Article by Kea Zawadi
This week’s Actor of the Week goes to Mpho Sebeng for his role as Bonga on Savage Beauty.
Savage Beauty is based on seeking revenge for a tragic past. A mysterious woman by the name of Zinhle (Rosemary Zimu) embeds herself in a powerful family that possesses a global beauty empire and dark secrets to go with them. Zinhle’s brother, Bonga, (Mpho Sebeng) teams up with her to destroy what the powerful family has built.
This week, we highlight his scene with Zinhle and Kolobe ( John Ncamane ). The two siblings have managed to kidnap Kolobe and once they reach their destination, they remove his blindfold. Sebeng’s character is quiet at first, with a raving anger that’s been building up to this moment. He pulls the audience in as he reveals to Kolobe who they are and what their mission is. The siblings understand Kolobe’s influence and offer to team up with him. He declines the offer leaving Sebeng’s character frustrated as he loses it and leaves the room.
Sebeng has the ability to take us on a journey as he develops his character. He starts off as quite level-headed but slowly starts showing how much his trauma’s have consumed him. In this scene, we feel Bonga’s trauma in his teary eyes and crouched body. He seems to be battling with coming face to face with the source of his trauma, as he constantly looks away and fidgets with his body. Sebeng uses beats and stillness to build up Bonga’s emotional journey. Bonga is not reactive person, in this, Sebeng refocuses his anger internally through stillness. When their advances are rejected, he has a moment of an outburst but quickly contains it, he give his character a moment and stands outside in stillness with tears flowing from his face, showing a nuance between Bonga’s harboured pain and current anger of feeling like he failed. His stillness also shows his feeling of helplessness, of being stagnant with the mission. This was a different side of Bonga the audience was yearning to see.
He truly delivered a truthful performance.
Mpho Sebeng was a vessel to his character and made audiences fall In love with him.
Three cheers to you!
