No Loans for Us Without Us — Gem of theatre

Without Us” was thrilled by a very polished and amusing theatrical discourse on the crisis.
It also gave an insight into the trials and tribulation of a heavily indebted nation and how each and every citizen of that nation becomes a bearer of the burden of unsustainable debt repayment.

The play uses Zimbabwe’s current external debt estimated to be about US$7,1 billion to portray how an ordinary family in Zimbabwe is affected by the nation’s huge external debt, how the debt accrued the impact of actions taken to clear the ballooning debt especially the debt servicing arrangement that may be proposed by creditors who themselves are facing a debt crisis of their own.
The play, which was produced with the support of Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Management, use a story of a retrenched civil servant who cannot believe what the government hospital demands as payment for the drugs required by his wife who suffers from ulcers.

As he argues with his wife that the family has no money and that she has a right to be treated at a government clinic even without five dollars that the clinic took as payment for her to obtain a patience record card. Their son comes homes two days after the opening of college having been sent away for not paying pay tuition fees of the previous term. The family believes that their niece, who is a Member of Parliament for the area, can assist. The son who is sent to ask her for help does not find her, but comes across a newspaper story which indicates that some politicians agree that the only way Zimbabwe can solve its debt crisis is to declare itself a heavily indebted poor country. The young man explains the implications of such action . He tells his dad that he is surprised some politicians can actually recommend such policy action which is similar to ESAP. But his father is overjoyed by the idea and says that the action of declaring that Zimbabwe is a heavily indebted poor country would bring large numbers of donors back and that debt relief and debt servicing payment arrangements from the creditors would bring to Zimbabwe free education and free medical services.

The son, father and mother are busy discussing this option when the member of parliament arrives. She is taken to task for not telling the people in her constituency that Zimbabwe has amassed such a huge debt.
She tries, without success, to stop the young man from frightening his parents with huge figures on the indebtedness of the nation and the serious implications for being declared a heavily indebted poor country.
When she cannot answer questions on the type of loans, the creditors, the conditionalities and what the current loan repayment plans are, the family tells her to go to parliament and move a motion that the people in her constituency have declared that no loans should be taken without them being informed on why the loans are necessary. The star-studded cast of Teddy Mangava, Tafadzwa Hananda, Judith Tsoka and Brezhnev Kuvheya is formidable, exceedingly versatile with an enduring freshness and masterly tact in generating an engaging and engrossing theatre.
In this workshopped play that is directed by Daniel Maposa, facts and figures about the debt crisis in Zimbabwe and its disturbing and potentially destabilising implications are reduced to a simple reality that is received by the audience with a sense of astonishment.

The play is driven, in most parts, by a very interweaving spectrum of aesthetic sensitivities of comedy and satire clothed in socially loaded elocutionary Shona. Aided by expertly performed expressive dances, music, mime and songs, the play is jellied effectively with a roaring rib-cracking laughter from an appreciating and agreeing audience.
At one stage, during the last two performances I watched, a highly participatory and responsive audience was turned into a group of elderly patients at a government clinic that is manhandled by a nurse who is bitter that medical personnel are not given incentives that are given to teachers. Performances were followed by very lively discussions where the audience interrogated the play and sought answers and clarification from the cast on several issues raised by the play. They wanted to know the accuracy of the figure of US$7 billion that is estimated as Zimbabwe’s current external debt; the feasibility of the option of achieving debt relief through declaring one’s country a heavily indebted poor country; the possibility of refusing to repay the loan citing unreasonable conditionalities, unfair loan contraction and unfair high interest rates being charged.

They also wanted to find out the implications that all people of Zimbabwe are paying for external debt that was accrued even before many of them were born.
Other members of the audience stressed the need for the play to be taken to all communities in Zimbabwe at a faster pace as well as the need for the production of another play that would show how Zimbabwe is paying the debt.

Such a play was expected to show that parliament will not approve loans with out involving the electorate. There were members of the audience who felt that because members of parliament do not talk about Zimbabwe’s indebtedness, means that the Parliament has not exercised its mind on this issue. In response to the call for more people to see the play a representative of Zimcodd indicated that the organisation was prepared to continue supporting Savannah Trust to get the play to more communities. Last Tuesday saw the opening at Theatre in the Park of the Harare-run of “Two Wives of John Mambo” with a star-studded cast of Eunice Tava, Michael Kudakwashe, Evangelista Mwase and Tinopona Katsande.

The play, which is written and directed by Raisedon Baya, deals with a story of a poet who deserts his wife and children for another woman. Many years after when he lies dying in hospital, his first wife visits him only to come face to face with the woman who stole her husband. Hell breaks lose as the two women fight over a dying man.

Also on Tuesday, Harare theatre audience welcomed back home one of Zimbabwe’s foremost theatre exports, Tsungai Garise – the multi-talented thespian, cultural activist and arts educator, with his play “Married Versus Singles” at Reps Theatre. Garise is not just a mega playwright but a gifted theatre director whose work at Reps Theatre is a rare workshop on unique theatricals that thrill both the audience and theatre connoisseurs.