my entire life I operated on the principle of shut your eyes and jump. 

And this is what I did with the kids as well. It really was a lot more difficult than I had anticipated. It really took it out of me … But I don’t regret a moment of it, not one single moment of it.

And now, ja, I’m starting to live my own life again.

I became an actress, not because I wanted to be famous or anything. It was because it’s the only thing I want to do. And it was hard to survive without performance. 

And so it is just the most incredible thing to be working on a new show … Now we are looking at the situation, and the whole isolation thing, and if it gets any better we will do small performances of the show here at the guest house, in my dining room, 20 people at a time.Performer and guesthouse owner Elzabé Zietsman, as told to Sarah Smit