adminTheatre Arts Level 1 as part of demonstrating their theoretical and practical handling of their Introduction to Playmaking, Acting and Performance course.
In this course, the students, most of whom are women, are taught on how “to come up with playscripts and to learn the techniques of performing a play”.
The class is split into groups which work on specific playmaking and performance assignments whose results were exhibited at the Africa Day Drama Festival that was attended by students and staff though it was open at no charge to the general public.
A few prominent theatre practitioners attended the performance and were invited to comment on the students’ productions and performances
I was fortunate to make it to Beit Hall in time to see “Nyaradzo: The Spirit of Nehanda” – an adaptation of Aristophanes’ “Lysistrata” by one of the groups named “Chamo-me” which comprised K. Chisirimunhu, D. Mafuta, I. Ncube, L. Nyazika, R. Kazunga, D. Muzondo, G. Nyamapfene, L. Mlilo, R. Ngwenya, P.M. Miller and F. Pashapa.
The group, which was directed by Innocent Mwapangira, was tasked to make a story based on Aristophanes’ classic play in which women from two Greek communities are at war with each other.
They decide to end the war by taking an oath to deny their husbands their conjugal rights until they stop fighting.
The group decided to base their story on two kings in pre-colonial Zimbabwe, one Shona and one Ndebele, who are engaged a bitter war.
The director stated that his group held several discussions and decided to “place the story in the pre-colonial area as this allowed more room for creativity and manipulation of historical elements (though fictitious) so as to achieve the desired goal. As such the play became more of a spiritual journey in which the ancestors played a critical role in guiding the women to resolving the present dilemmas”.
The Chamo-me Group created 15 story lines that were thoroughly discussed.
The group finally chose one story line where Nyaradzo possessed with the spirit of Nehanda manages to get a “band of Ndebele and Shona royal women” to unite and take a oath of bringing peace to the land by “refusing men their conjugal rights”. The story was adapted with intentions of “dealing with political divisions that exist in the country today”.
As Peter Churu – one of Zimbabwe’s theatre icons – put it, Chamo-me group’s performance of “Nyaradzo: The Spirit of Nehanda” was outstanding; their adaptation of “Lysistrata” brave and creative and the reception of the audience affirmative of the good acting and convincing staging of the story.
Every member of the cast enjoyed being on the stage. There were brilliant mimes which effectively rode on the back of a very appropriate sound effects although the classical Western music revealed inadequate search by the group on the sort the traditional music that would be the intended background sound to the mimed that depicted the magical power restraining those who had taken the oath of allegiance from fleeing away.
The use of Shona and Ndebele was considered by most of those who spoke about the play as most appropriate.
The quality of the language was good and communicative even though in many cases, the use of English undermined the serious content and stature of the characters (queens and noble women) by over-simplifying or not finding the appropriate terms dealing with sexuality and the act of denying husbands the conjugal rights.
This could be a result of not devoting enough time to research and adoption of the idiomatic expressions in Shona and Ndebele which would have reduced the huge audience laughter every time the world “sex” was uttered. This tended to drag the play into a simple comedy.
During discussions there were also important questions raised by some very observant members of the audience who thought that the names of both Ndebele and Shona kings used were people who did not live in the same era.
And that to get Ndebele warriors jubilantly praising Tshaka was misleading as the Ndebele were a breakaway group that would not pay such homage to Tshaka.
It was therefore felt that most of the praise poetry was poorly conceived and misleading even though it was intended to salute the Ndebele king who was celebrating his marriage to 16th wife just before he went to battle with a Shona king, Mutota , who was also portrayed as having many wives.
The students defended themselves very well on these issues although it was clear that these were aspects they did not give much thought in their adaptation and in their effort to make “Lysistrata” relevant to the Zimbabwean audience.
Once you mention specific figures in our history you have to worry about historical accuracy and portrayal of rituals that are critical actions in the drama.
Equally critical to the adaptation is the presentations of the reasons for the war between the two kings – in this case the reasons for the bitter confrontation between the Shona and Ndebele and how a Shona spirit medium would access the royal Ndebele women and she provoke and was endowed with mystic power to deal with those who decided to break the oath of allegiance falling the temptation to satisfying their uncontrollable craving for “their husbands’ touch” because they had been recently married and briefly tasted the sweetness of the “bonde”.
The group decided to feature a white man who spoke about the two warring tribes at the end of the play as if the events happened when the land of Zimbabwe had been colonised. This would then make it difficult for the audience to believe that the play was set in the pre-colonial period. If the white man was an early missionary them his whole appearance was poorly conceived as he looked a Rhodesian farmer in khaki shorts.
In any case bringing in the white factor in such an adaptation unless the whites were playing a role of persuading the two tribes to stop the war, would not help the story at all.
The group was also made aware of the need to portray characters in such a manner that they can be distinguished in the way they speak; the way they carry themselves; their age and many essential behavioural characteristics.
The Ndebele and Shona kings should be distinguished by many facets of character from those of their advisers and ordinary warriors.
The same can be said about the queens and junior wives of the kings on one hand and the spirit medium who in this appeared like a praise singer that one guided by the power of a majestic ancestral spirit.
Although Peter Churu congratulated the audience, there were some responses and comments on actors on the stage that are not expected from audiences at the citadel of higher learning, especially when the audience are students who are aware that their colleagues are being examined.
Learning how to act on the stage is just as crucial as learning how to be a responsible audience.
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