Pamela Nomvete joins cast of UK theatre production highlighting 2008 financial crisis

South African actress Pamela Nomvete has joined the cast of theatre production, Skeleton Crew, which is a story about how the 2008 financial crisis affected factory workers in Detroit.

Many South Africans will still know her as Ntsiki Lukhele from Generations or Deborah on prison drama, Lockdown.

Skeleton Crew tells the story of a tight-knit group of workers face crushing economic reality. It is set in Detroit in 2008, in one of the city’s last surviving car factories that is threatened with closure.

Torn between loyalty to each other and the instinct to save their own skin, the play explores whether they can they hang on to their dreams, ambitions and hope.

Nomvete will portray the character of Faye who is the tough, wisecracking matriarch in the workplace. Faye is a union leader, undisguisedly admired by her young co-workers Dez and Shanita.

A review of the US production of the play by The New Yorker, described Faye’s character as “funny and bawdy, openly queer and never afraid to talk some shit and smoke a cigarette, those rule-ridden signs be confounded”.

Skeleton Crew is the brainchild of Detroit-born playwright Dominique Morisseau. The play first showed in the US and won a Tony Award in 2022. Nomvete is part of the UK production of the play, which is directed by Matthew Xia.

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In 2022 Nomvete was part of the West End production of To Kill A Mockingbird where she portrayed the character of Calpurnia. For this role she was nominated for the Best Actress in a Supporting Role at the 2023 Olivier Awards.

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Gratitude

Nomvete showed her excitement of being part of the Skeleton Crew cast on her Instagram, saying she cannot wait for it to begin.

“Nam Myoho Renge Kyo!” she wrote on her post. The quote is a Japanese phrase which means “I take refuge in the Lotus of the Wonderful Law”.

Chanting daimoku is the principal practice of all Nichiren Buddhists. By reciting this mantra practitioners endeavour to change their karma, overcoming obstacles to success or happiness.

Nomvete is a Nichiren Buddhist, a religion which teaches that Buddhahood, a life state of boundless wisdom and compassion, is inherent within believers’ own lives.

Last year when Japanese Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda died, Nomvete was one of the many who paid homage to his life.

“Though you are no longer here in body I carry you in my heart always and along with my beautiful friends in faith I will continue to work on transforming wherever I am into the ‘Land of Tranquil Light’” Nomvete wrote in a heartfelt post.

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