A new facet of Mandela revealed

Owen Sejake is preparing to tackle what is potentially the role of his life - portraying Nelson Mandela in the new South African play The Prize of Peace.

The 60-year-old actor has had to conquer the same challenge that confronted actors such as Sidney Poitier and Morgan Freeman: burrowing under the skin of, and doing artistic justice to, the global icon.

"I will not lie and say it's not intimidating," Sejake chuckles.

The play, written by Les Morison, is set in Oslo in December 1993 and dramatises several hard-hitting exchanges between Mandela and F W de Klerk.

It is directed by Clare Stopford, features Eric Nobbs as the leader of the National Party, and is based on interviews with George Bizos and De Klerk.

When he was asked if he'd be interested in playing Mandela, Sejake's gut reaction was: "What is there that we don't already know that we need to know? I tentatively doubted that I would become involved, thinking that with productions like Rivonia Trial and the Mandela Trilogy [opera], and all the books out there, we were already overdoing this era and subject matter."

But as he read the script, it became clear this was something different.

"It's all about the concept of apology," he says. "[Archbishop Emeritus Desmond] Tutu has spoken about how difficult it is to say sorry. And how many people have said sorry for what they've done?"

Sejake found it fascinating that both Mandela and De Klerk were lawyers by profession - while Morison is an advocate - and says their heated conversations are like those of courtroom adversaries slugging it out with legal arguments and counter-arguments. In the process, their vulnerabilities and commonalities emerge.

Being more accustomed to "street" language and improvisation, Sejake initially struggled to come to grips with some of the legal terms, but saw an opportunity to expand his vocabulary. "It was an intellectual gymnasium," he says.

Sejake doesn't look like Mandela, neither is he 75 - the age at which the former South African president accepted the Nobel prize - so he has avoided mimicking or caricaturing Madiba. "I just want to play him the way I see him: as fresh as possible."

Sejake is a familiar face from television series such as Zero Tolerance, The Lab, Soul City, Yizo Yizo, Zone 14, 90 Plein Street and Fallen, and movies like Tsotsi, Hijack Stories, Country of my Skull and Mandela and De Klerk.

But, like many actors, his first love is the theatre. Last year, feeling the need to go back to basics, get back on the stage and "revive my international status", he took it as a sign from the universe when producer Mannie Manim asked him to do Athol Fugard's The Train Driver in London opposite Sean Taylor, directed by Fugard himself.

"The stage is very special to me," Sejake said. "I like it for its therapeutic appeal. You get to gauge yourself in front of a fresh audience every night, where there are no second chances and no choice but to carry on. Your mind gets sharper. You go back and do it over and over until it gets soaked into your blood."

He is looking forward to seeing how audiences respond to The Prize of Peace, yet harbours one regret: "I wish I could have met him [Madiba] to speak to him, even for five or 10 minutes. I know he's frail, but it would have helped to have had physical contact and ask him about certain aspects."