Leslie Ehrhardt who plays the Emperor at the forthcoming The Emperor’s New Clothes at the Teatru Manoel later this month also adapted the play. He started his professional career at the age of 20. He had joined NAPAC (Natal Performing Arts Council) as a young actor playing everything from table-mover to the Big Oak Tree “and the leaves that grow on it”, he adds mischievously. It was great fun and he learned a huge amount just from watching. He feels that up and coming actors don’t have those kinds of chances anymore. The Arts Councils in South Africa have gone and so has a tremendous learning ground.

Leslie then travelled back to his hometown and joined CAPAB (Cape Performing Arts Board) and it was during those years that his career developed. Hamlet, Richard the Third, “These were great roles. Difficult but a magnificent feat,” he recalls.

Two years later he was in England, the USA and Canada and landed good roles there. One was a production of Athol Fugard’s Hello and Goodbye in LA and Richard the Second in London, which were “awesome experiences”.

When he returned to Cape Town he started producing, The Normal Heart, Boesman & Lena, Juno and the Paycock and Hamlet again – it was another learning curve. He lost money on some and then re-gained on others. He comments: “They don’t call this show business for nothing!”

Leslie became interested in family shows when the Box Office for the Five Finger Exercise was running slim. He wrote a quick version of Rumpelstiltzkin and it sold out nationally within a week. Ever since then, he always backed up his adult productions with something for children because it’s a safety net “and we all need that”.

The Emperor’s New Clothes has been developing for about a year and it’s a solid production. Leslie comments: “Funny in parts and sad in others yet always underlined with a very strong moral message. He believes that the moral values, inherent to fairytales, are important. They teach us, guide us, and get us back on track. Schools have debated the text of this play and discussed the issues. The production is not just fun and cute but it also asks some things too. Leslie guarantees that the audience is not going to walk away from this play without asking a few questions. And that’s exactly what he wants and what he considers to be good theatre.

* * *

How old are you? Star sign and date of birth?

Well, I just turned 40 and one or two of those grey hairs are beginning to emerge. Eyes are going too so I can’t tell you if I have wrinkles or not. I’m told I was born on 21 September 1966, which makes me a Virgo, on the cusp… whatever that means.

What would you like to be doing in 10 years’ time?

In 10 years I would like to be writing and producing animated movies with a full mop of grey hair – holidaying with my children and contributing more to the world in which I live. Life is great, but it’s not a rehearsal. You only get one chance here.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

I was a bit stupid when I was younger, always imagining that happiness was something you aspired too but since the whole “grey hair” thing, I’ve come to realize that it’s something you find… inside of yourself… in my case, way-down deep. I’ve kind of half found it.

What is your favourite occupation?

If I would have my life over, I would get involved in the arts all over again. It’s where the crazy people go to become legal. Besides, no one else will hire me! It’s the greatest job ever. You create something beautiful everyday. What more could you want?

Significant other?

Janet has taught me so much about everything. An angel, my muse. Has lifted me up when I was down and held me together for all the rest. A strong, strong character with morals and honesty blazing from her soul. I’m truly blessed to have her as the mother of my children.

What is your greatest fear?

I was at my sister’s funeral this year, holding my mother’s hand, and praying that it would never happen to me. If I lost my children, I would have to go too.

What is it that you most value in your friends?

Trust. Honesty. Criticism. Support. Loyalty, Humour, and sugar when I run out.

How would you like to die?

With 27 million dollars and the key to my Ferrari strapped to my bum.

What is your greatest extravagance?

You know what - I don’t have an extravagance. Any suggestions? I heard folk taking about extravagances once and it sounds like fun, but I’ve seemed to miss the boat there. Are cigarettes an extravagance or a necessity? A necessity, I think.

What is your greatest regret?

I don’t have regrets. Regrets are silly – a waste of time. Mistakes I’ve made plenty of and still do, but regrets? No, not me. Take life as it comes. Ride the wave and bare your responsibilities. Regrets? Na!

What is your most treasured possession?

I don’t have one! Missed the boat again me-thinks. Let me think… my underpants?

Which talent would you most like to have apart from the ones you already have?

I’d really like to be able to walk straight when I’m drunk. That must be great. No bruises on the forehead the following day… no but seriously… those bruises can be hell. A brain surgeon. The ability and the opportunity to help. I think that’s the greatest talent of all – to help uplift others: Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, and Gandhi – that’s real talent.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

Tough question, but I think to be lonely, must be awful. Now, I don’t mean “lonely” as if to say you have no friends or family around – I think when you haven’t found yourself, your duty and your path in life – that must be miserable and truly lonely. There are a lot of “lonely” people in our world.

Where would you like to live?

While I’m alive I’d like to live in a straw bail house. Don’t laugh. I saw this BBC programme on straw bail houses. It was just fantastic. So warm and cosy and with its own kind of energy. The setting would have to be Cape Town though. I love Cape Town. It’s the best city in the world. A straw bail house on the banks of the river that would be my dream. When I die, hopefully they allow me into heaven.

What is your most marked characteristic?

I’m a very serious person. A perfectionist. This can be both good and bad but my children describe me as being both funny and fair. I don’t have anyone else to answer too so that’s it, I guess – funny and fair with the looks of a Shrek.

Who are your heroes/heroines in real life?

Pioneers. People who have the guts to stick to their task and see it through no matter how hard it gets. Nelson Mandela, Chris Barnard (the first man to perform a human heart transplant. He was a South African), Martin Luther King – oddly, Bill Gates and of course William Shakespeare. These guys changed the world they lived in and it takes guts to do that. And women? Mother Teresa, Madame Currie, Florence Nightingale and that Old Minx – The Iron Lady. I’ll tell you a secret though: I’d love to date Nicole Kidman – smart, sophisticated, intelligent and sassy. Anyone got her number?

What is it that you most dislike?

Laziness. Carelessness. People who smoke near their kids. Violence. We relentlessly record history but learn nothing from it. Folk who constantly complain and do nothing to improve their situation. Selfishness. God! I hate selfish

people.

What is your motto?

I’m not a religious man, but Do unto others, as you would have done unto you is great. I don’t always live up to it though. That’s not a regret, just a mistake and if I earned one dollar for all of my mistakes, I’d be the richest man in the world! Ha!