Women celebrate victory in new play

 

Godwin Muzari : Arts Editor

Raisedon Baya’s adaptation of George Mujajati’s book “The Sun Will Rise Again” that was staged at Theatre in the Park last week brought to life women’s celebration of victory over cultural and chauvinistic abuse. Director of the play Innocent Mwapangira brings to fore important issues about the plight of women through scenes that swing back and forth in an exciting way.The stage setting is made to suit different locations with less need for more props and this makes the production compress many scenes in limited time.

The scenes are seamed in a stylish way with intermittent monologues bridging the distant events in the novel enabling the play to explore most of the topical issues in Mujajati’s book. Although there were a few incidents when the some actors spoke with their backs to the audience, making their lines hardly audible, the production was largely an exceptional effort to mirror how women are sacrificed due to social beliefs, culture, poverty and greed.

The story begins in Rhodesia and ends in Zimbabwe, giving light on the different practices and showing how certain characters respond and adapt to changing situations.

It is centred on the life of a poor family that is made to go to fatal extremes in search of quick wealth, with the father of the house taking uncalculated risks that costs and disintegrates the family.

When Jeremiah leaves school and joins Rhodesian forces, he becomes a dangerous traitor who ends up owning a shop and uses his influence to lure freedom fighters into the enemy’s firing line. He runs out of luck when his handler Nyati delivers poisoned clothes that Jeremiah gives to the freedom fighters and hell breaks loose after the trick is discovered.

When Jeremiah runs away from the village after the incident, he leaves his son who is killed by angry people.

Jeremiah’s wife Matilda tries to dissuade her husband from his crooked ways, but she gets battered and has to live with the grief of being under an abusive husband and losing her son Lovemore.

Matilda blames her family for handing her over for a forced marriage after she was raped by Jeremiah.

After independence Jeremiah meets Nyati again and this time the latter has changed colours from a chief traitor to a candidate for councillor’s position through a ruling party ticket.

Nyati offers Jeremiah a lot of money to help him in campaigning. Their relationship once again brings misery to the family after Nyati convinces Jeremiah to offer his youngest daughter for a ritual sacrifice. After the infant disappears, Nyati also shows interest in Jeremiah’s other daughter Sophia. He lures her through a job offer and also showers her with gifts until he rapes her.

Because of the money and favours he gets from Nyati, Jeremiah threatens to commit suicide when Matilda says she wants to make the matter a police case.

Jeremiah forces Sophia to marry Nyati as his eighth wife and he is happy with the money he gets after selling off his daughter.

As Nyati continues to abuse Sophia, the relationship becomes unbearable and turns nasty when the man discovers his young wife is seeing her ex-boyfriend.

One night a scuffle ensues and, in anger, Nyathi spills the beans about the disappearance of Sophia’s young sister and the ugly scene leads to the man’s accidental death.

In court, Jeremiah is accused of having a hand in his daughter’s murder while Sophia gets a wholly suspended sentence for being involved in a scuffle that leads to Nyati’s death.

At the end of the play, Sophia and her mother celebrate freedom and victory from abusive hands.

The play is currently being staged in schools for pupils that are studying Mujajati’s novel as a set book.