THE RENDITION MEETS MIMÎ M KHAYISA & SIFISO MAZIBUKO
Image Credit - Camilla Greenwell
A Good House by Amy Jephta brings a taste of South Africa to the Royal Court Stage with a gripping new play that explores themes of privilege, classism and identity through the life of 3 different couples who live in a quiet suburban community of Still Water. The play follows Bonolo and Sihle as they navigate the tensions of their relationships, their past and the spaces they occupy.
We sat down with cast members Mimî and Sifiso to discuss their experiences bringing the play to life, the evolution of their performances, and what truly makes a "good house."
“A good house is a space where one feels safe—safe enough to be ugly, to be proud, to be vulnerable”
QUESTION: About 18 shows in, how are we feeling?
Mimî: It's solidly consistent and it's wonderful to play against an actor like Sifiso, who is, really open, and I mean, from the first day of rehearsal going through the play receptive, but just also solidly consistent.
Before we even started, you know how everyone does a little Google, of who they are working with. I did that, but I don't know much about Nancy, our director. I know she's done some great things, but I don't know much about her. So I asked my agent, and asked a couple of friends, and everyone spoke so highly of her.
So highly, but particularly about her process of care, and the idea that it's not just about the rehearsal room. It's about, what's happening outside of the room, what's happening to you as an actor, internally and there is a support there, which I thought was amazing. It was really nice, because starting rehearsals, her process is opposite to mine.She had us running the play by week two, and I remember we did our first read through, and she was like as quick as we can get off book.
I knew we had a company here that's really safe to explore with, we've got a room that's really safe to explore in. We've got a fantastic script that, if all else fails, just says the words, and we should have a solid show, right? You then go into this place of just complete, complete trust. You just go, okay, dive in, and someone will catch you at some point
Sifiso: I'm feeling good. It's been a really lovely response to the play and I think that's the biggest thing. As an actor, you can have a wonderful time in rehearsal, but the play is only complete when an audience arrives.
The element of having people in the theater, experience the play with us, and then have the robust conversations that they're having after the play is massive, it's a massive compliment to the writing of the play and I suppose you know what we are doing as well. So we're all feeling good, I'm feeling really good. It's been a really lovely journey, and I enjoy getting to tell the story.
QUESTION: How much have things changed since the first rehearsal?
Mimî: Tech was the first time we saw the shack and worked out the language of the shack. Things were getting fed in particularly late rehearsals, but we only really got the feel of the sound of the play and what the shack meant to us in terms of the relationship and it being that close, the fact that it's just there, you can't ignore it in the tech.
It was really a transformative season. We also lost a scene, we lost the last scene? So the last monologue you saw was text scattered within a scene, that completely shifted, but the flow of the piece is still the same.
Sifiso: Things have changed, and I think you want things to change, to develop and transform, and you want to find new things. You want to keep exploring.
Things were changing in tech, during previews, even with audiences, things were being shifted around and it’s all for the better of the performance. In terms of the show, we’ve had lovely, lovely shifts, lovely offers, and everyone did their part in terms of bringing their A-game.
QUESTION: Considering you receive a number of scripts as actors, What was it about Amy Jephta’s writing that made you say yes to the role? Was there anything in particular that you resonated with?
Mimî: It’s hard not to read Amy’s play and have it resonate with you somehow. I remember really early on in rehearsal, she was with us in the room, and she was so generous. She was like, play with the text, see what comes up naturally and if something doesn't feel right in your mouth we'll have a conversation about it. And it doesn't matter how much you do that, you always just come back to her original text, because it's so strong! I remember her describing writing the play and saying it was a feeling.
It was a feeling that she had to write down and she said, even now, if I try to explain exactly what that feeling was, it would get lost. I found that fascinating, because when I first read the play I wept and I feel like I'm judging this character [Bonolo], I feel like I'm judging her really harshly and it sits really uncomfortably and this was really icky. But I kind of want to explore, number one, what that is in me as a person, and number two, what that is for people to see. This idea of a black couple in a predominantly white space being externally judged and having to figure that out in the safety of their own home. I say that because at the time, I had to ask myself, does this home feel safe? In rehearsals, I realised, their [Bonolo and Sihle] home is such a safe space.
When I play her, it's the safety to be able to explore all the bits of yourself knowing your partner will help you figure it out and they can say, [or] do whatever, but this unit is going to figure it out now - and that was really beautiful. It was really beautiful to go through that process of kind of extreme judgment at first and be like, Oh no, there's a lot of beauty in this messiness. It has been a really beautiful journey, and I'm still not completely there. We still discover it. Sometimes it's still slightly different on stage every day.
Sifiso: I was very excited, because it was a South African play that came by my desk, and it was something close to home.
It's talking about issues at home and I haven’t had the chance to play anything close to that since being in London. So that was a draw apart from the incredible script. I remember reading it and thinking, 'Oh man, I need to at least be in the room to audition for this.’ Even if I didn’t get it, I needed to try. It was South African pride—having a space like the Royal Court being bold enough to put on a South African story within the context of London, and that, for me I thought please, count me in.
QUESTION: The name “A Good House” is such a fitting title for this story; in your opinion, what makes a good house?
Sifiso: Good question, and I don't know if I have a definitive answer to it, because there's a lot that happens within the play, let me speak specifically to Bonolo and Sihle, the two of them have so much that they go through that they sort of wrestle at the question of, what makes a good house.
I suppose it’s something Mimî has already touched on - a space where one feels safe; but safe enough to be able to be ugly, be proud and not proud as in arrogant but proud of what you have - what you've been able to accomplish, what you've established, the placement of where your life is and the people you have close to you.
Those whom you you you deem are necessary to what you want to get out of life, the journey that you go on with them, the tears you cry; the ones closest to you, how much they hurt you, how much they offend you, don't offend you, and and the transformation that happens. [Bonolo & Sihle] end up having to go through a journey together where they are both putting up mirrors, and I suppose if I'm thinking about the shack or even Sihle’s upbringing, there's a lot to me that doesn't have to do with the actual house itself, but it's the things that it represents.
I'm able to grow up in this space, I'm able to learn about the things that hurt me and irk me outside in that world that offends me; I'm able to explode if I need to like and the two of them, do the two of them really, have a go at one another. But I think that's what ends up making a good house, that they grow together from the things that they thought might be a part of what they hold dear, but they don't really see that those things have created blind spots for each of them. Then later on in the play, they put those mirrors up and say, ‘you are this and you are that’, and they both, equally, need to take accountability for how they are.
Mimî: I agree with you.
I think that's it, it’s a place where you can exhale and figure it all out. And that has to be a safe space, otherwise you become a shell of yourself. And what I find fascinating, particularly about their relationship, is they genuinely listen to each other, like even when arguing. I remember sitting down with Tatenda, our Associate Director, and we were going through lines, and he was like, even the one bit where they overlap each other in speech, they still respond to the thing that the other person's just said.
That tells us that they are really hearing one another. You can only throw those punches to someone that you know that well and I know that I can still come home and we're okay. You can only do that in a safe space. When you ask me that question, I also think about the best houses that I know, and it's places where joy lives there, but my pain can also go there. It's a space that can hold it all, and I go instantly - that's my grandmother's house.
That's a place where if anything's going wrong, I can go there, get a good night's sleep, get fed well, and be chastised with love. It's the place where we laugh the hardest in the kitchen while still doing our chores, it's a place for all of it, and it keeps you on track, and that's what keeps you full enough to go out into the world.
“There’s something brave about saying, ‘there’s an ugly thing I’m feeling, and I need to figure it out… and I hope you don’t see me differently in this mess.”
Image Credit - Camilla Greenwell
The play covers themes such as classism, resentment and privilege in a way that takes the audience on an emotional journey.
QUESTION: In what way have your lived experiences influenced how you approached these themes and were there any internal contradictions you had to think through or address, if so how did you navigate them?
Mimî: There were lots! I think as artists, and I say that term broadly because it’s not just actors, I think even musicians do this. You're always giving a bit of yourself to your art. You have to filter through what is useful and what’s not. And then you have to look at the text, [and ask] what are the things that are really important to this person? What are the things that are driving this person, and what are things that are my bits that I'm putting on there?
Let me just be aware of that, particularly in the early stages. So for instance, it wasn't useful for me to judge her [Bonolo] so harshly, that that wasn't useful. So I had to go into a place of being analytical, text wise. And I think one of the personal things that I still go through now is this idea of like privilege.
What is genuine privilege and how is it that you can be in one environment and something feels or can be a privilege and go to another environment, and that's not recognized at all? I think in my own life, I've always really struggled with it… I question it a lot.
I question the access that I have, that I know my cousins don't have, right? And why that is, how that is what you do with it; that self judgment that comes from that, the expectation that comes from that, the high standard I put on myself with that and it’s this is minefield I'm trying to navigate. Then you go actually, what if I just strip it back, [and question] what's actually important to me in terms of principles of life and how we navigate this. What are the things that steal my peace, that for some reason I'm investing in, and what are the things that fill my cup that I'm completely neglecting?
What are those things, [because] everything else stems from that, and there will always be messy bits of it, but you have to go back to self, and I think that's something that she [Bonolo] does so much better than I have. Bonolo is fantastic at being like, I don't like how this feels, and I want to figure it out. I think she's fantastic at being like, you also don't like how this feels, and you should figure that out.
When she's quiet, she's never absent, she's always listening, and if she's choosing not to pick up on something someone has said, there's a reason for it. It's never accidental with her, and she's a lot more purposeful than I feel I can be in life, so I've learned a lot from that, too. It's a beautiful thing to be able to look at life in the moment, be that present and be that honest. It’s a give and take always with these characters.
Sifiso: There is always an element of not being bold enough to go into a story especially when it is dealing with issues like this one; classism, racism, resentment [and] privilege.
Early on in the rehearsal process, it was very evident that the only way to tell the story well is to be bold and play that part for what it’s worth fully in that moment. I couldn't play Sihle as someone who knows everything already because you don’t get the pay off - of him just being honestly and sincerely one who wanted to appease this white man in this interaction, because he understands how he needs to play that game.
I had many moments where I was having recollections of my own lived experiences where I had to put on a mask because I know this is how I navigate through this space and if I navigate through it like this I'll get to where I want to be. That's how things will work out for me.
That is a story I think every one of us can somehow relate to; to put on a mask so that you can move through a space because it has what you want - absolutely. But I have to catch myself from trying to play Sifiso who knows all of that already [compared] to Sihle who still has to go through it where he says ‘I see it, I'm not doing this; Bonolo has been right all along - let’s go’ and that was very interesting.
There was a moment that was very helpful to me to sort of reflect on all of the other things that I've had to slink through in my life. So I think the play does an incredible job of towing the line of what reality it is for people of color. And I'm not trying to say that the actors who play the white characters don't have any um situations or struggles that they have to navigate. They do, I just mean in this particular context, there is something very real that has to be negotiated consistently always in the professional space.
QUESTION: What is your favourite scene or line from the play?
Sifiso: My favourite line, I don’t know why it is, but actress Olivia who plays Lynette, she's so wonderful!
Everyone was wonderful, but she [Olivia] delivers this line in the penultimate scene, scene six, and honestly I have to stop myself from cracking in the moment and laughing. It's the line “I don't think it's fair to shame Sihle for…”.
The way she says it is so good that I'm just like, man! Every night she'll look at me and she'll look at Bonolo and I'm like don't look at me with that face. You are playing this so well that I'm not acting anymore and I just love it.
QUESTION: If there was one thing you would want the audience to take from this play, what would it be and why?
Mimî: You kind of touched on this before Sifiso, but Amy’s play raises so many questions; internal questions but also conversations to have with other people.
I love how she doesn't give us lots of answers, I love how that was never a goal. It was never the goal to do that. Something that I've really loved about this process is the conversations I've had around the play with all different types of people, from all walks of life and what it’s ignited in people, um and those things have been really rich.
I think going forward, that's the thing I want to continue. The real conversations about things, the difficulty of things and how do you process things and what does that mean for another person? For me, that's where the real richness of theater is, it’s what it sparks within us.
I hope they laugh too, I want them to laugh.
Sifiso: Just to just to add on to that because I completely agree, there's been a lot of conversation and praise around the play. The people who've come to see it, and people have been able to speak to and connect with. They've all been so energised by the play that I'm almost just enjoying watching them live in the euphoria that they're all experiencing together.
I would want people to come just for that, just for what I've seen some of my close friends, colleagues, neighbors, [and] people who have come to see the play, just be so energised about it and feel like ‘wow, I've not seen something that's made me laugh cry, turn up the tension from the word go - and it just keeps going until the blackout at the end’. There is something about having a play like this that deals with very difficult aspects of society and communities, because as much as it's a South African play set in South Africa about South African themes and issues, it also does have universal resonance.
To have to have something like that deal with such heavy-ish topics, but still allow people to laugh, cry and enjoy themselves all the way through the 90 minutes or however long it is, and then at the end we come out of the show and and still wanted to talk to each other about those difficult things and actually unpack them and go through and digest and deconstruct?
I find that very amazing. I find that a success of the writing that, for anyone who would love to be able to engage with this type of stuff, the play helps in a massive way because then you you get to talk about the things and there are conversations that happen outside the theater where people who don't know each other, [having] heated conversations where people are talking about, race and class and gentrification here.
They are the triumphs of the play, to have complex issues that allow people to talk about them as easily as this play has been doing - it is fantastic, really fantastic.
Through their performances, Mimî and Sifiso bring incredible nuance to Bonolo and Sihle’s story. A Good House is more than just a play about a couple—it’s a deeply human exploration of identity, belonging, and the spaces we call home. Whether it’s through the powerful storytelling, the raw performances, or the unflinching conversations it sparks, this is a production that lingers long after the final bow.
A Good House is running at Royal Court Theatre until the 08th February.
