Trust Khosa, Zimpapers Arts and Entertainment Hub
The technological revolution has become part of life and no one can stop it.
In most cases it has lessened the burden of doing our jobs.
Powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI), no one can stop this new phenomenon. Instead, everyone is advised to embrace it. Job losses and uncertainty have become a reality as a result of technological revolution.
However, there innovators have fully embrabced it by incorporating it into their work. As for slow thinkers or simply laggards, it’s either they are fast sinking into oblivion or falling by the way side.This is the message in the just-ended Daves Guzha produced play, Defiance.
Written by Virginia Jekanyika, it’s cast is a mixture of experience and new blood with plenty to offer for the sector. The production boasts a star-studded cast featuring Tendai “Tendex” Madziti who plays the role of Simba, the podcaster, Bliss Madhidhi (Ronnie), Priscilla Mutendera (amai) and Privillage Mutendera (Hildah, the only sister in the Gwaze family).
Being a family affair, the play tackles some of the reality of life brought by AI. While many praises AI for its role in making work easier, it has brought more pain than gain to those who are resistant to change.
In fact AI has always been there for a decade or so but now it has taken over in every sector. In this play, Amai Gwaze, who was the breadwinner in a family of three lost her job as being rendered excess to baggage.
She had served her company for a quarter of a century but she was just reduced to a nobody when it dawned her services were no longer wanted. She was caught unaware and unlike other weak people, she easily embraced her new task and now she has moved on.
Although it was not easier for her to tell her children she had lost her job, she finally gathered the courage and informed them.
This is typical in most families.
Guzha’s play is a call for the workforce to be multitasking in case one avenue of revenue collection dries up.
For theatre enthusiasts in Harare and its environs, the production further cements Rooftop Promotions, founded by Guzha, as a key hub for Zimbabwe’s creative community.
To the Gwaze family, which represents many households, the only relief they have is a house they inherited from their late father.
However, shelter without food on the table cannot be enough as is case here. After embracing the reality, their sons — Simba and Ronnie – start podcast as away of living.
Simba brought the equipment to South Africa where he also quit his job after realising he was sitting on his talent. His defiance has been missing among Zimbabweans who are afraid of taking new risks.
Like is all about risk taking and nothing more.
Chikonzo and Guzha’s play warns people to be able to make good judgements when somethig is not working.
Having a fall back plan is what is needed in life.
According to the synopsis, Defiance centres on a family under siege, battered by waves of challenges that leave it shaken and teetering on the brink of collapse. Having enjoyed a middle-class life, everything appears to be going well until a devastating incident changes the family’s fortunes.
Each member is struck by misfortune, forcing them to carry the burden of rejection and trauma until they finally refuse to remain silent about their experiences.
Speaking out as a family becomes an act of defiance against a culture of suffering in silence.
Through emotional conversations, the family takes audiences on a journey through the traumas confronting modern families in Zimbabwe.
The play explores the emotional wounds unleashed by a crisis of expectations and the consequences of keeping painful experiences hidden.
In this case, the Gwaze familly has expected the reality including Amai who was a bit skeptical when when her son left his job on South Africa to start a podcast.
What is more striking about the Gwaze family is their defiance to move on in the midst of the storm.
It takes a few people to embrace as job cuts or losses resembles crumbling empires. Thie play is a panacea or solution to many families to openly discuss difficult issues when misfortune strikes..
