Sello Maake Ka-Ncube tells of 'exciting new play' about Palesa Brown

Veteran actor Sello Maake Ka-Ncube has revealed he's working on an exciting play that will see the life of Palesa Brown being commemorated.

The industry giant revealed on Twitter that he was working on a play that'll show the life of Palesa and the pain she endured. In a brief thread, Sello said Palesa's life portrayal was one of the projects he was working on this year.

He gave a synopsis of the play, stating that through Palesa's jarring recollection of a life filled with adversity, turmoil and pain, she sets out to take viewers on her journey of life, love and victory.

“Born to parents who divorced when she was just a child, Palesa once more faced tragedy when her fiancé died unexpectedly ... leading to a battle with her would-be in-laws for his possessions.

“Even having survived all of these; an abusive marriage and a stroke that threatened her life, nothing could have prepared Palesa for the life-changing ordeal of surviving rape ...”

Sello concluded the synopsis stating that Palesa ended up gracefully rising through the ashes like a phoenix despite her circumstances. “This courageous woman hopes that by telling her story others may be lifted, empowered and soothed.”

The veteran actor is also an activist against gender based violence, he also revealed that he has had a conversation with his sons about GBV.

In an interview with TshisaLIVE in December, Sello emphasised how gender-based violence was caused by how children were raised, their various backgrounds and the issues they face such as absent father figures.

“There are conversations that I shared in the past but where the conversations began strongly was in 1998 during a play on toxic masculinity that comes from my own history ... I created a play that deals with toxic masculinity and 20 years later we are still dealing with such issues,” he said.

“The problem we're still dealing with that is because we are not having genuine conversations. We don't want to address things as they are ... we politicise issues regarding gender-based violence.

Sello explained that GBV was a human condition problem but it gets politicised.

“This has to do with the environment that we live in and how children are raised and what is almost permissible in your environment. It has to do with addressing issues of absent fatherhood.”