SPILLING THE TEA WITH VINETTE EBRAHIM

Local award-winning veteran actress Vinette Ebrahim is known for her iconic character Charmaine Meintjies on the SABC2 soap opera 7de Laan. The local actress took to the stage in April for the thirteenth annual Suidoosterfees, Vinette starred in “Invisible” a drama directed by Christo Davids her 7de Laan co star and developed by Jody Abrahams. In 2011 Vinette gave an overwhelming performance of the portrayal of the heart-wrenching story “My name is Ellen Pakkies”. I caught up with Vinette at the Artscape Theater.

MC: Vinette Ebrahime welcome to Digital Soul thank you so much for your time. Vinette the 13th Annual Suidoosterfees how do you feel being part of it?

Vinette: for me its something I can’t miss, this is my twelve suidoosterfees I’ve been part of it for twelve years, I missed one I cant understand why I have friends here from Holland Jan and Len all the way from Holland and they’ve been here thirteen times and as I’ve said I’ve missed one and I don’t understand why. Life happens

MC: Vinette you starred in the play ‘Invisible’ here at the Suidoosterfees Breathtaking performance as usual actually. Kathleen Jacobs she is your character tell me about her.

Vinette: she’s been with me for quite a while I first encountered a woman called Rachel on Green Market Square many, many years ago she was actually what is commonly known in Cape Town as a “Bergi” a homeless woman and she was quite a embracive woman she was actually quite rude she was out there, I use to have a stall in Green Market Square and every morning we use to set up and she use to come and look for the odd jobs also to earn R5 to have a place to sleep at night and her stock thing what she would say to me was “Ag Vinette gee my R2 en as jy nie R2 het nie gee my R5 as jy nie R5 het nie gee my R10 anders piss ek voor jou customers ” (Vinette give me R2 if you don’t have R2 then give me R5 if you don’t have R5 give me R10 otherwise I’ll urinate in front of your customers) and that’s what Rachel use to say to me every day and I use to laugh at her or laugh with her rather because she was really a character of note and she had a wonderful sense of humor and she was what I will call an organic intellectual person because she use to watch life go by and she use to come to her own conclusion and often I would ask her where do you come from? And she would always say “I belong here nowhere else” and that was her story and she has stuck with me for so many years and when the theme for this years Suidoosterfees came along the forced removals from district six I decided to merge the two

MC: It was a good decision and a absolutely breathtaking show Vinette. So Many of us know Vinette as Charmaine Meintjies in 7de Laan I bet after seventeen years on air you might have developed this close connection with Charmaine, Tell me about that connection?

Vinette: (laughs) well she is my, well I cant say my ulter-ego but she is definitely much closer to me than my own family I guess and cause there is a lot of Vinette in Charmaine and you know a lot of Charmaine has grown onto me over the years except I’m not as good as Charmaine she’s a goody-two-shoes I’m not

MC: As a Child did you always want to be an actress?

Vinette: Yes, I never thought about TV for me it was always in theater, TV in that time was something very remote but I think the theater is what was appropriate for me.

MC: A few years ago you took on probably the most challenging part of your career performing the story of Ellen Pakkies she made headlines in 2007 after murdering her tik-addict son tell me how was it playing such a powerful role?

Vinette: it was as you say possibly one of my most important roles in my life and possibly one of my highlights of my career. It was scary, it was challenging, I found that every time I performed it, I found it to be different, I found something new in every one of the two hundred and thirty one performances that we had. To work with Christo Davids was possibly one of the most fantastic experiences most energizing and just one of the most beautiful experiences of my career. And I think that’s one of the reasons why I chose him to direct ‘invisible as well because I think we just feel very comfortable in each other’s space and also I admire him greatly as a human being number one and also as another thespian and his career is also changing, his moving into becoming a director now as well more so than acting and I find his head to be just incredibly there’s a whole new world going on in there and I want to be part of it.

MC: How did you emotionally and mentally prepare for the role of Ellen Pakkies?

Vinette: You know having met Ellen having sat next to her and held her hand and having looked into her eyes it wasn’t about being her it wasn’t about taking her or absorbing her it was about my interpretation of her and I think the minute I decided It doesn’t have to be exactly her, it doesn’t have to be her mannerism’s, It has to be my interpretation of her I was quite comfortable doing that, but I found myself largely being her in many ways she’s soft spoken, she’s a gentle person, she’s an unbelievable gentle person and she’s a giving person, she’s a caring person, she’s a loving person and you cannot help but be so attracted to Ellen as a person, so to put the two together was very challenging very difficult and for me it worked.

MC: You have a very close relationship with your co-star Christo Davids who play’s Errol on 7de Laan. Tell us about that relationship

Vinette: well first of all his like a son to me and I will always feel that close to him we have a big joke about how many children I really have I have four my two daughters I gave birth too then I have another daughter Kim who didn’t give birth too but she is my daughter by heart lets put it that way, then theirs Christo, Christo insists that he has his own mother, mommy June and then theirs mommy Vinette so we got this relationship where ever we go I will always be mother for him. But the strangest thing was when we started working immediately I became mam and I said to him one-day “ waar val die mam van?” (Where does this “mam” come from) and he said “do I honestly call you mam?” and I said, “Yes you do” the day we started working on the project, and he didn’t realize it. I think it’s just a switch he makes in his head when he switches from the person to the professional. It works for me I’m fine with it. But I have so much respect for him and so much love for him. I’ve known him since he was twelve years old and now his a married man of thirty-two. I know the family, I knew his grandfather who was for me one of South Africa’s wonderful colored actors.

MC: Vinette you’ve been in this industry for over forty years what are some of the challenges you face as an actress in theater or in television?

Vinette: I still feel that very little priority is given to the theater or the entertainment industry by the government in this country and you know how they say when something rots it rots from the head down, so for me I think this country still need’s to learn the culture of a theater going industry a culture of learning how to respect and how to understand the theater and entertainment industry there’s a huge divide. Television has come in and its just cut through the whole of the entertainment industry, look I think its happened across the world but more so in this country because people have never really had the culture or should I say most people have never really had that theater going culture it’s about sitting in front of the television or going to movies and that’s it, they not prepared to fork out you know a hundred rand to go to the theater or something like that we don’t have that, the rest of the world has it. I remember going to London and Amsterdam and people queue to go to theater, you know there’s something on and people go, school kids go with there pads and pens and they there with there teacher’s and they writing and there’s a question and answer’s afterwards there’s a interest inculcated its become a way of life for them. Here its not. I was in Zimbabwe with Youth Theater and I saw people travel five hundred kilometers to follow their kids who are in a theater piece, they travel by bus and they go and they see there’s a interest, and I feel we’ve lost it, we’ve lost it. Other countries there are thirty theaters in three streets, what do we have here. Two theaters in a province we don’t have that. And that’s the challenges not only I face but the country faces to get funding to produce work, theater should be something that we have the right to experiment with that we have the right to fail with, that we have the right to try and try again with till we get it right. We don’t have that luxury we don’t have space for that, it’s become a business that we cannot afford as actors we cannot afford and so we rely on the festivals. And sometimes the festivals are not well funded enough to allow us that luxury of experimentation.

MC: Vinette you are extremely busy. Tell me what do you do when you not busy?

Vinette: (laughs) I sleep, and I drink champagne with my friends, this is how I relax or else there isn’t any time. I sometimes feel I’m stealing time from myself; it’s an incredibly stupid situation but its true.

MC: You are incredibly sweet Vinette, when I spoke to you on the phone you have a warm and loving persona. It dawns on me do you ever get angry?

Vinette: And how (laughs) oh yes I do, I can, I am renowned for having abit of a temper but I’ve really practiced really hard to keep it down. Because I’m getting old and you know its just that thing of no it’s not necessary anymore one should learn to forgive and just move on. I don’t surround myself with silly people anymore, I have a wonderful group of people around me I surround myself with beautiful people, you know the people who have the same out look on life that I have, people who are just pleasant.

MC: Who inspires you Vinette?

Vinette: I think I’m inspired a lot by and this is going to sound very weird, I’m inspired a lot by young people who are moving into the positions of taking on the responsibility of taking over, I’m inspired a lot by those people and I’m talking about the industry, I’m not talking about taking over anywhere else.

MC: Vinette what can we still expect from you in this industry?

Vinette: as an actress I don’t know to be honest with you. I’m moving into writing I’m really serious about the fact that I want to write this is my second play. And it seems like people are feeling me as a writer and it

seems like I’m getting a feel for it, I want to do a writers course. As a actress you’ll probably see me on 7de Laan for another while still but Yes Watch this space!

"Marvin Charles is a South African Journalist, Marvin has worked both in print and broadcasting and has over three years journalism experience. Marvin is currently residing in Cape Town,South Africa and does regular news contributions to various organizations"

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