BY PRECIOUS CHIDA
ALMASI Collaborative Arts will this Friday stage a reading of Last of the Suns by Alice Tuan at Reps Theatre, the third instalment in a series of projects involving Tuan’s work, NewsDay Life & Style has heard.
The staged reading will be directed by poet and theatre director, Elizabeth Zaza Muchemwa.
The reading focuses on the plight of American-Chinese women trying to belong and live in societies and traditions that seek to make women submissive.
“Last of the Suns is Alice Tuan’s play about a Chinese family in America, juggling issues of assimilation, coming of age and the role of women and at its centre is the assertion that the act of leaving one culture behind and settling in another is often a violent change with damaging emotional consequences,” Almasi said in a statement.
“It explores this kind of cultural schizophrenia to interrogate what it means for a second generation American-Chinese woman to belong and, what it means to have a voice transcended of the pressures of family, cultural and societal expectations.”
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Almasi said the reading was relatable to the Zimbabwean audience beyond a personal level because many have struggled for a sense of belonging and traditionalism at a time of cross- pollination of cultures due to globalisation.
Actors including Tafadzwa Bob Mutumbi, Charmaine Mujeri, Ronald Sigeca, David Bvumbe, Chimwemwe Joy Chipidza, Francis Nyakuhwa and Michael Kudakwashe feature in the piece.
Staged readings, according to the organisers, are designed to advance dramatic knowledge in the community and to facilitate new Zimbabwean works and push them onto the global stage.