MR X - Spot the difference

Mr X and Self Potrait of Gerard Sekoto. Hard to tell the difference between the two.

Xoli Norman wrote a biographical musical about the prolific South African artist, Gerard Sekoto.

For Norman the process of reviving the spirit of Gerard through the art of theatre was “overwhelming” and demanded sacrifices.

One of those was leaving his position as lecturer at the School of the Arts. “Gerard demanded to be taken and known as an artist” says Norman, with passion in his voice. “His spirit would not be mixed with other mediums of representation.”

"He was an artist and that was that."

Norman remarks that “exploring the spirit and life of Sekoto was hard. I had to quit work because I couldn’t do both.” He adds, “Gerard was a stubborn man. Even in his death, he was still stubborn. He wanted to be taken and known as an artist.”

To achieve his goal of representing Sekoto the artist, Norman went to Paris to attempt to experience what Sekoto experienced.

The ideal that he lives by he says is put like this: "Everything depends on how relentlessly one forces from experience the last drop, sweet or bitter, it can possibly give." This was said by James Baldwin.

Sounds of a trumpet flow down the cold corridors of the Old Dental Hospital; you hear a tune so familiar, so evocative, which hits somewhere between your brain and gut. It is a song scored by, performed by, directed by … “Mr X".