AFTER a successful premiere at Theatre in the Park in Harare early this year, a play titled The Coup will from November 12 to 30 embark on a national tour.
Report by Tinashe Sibanda
Written by New Zealand-based playwright, Stanley Makuwe, the play comprises a six-member cast of Zenzo Nyathi, Joyce Mpofu, Eunice Tava, Charles Matare, John Pfumojena and Gibson Sarari.
Rooftop Promotions, who are taking the play on the national tour, said they aimed to engage various communities in interesting debates through the play.
“This is our way of strengthening the Rooftop Promotions brand amongst communities in line with our motto and vision of providing home-grown artistic initiatives for worldwide consumption,” said Rooftop Promotions producer, Daves Guzha.
“After every performance, a team of facilitators will engage the audiences in a question-and-answer session. These post-performance sessions have become synonymous with productions hosted by Rooftop Promotions and Theatre in the Park.”
He said the sessions promote freedom of expression, in which the audience is given the opportunity to contribute by interrogating issues raised during the performance.
Guzha added that they were strong believers in the enhancement of citizen participation to have a better overall brand Zimbabwe.
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“We are extremely thrilled that communities out there can have direct interface with artists they have only read about in the papers,” he said.
The tour will kick off with a performance at Amakhosi Theatre in Bulawayo then in all the country’s provinces except Matabeleland North and South which will be visited later.
The play follows an interesting storyline. When life in a public hospital mortuary becomes unbearable, a group of dead bodies take matters into their hands.
Apart from being food for rats, flies and maggots, they are overcrowded, decomposing and denied the basic right of any dead body — a decent burial.
After deliberations, the dead bodies identify the source of their suffering as a repressive government led by a corrupt dictator. Led by the young body of a former school teacher, they break the mortuary doors down and march to the State House.
They also go after the President’s partners in the leadership matrix whom the dead bodies believe have failed to bring about the much-needed change.
The play premiered at Theatre in the Park in February this year and was well-received by the audience. It looks at the failing economy, the demise of the industrial sector and the worsening of the health delivery system. It also focuses on the relationship between coalition partners in the government of national unity.
