Cast and Crew Biographies

Owen L Sejake, Simon (Andile) Hanabe

Born 59 years ago, in Benoni, Old Location, better known as Etwatwa. Owen refers to himself as a child of nomadic parents. As the second youngest five siblings, the show biz bug bit early in the 70’s and Owen began working professionally after the 1976 riots. This decision broke his parents’ hearts but his personal dream was realised and today his parents both happy to see his achievements.

Owen’s theatrical repertoire includes Athol Fugard's Captain's Tiger, Wole Soyinka's Death and the King's Horseman, Prophets in the Sky, Daughter of Nebo and Marabi.

Other theatre productions he has appeared in include Julius Caesar at the Windybrow Theatre, Nongogo at the Civic Theatre, Ipi Tombi I and II (both locally and abroad), The Knot at the Baxter theatre and Milestones (directed by Jerry Mofokeng) at the State Theatre.

More recently, Owen is well known for his television appearances. His television career includes roles in Justice For All; Yizo Yizo; Ke Nako; Saints, Sinners and Settlers; Soul City 6; Black Velvet Band; So Hard to Forget; Deafening Silence; Masakeng; Oedipus Rex; African Skies; The Line; Scout's Safari; Going Up; Behind The Badge; Stokvel; Zero Tolerance; Mponeng; Gothia Caper; Erfsondes; and The Lab. Most recently Owen played the role of President Nkosi in the second season of the SABC2 drama series 90 Plein Street, in 2009, and he played the role of corrupt cop Tony Dlamini in the e.tv drama series eKasi: Our Stories, in the episode entitled "Chasing the Truth".

His film credentials include Ocean Harvest, Mandela and De Klerk, Africaine Adventures, Shot Down, Hijack Stories, Crime in Gabon and director John Boorman’s film Country of My Skull.

For his film role as Nobe in Beat the Drum in 2003, for he was awarded the Best Supporting Actor Award at the Monaco International Film Festival. He also appeared as Gumboot Dlamini in the Academy Award-winning, Tsotsi, 2005.

Sean Taylor, Roelf (Rudolf) Visagie

Sean is well-known for his many stage and television appearances in South Africa before he settled in Australia in 1999. Productions include Angels in America, Other People’s Money, M Butterfly, American Buffalo, True West, The Double Bass and Skyf. He was seen in the Maynardville productions of The Taming of the Shrew and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and he played the title role in Macbeth for NAPAC.

From 1992 to 1994 Sean starred in the premiere production of Athol Fugard’s Playland, which toured the country and had a successful season at the Donmar Warehouse in London, as well as in Australia and New Zealand. His foray into major musical theatre includes roles in The King and I and The Threepenny Opera.

Television audiences will remember his award-winning performance in the title role of Barney Barnato, and his role in The Syndicate. Sean has been nominated for a string of Fleur du Cap, Dalro and Vita awards, winning several. Sean, James Whyle and Lyn Maree formed the Take Away Shakespeare Company, and their first production, King Lear, for which Sean won the FNB Vita Best Actor award, played to great acclaim in Grahamstown, the Civic Theatre and in Stellenbosch.
In Australia he has performed in the stage productions of Democracy, Arthur Miller’s Broken Glass and Soulmates. He has also been seen in numerous television productions. Most recently, in Sydney, he played Astor in Uncle Vanya and Claudius in Hamlet. Last year he played Willie Loman in Death of Salesman for which he won the Howard Kessel Award.
Sean received the Naledi and Fleur du Cap awards in 2005 for his portrayal of André Huguenet in Athol Fugard’s Exits and Entrances at the Baxter Theatre Centre, the Market Theatre and the State Theatre. Sean last performed at the Baxter Theatre in 2007 in Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? for which he was nominated for a Fluer du Cap and won the a Naledi Award.

Athol Fugard - Author and Director

ATHOL FUGARD has been working in the theatre as a playwright, director, and actor since the mid-fifties in South Africa, England, and the United States.

His plays include: No-Good Friday, Non Gogo, Blood Knot, Hello and Goodbye, People Are Living There, Boesman and Lena, Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act, Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, Dimetos, The Island, A Lesson From Aloes, Master Harold…and the boys, The Road to Mecca, A Place With the Pigs, My Children! My Africa!, Playland, Valley Song, The Captain’s Tiger, Sorrows & Rejoicings, Exits and Entrances, Victory, and Coming Home. He has been seen on stage in South Africa, London, Broadway, off-Broadway, and regional theatre in the U.S. Film credits include The Road to Mecca, Gandhi, The Killing Fields, Meetings With Remarkable Men, Marigolds In August, Boesman and Lena, and The Guest.

He has written the novel “Tsotsi,” a film version of which was made in South Africa and recently won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, as well as the Michael Powell Award and the Standard Life Audience Award at the 2005 Edinburgh Film Festival, the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival, and the Audience Award at the Los Angeles AFI Film Festival. He has also published his autobiographical memoirs “Cousin.”

December 2009 saw the world premiere of Have You Seen Us? debut at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven. Athol is proud to be part of The Train Driver, his latest work, premiering at the newly built Fugard Theatre in Cape Town, South Africa.
Having danced, acted, played musical instruments and sung on stages across the world, Owen references the mile stone in his career as having acted with and been directed by Athol Fugard – “How many people can claim that? Very few if any. And I have"

Ross Devinish - Co-Director

Ross Devenish was born in Pietersburg (now Polokwane) South Africa, and studied film-making in London. He started his career making documentaries, filming behind the Royalist lines in the Civil War in the Yemen; secretly entering and filming the mercenaries trapped in the besieged town of Bukavu in the Congo after a failed coup; and then filming in Vietnam during the 1968 Tet Offensive. He then spent the following year in the United States making a film about native Americans called NOW THAT THE BUFFALO’S GONE (commentary by Marlon Brando) which won the American Blue Ribband Award. He was one of the two directors on GOAL! a film about the 1966 World Soccer Cup competition held in England. GOAL! received the Robert Flaherty Award from BAFTA.

Deciding to concentrate on his interests in drama he began working with the world-renowned dramatist Athol Fugard. He directed three films with scripts by Fugard, including an adaptation of BOESMAN AND LENA with Fugard and Yvonne Bryceland,and two original screenplays - THE GUEST, a drama about an incident in the life of Eugene Marais, and MARIGOLDS IN AUGUST. THE GUEST won a Bronze Leopard at Locarno and MARIGOLDS IN AUGUST a silver Bear in Berlin. He also made a documentary for the BBC about the rehearsal process leading to the first performance of Fugard's A LESSON FROM ALOES at the Market Theatre.

For BBC tv, he directed the epic eight-part adaptation of BLEAK HOUSE, with Diana Rigg and Denholm Elliot, which won three BAFTAS from the British Academy of Film and Television Art.

He directed 9 feature length films as well as many mini-series/serials for television. These include A CERTAIN JUSTICE, from the novel by P.D. James, three DALZIEL & PASCOE 90 minute films; A TOUCH OF FROST, BETWEEN THE LINES; CALLING THE SHOTS, a three-part thriller with Lynn Redgrave; two feature length POIROT’s with David Suchet; TRUE TILDA, a six part adaptation for the BBC of Arthur Quiller-Couch’s children’s story; MADLY IN LOVE with Penelope Wilton; an adaptation of Mbongemi Ngema’s stage play, ASINA MALI, for the BBC; DEATH OF A SON, a feature length film with Lynn Redgrave; and HAPPY VALLEY, a 90 minute film shot on location in Kenya with Denholm Elliot and Holly Aird.

Most recently he directed Athol Fugard's COMING HOME at the Baxter Theatre. With fellow Scenographer, Illka Louw, he recently created and started a course in Production Design as part of the Film & Video faculty at the Cape Peninsular University of Technology.

He now lives permanently in Cape Town after an absence of 38 years.