Mwatse’s star continues to shine

By Jonathan Mbiriyamveka
Television and stage actress Evangelista Mwatse is to star in a new play – “365” – by Stephen Chifunyise, one of Zimbabwe’s perspective playwrights.
The play premieres on March 8 at Theatre in the Park and it advocates all-year-round activism against gender violence.
Directed by Nama award winner Patience Tawengwa and produced by Daves Guzha of Rooftop Promotions – 365 has an exciting cast of seasoned actors and actresses.
One of the actresses, Evangelista also won a Nama award in 2008.
She rose to fame after starring in a television soap – Small House Saga.
The petite actress charmed viewers with her “bitchy” attitude such that many often referred to her as a “gold digger”.
She is on record saying that “the arts industry in Zimbabwe does not pay very well and I think one should pursue it out of interest and not for the money”.
In Small House Saga she played the role of Jeanne, a pitiless young woman who would stop at nothing to get what she wants.
Evangelista has both the qualities of a screen and stage theatre actress. She possesses good looks and easily connects with her audiences whenever she takes to the stage.
Other members of the cast include veteran actor Sebastian Maramba, Tinashe Chirisa, an upcoming actor and young brother to Zimbabwe’s Hollywood export (Arnold Chirisa), stage and screen actress, Charity Dlodlo as well as new kid on the block and University of Zimbabwe theatre graduate Rumbidzai Karize.
The play runs until March 26 at Theatre in the Park starting at 5.30pm everyday except for Sundays and Mondays.
According to the script, “365” is a hilarious piece with a serious critique of gender imbalance and violence advocating not just 16 days but 365 days of activism against gender violence.
“Living with an abusive husband puts a submissive wife at a dilemma of what kind of woman she has to mould her daughter into.
“Having been brought up in a patriarchal society, the mother fears that her seemingly fearless and carefree daughter might not be marriage material.
“On the other hand, the son in the family wants to be the opposite man that his father is but his soft heart is considered as unmanly and his passion for equality is misconstrued.
“When he does dishes, cleans the house and do some “house chores” to give his sister time to study for her examinations, he gets rebuked by his father who labels him ‘a woman in a man’s body,'” Tafadzwa Muzondo, marketing and sales executive of Rooftop Promotions said when giving a short summary of the play.
He assured theatre buffs of a good experience from the play directed by Tawengwa who also directed another thriller called “Allegations” which ran at Theatre in the Park, the Harare International Festival of the Arts and at Edinburgh Festival.