Soap On A Rope
Season 1 SABC3 (*193) 19:30 Comedy
Gray Hofmeyr has been creating and directing TV shows for over 30 years (like comedies The Big Time, 1991-1993 and Suburban Bliss, 1996-1997, as well as soapie Isidingo, 1998-current – see p19). The 68-year-old isn’t done just yet either – he’s also the creator, producer and director of show-within-a-show sitcom Soap On A Rope (2016-current).
A show about a soapie cast is an interesting concept… I’ve had personal experience working on my previous shows. There’s backstage fighting, challenges, good and bad moments and funny moments. I had enough material to create a show about a show, which transformed into dramedy Soap On A Rope. But aren’t sitcoms and soaps very different?
Very! I tried to treat Soap On A Rope as a serial with a long-running common theme and there are shorter, comedic stories in every episode. There’s no slapstick comedy though. How did you put together the cast? I wanted a big cast populated with different personalities. We held auditions and chose the best of the best to bring the characters to life, like Melanie DuBois (Felicity in 7de Laan, 2000-current) as Zee and Luthuli Dlamini (Stan in Scandal!, 2007-current) as Sello. Quite a mix of talents – did it remind you of
Suburban Bliss? It did. I had a great time on that show with the likes of Seputla Sebogodi (Kenneth Mashaba in Generations, 1994-current) and Martin Le Maitre (Ivan in Hard Copy, 2005-current) – and even more so on Soap.
Is season 2 in the works? It’s difficult to tell without numbers, but if the reception is good, then we’re hoping to work on a season 2. I’d do a second round simply because it was good fun to shoot 13 episodes in 13 days!