adminFOR most theatre practitioners in Metropolitan Bulawayo the Bulawayo Theatre has, until recently, been a place for white people’s theatre and culture. A place one could only admire from outside and not perform on its stage. Until recently the place was known more for pantomimes and the amateur recreation of plays and musicals that had made it on Broadway in New York and West End in London.
The local black people you saw at the theatre were either there as bit players, or your former group “A” school products that were much more at ease in the company of white people and their culture. However, that has slowly faded away. Now less and less Eurocentric work is being staged at the theatre. Perhaps this demise is due to the political and economic climate prevailing at the moment or perhaps the current white generation doesn’t care anymore about recreating life most of them never lived anyway.
And so slowly our theatre and the stories of our lives are taking over the space. The good thing is that when theatre artists started taking shows to the theatre the audience was really small, almost insignificant. If you got more than ten people paying for a show then it was considered a fair attendance. Our people were even afraid to come to theatre thinking it was a white people’s building and therefore out of bounds to them. Not anymore. Now the theatre is a place of diversity.
This year alone the theatre has hosted more than six shows from the other side of the town. It has hosted Without a Name, Ja Hlako, Addicted, Tension, Jeys Marabini, My First Day at College, Nyembezi, Amaphupho Amatsha and Voices From the Matopos. This is about eight new shows within a space of four months. This translates to two new shoes per month. Not bad. The average attendance per show has been around seventy people. And this has been amazing. With more consistence and improvement in our presentations we will soon be talking about full houses at the theatre. While the future looks promising we cannot forget the hard work that has been put so far. We must also acknowledge the consented effort, especially on social media to market any theatre or music event taking place at the theatre. In other words theatre and music has actually found a new home at this lovely and amazing space called Bulawayo Theatre.
Last week Lewis Ndlovu opened his new play Nyembezi at the same space. The play features Sarah Mpofu-Sibanda.
Lewis Ndlovu is not a newcomer to theatre. He is one of the successful products of Amakhosi Theatre’s children programme. He has been around and done a lot of things. He is known more for his Drums of Peace project. Sarah Mpofu-Sibanda is also not new to show business. She is well known in modelling circles. Most of us though will remember her from the soap Amakorokoza. However, the stage, and particularly her role as Nyembezi was a different ball game altogether. As suggested by the tittle Nyembezi is not a feel good, happy ending story. It is not a happily ever after story. Not your escapism kind of theatre. How could it be when it is about abuse? Gender abuse to be specific. Obviously the intention of the playwright was never to make his audience enjoy at the expense of Nyembezi or those going through similar situations of abuse. It is also un-African to rejoice in someone else tears.
In the play we meet Nyembezi when she is very young and innocent. We see her being raped, enduring a ten month pregnancy. We see her running away from her new born baby into the unwelcoming hands of the city. In the city we follow her from one job to another. We see her in the streets hustling, trying to make ends meet. Then for a moment Mr. Right appears carrying happiness in his hands and on his lips. Nyembezi’s life changes. For a year of two she learns how to smile, how to laugh, how to enjoy. But this new found happiness is short lived as her Mr. Right turns abusive and then horror of all horrors she discovers that her Mr. Right is actually the child she ran away from.
Sarah Mpofu-Sibanda delivers a powerful performance. She almost effortlessly moves from one character to another like something she does every day. Note that I say almost as there were a few moments when one felt like Sarah Mpofu-Sibanda the actress was more powerful than the characters she was playing. But that is not a big problem as it is something a few rehearsals will solve. The music too was not in sync. In fairness it failed its intended purpose. But blame it on an unfamiliar PA system or the lack of more time on a technical rehearsal. But overall it was a good performance worth watching.
Online Reporter