Isaro Kayitesi

Mansoor Noor: If you could take one thing with you to the after life what would it be?
Isaro Kayitesi: My great tchotchke collection would be comforting, but actually I think I would take the good memories from my life to play over and over again whenever I wanted. Though, that’s assuming that I’d have a mind to experience them in…?

What’s it like learning every role in a play?
Well “nearly” every role… I reckon it must be really good for my brain (the nervous system, not so much). I’ve been doing a lot of shutting off of that little voice inside my head that’s saying: “this is impossible!!” I just hope I don’t start mouthing the other character’s lines while I’m not supposed to be playing them!

Who would you turn to for help on a presentation about your life?
Probably my mother because she is a glass-half-full kind of person, so I think she would leave out all the bad bits for me.

Who’s your favourite cast member slash which one of us would you take to meet God?
I’d probably take you, only because you naturally talk much more rapidly than I do so you could ask “God” like a million questions and do all the talking until I could actually wrap my head around the whole weirdness of the fact that I was apparently meeting “God”! (I don’t have favourites! That is crazy!)

Are you nervous about not knowing which role you will get to play each night?
Not knowing means that I’m going to have to just go for it without any time to over think. It also helps to know that there are 5 of us going through the same thing. So, no, not yet, but ask me again on the first night!

Mansoor Noor

Isaro Kayitesi: Would you rather go to an afterlife or just disappear in to nothingness, and why?
Defs the afterlife. Have you not seen The Good Place? It’s a never ending party where you can do whatever you like! The Good Place is based on facts… right?

Which kinds of lines do you find the hardest to remember?
All of them… apparently. Nah but seriously… the ones where you have to remember EVERY CHARACTER’S LINES.

Are you going to call “line!” during a show if you dry? Or what will you do if you forget your lines in front of an audience?
My usual trick is to just freeze and hope that nobody notices. Nah I’m kidding… I’ve only done that once. In this show we’re lucky because the actor opposite us knows all of our lines too. So the real question is, what will you do Isaro if I forget my lines?

How existential do you get in your day to day life; has working on this play affected that?
You might say I’m constantly in existential crisis. But it has nothing to do with this play. More with the fact that I’m a single, sometimes working actor (and headshot photographer at www.mansoornoor.com – I’ve mentioned this in another Suzy interview, she’s down with it) and living in a share-house. But no, I’m fine. I’m really, really fine.

Would you walk out on your friend’s death bed if they irrevocably insulted you?
Walk out? Never. I’d most likely smother them… with forgiveness… just so I could look like the bigger person… and then watch them die anyway. If that got too dark then I’m blaming the play.

Isaro Kayitesi and Mansoor Noor can be seen in Everybody, by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.
Dates: 6 – 21 Mar, 2020
Venue: Kings Cross Theatre