On Sunnyside Sal
It was originally a homage to a friend of mine. He was quite an interesting character, idiosyncratic in a way. So that was the initial idea, to write a book about him, which then ended up being a book about myself as well (inadvertently).
On Sunnyside Sal
It was originally a homage to a friend of mine. He was quite an interesting character, idiosyncratic in a way. So that was the initial idea, to write a book about him, which then ended up being a book about myself as well (inadvertently).
So it is quite personal in a way, but then it also feels like such a long time ago – 20 years ago – so you’ve gone far enough away to think of it as someone else. It’s not really you anymore. It’s closer to a memoir, I suppose, but it is still fictionalised.
I put some characters together to make one character, and I played around with the chronology/sequence of events. It’s not historical or factual – that wasn’t the emphasis. Who knows why people do things? The thought processes and that are all fictionalised
in a sense.
On finding himself in the Drama Department at Rhodes
I didn’t initially study drama, I studied English, philosophy and psychology. I wanted to write, so I thought I’d write in each different genre and see if something took off.
So I’ve written a novel before, or rather a draft of one, but I never really pursued it. And then I tried some plays.
I came to the Drama Department via a very roundabout sort of way. I did my doctoral thesis at Tuks which was about South African theatre.
I would never have studied Drama at an undergraduate level because it would have been too irresponsible,
you know – wasting your future.
English was a little bit more responsible, a little bit more respectable in terms of career opportunities. Now I think wow! it would have been great to study Drama I wish I had.
But I kind of come into it at the top. I was lucky, but I’m trying to do other courses here with the undergraduates, to try and educate myself as well.
On the international reach of his work
Well largely, a lot of the shows that I put on or that I put on with other people, we performed at festivals and were then invited to this or that.
So it was all on a fairly small scale. I mean it sounds impressive but it’s not as if it’s Broadway or the West End or anything like that.They were all fairly short runs.
On writers who use pseudonyms
I’ve used pseudonyms. Recently I’ve just settled on using my own name. [The Portugese poet] Fernando Pessoa had 80 different print heteronyms which is more than a pseudonym.
It’s a name, but with a whole biography behind it. So he created these characters. One of the characters lived in London, and he had never been to England.
And then he created another one who ‘lived’ in Brazil. So he wrote through these completely different identities; they had different styles and different beliefs.
This idea of expressing yourself, of finding yourself, your identity, in your name is also a kind of fiction. You’re making something up as well; you’re trying to present yourself.
On mentors and inspiration
I’ve just come from Time of the Writer in Durban this past weekend. It was very inspiring. It was like an injection of literature.
Zakes Mda, I rate him very highly as a novelist and a playwright, and I think Brett Bailey’s stuff is also amazing. I think Reza de Wet and Brett Bailey are probably my favourite playwrights.
There are just so many, I mean all the usual. I don’t really make a distinction between South African and other, in terms of being inspired by them.
There’re too many to name them all.
On what’s next
I’m doing a lot of stuff at the moment, but the next writing project is called Shaggy, which is a series of shaggy dog stories that I’m writing in collaboration with my friend from Durban.
We’ve been writing these comic short stories for the last two months, and we’ve submitted a manuscript. I’m also going to produce a stage version of some of them as comic monologues for the Fringe, so I’m busy editing some of them down for that.
I have got a couple of novels already that are in draft I’ve got one big one that I’d like to work on when I’ve got sometime.
I can’t tell you the name of it though it’s something nobody’s done before and it might take 10 years to get out there.
