Zwane’s character, Lindani, crosses a moral line by entering a relationship with the father of her close friend, Mpume Gomora (played with confrontational fire by Noluthando Shabalala). It is a plot point that sent shockwaves through social media but Zwane looks at the betrayal through a chillingly logical lens.
“Betrayal is betrayal to the next person,” Zwane says. “For you, you’re getting what you want. For you, you’re getting what makes sense to you at that moment. If Lindani had thought about ‘oh my word, what will Mpume say?’ she wouldn’t have done that. She put herself first. She was selfish enough to serve her needs and her desires and then deal with the consequences later on.”
The disconnect leads to a violent physical fight between the two friends, a scene in which Lindani displays no remorse.
“When you’re on the other side, it’s not betrayal; it’s self-fulfillment,” Zwane notes. “On the other side, it’s ‘you just stabbed me in the back’. But for me, I’m like: No, I’m stabbing you in the back because I’m trying to get you down so I can walk over you and get to the goal. It’s about me. That was quite interesting to explore.”
For others, the pain comes from family secrets and broken homes. Lwazie Keith Tsebesha, who plays Sarah, found the core of her character’s pain rooted in parental failure.
“In terms of Sarah’s betrayal, the betrayal was from her dad and partially from her mom because her mom never really allowed her to actually fully experience what it’s like to be part of a full-on family,” Tsebesha says.
The result is a destructive cycle of displaced anger.
“She found herself lashing out in order to seek attention, hurting others and just projecting all her pain onto her sister.”
Adapting a beloved, best-selling novel to television comes with its own unique weight. Sthandiwe Kgoroge, who brings a regal, grounded presence to Mama Grace (whom she describes as stern, loving and decisive), notes that the ghost of the source material is always present on set.
“Maybe the biggest challenge was the fact that we knew that there might be in people’s heads that this is a book,” Kgoroge reflects. “But once you get past that in terms of, well, this is a totally different setup, different world and different medium, you’re able to be free in terms of your craft.”
For industry veteran Kenneth Nkosi, who plays Magesh Gomora (whom he describes as loyal, kind and having low self-esteem), the transition was eased by how familiar the characters are in real life.
“I don’t think there was a biggest challenge because these are the characters that we know, we see and we interact with every day of our lives,” Nkosi says. “Whenever I create a character, I always check around, the people that I’ve lived with or I live with and a little bit of me inside, because there’s always going to be a little bit of me in every character I play.”
In stark contrast, Celeste Ntuli had to step outside her usual public persona to inhabit Essie, a character she defines as desperate, vulnerable and real. Known for her commanding comedic energy, Ntuli had to learn the quiet mechanics of a woman struggling for love.
“She’s nothing like me,” Ntuli laughs. “I had to understand what would make someone be that vulnerable and easy to betray. The hardest part was to learn the vulnerability.”
Playing Essie also marked Ntuli’s first time portraying a mother on screen, a reflective experience that forced her to confront the heavy responsibility an adult carries for a child’s emotional world.
“What I enjoyed was the first time playing being a mother. Yeah, she made me question a lot. What would I be like? I know I’m a good aunt but I’ve never been a mother. To have that, I realised a lot. Wow, it’s such a responsibility.”
For Wonder Ndlovu, who plays Menzi Gomora, the ultimate test was sitting in silence rather than focusing on lines. “For me, it was sitting in his silence because he doesn’t say much. He’s very observant. The industry teaches us as actors to love lines, to want to interpret lines and work with dialogue more than the scene, the stillness, the silence. I love the silence now.”
Despite the heavy themes of the show, the cast credit their off-screen bond as the safety net that allowed them to push boundaries.
“Luckily, we almost know each other,” Ntuli says of the large cast. “We’ve worked with each other in different productions. Even with the younger people in the cast, there was that nice camaraderie. This was the easiest set to work with.”