Full house at Blood Tongue premiere

Bongani Ndlovu, Showbiz Correspondent
THE play Blood Tongue brought to life on stage issues to do with leadership accountability, the manipulative excesses of the political elite, and the struggles faced by strong-willed women in present-day Zimbabwe.

The musical premiered on Wednesday night in front of a packed auditorium at the Bulawayo Theatre during the Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo. The production was written by Christopher Mlalazi and Josh Nyapimbi.

The play that centres on two characters, MaNotsha (played by Lady Tshawe) and MaMsindo (played by Dalma Chiwereva) was engaging and relatable.

The five member cast is backed by a five-piece band which brings the story to life through musical pieces composed by Bafana Dladla and Tshepo Pheko (SA) and arranged by Bulawayo musician Blessing “Stot” Sitotombe.

MaNotsha represents a corrupt lady who is manipulative through her deep connections within government and MaMsindo only has the power of protest as a way to voice enforce leadership accountability especially MaNotsha’s dishonest activities.

This was a lesson to the audience that corruption is not confined to men only, as women, when given power, can also be corrupt. Also, MaMsindo showed the audience that women can also take up the mantle of fighting and toppling corruption with the same vigour as anyone else in the world.

The play also is predominantly a female cast with the roles of each woman pronounced and profound, while the male roles play second fiddle. Even the cast is mostly women with MaMsindo’s husband Mthethwa a female played by Agnes Ncube with aplomb.

The evergreen Gift Chakuvinga played MaNotsha’s husband Mdluli and like his wife’s rival husband he was more in the background, playing a supporting role to a more dominating wife.

What people learnt from the play is that, do they really know what corruption is or do they understand what the constitution says and the role of women in society.

Lady Tshawe who recently married said it was a great experience working with the cast of the play.

“I believe working with them pushed me to be better at my craft. The audience received our work well with a few stating how relevant and realistic the topics we tackled were for them,” said Lady Tshawe.

At the end of the play also, MaNotsha was undone by a video that MaMsindo recorded of her offering her a bribe and in the process confessing to how corrupt she was.

Therefore unless people collect hard evidence to nail perpetrators of corruption the arms of government are tied in order to bring them to book. Also people should know their constitution and their rights as Zimbabweans.

Meanwhile in the afternoon the high school pupils took to the stage to show off their plays and the highlight were King George VI. Their play acted had no dialogue but used music to tell the story with Nketa High School and Gifford High also giving equally gripping plays.