WHEN the curtains came down on These People Are Evil, the audience at Jason Mphepo Little Theatre was left laughing as playwright Tatenda Mutyambizi used humour to portray a painful reflection of our collective reality.
The play, which was part of last week’s Almasi Collaborative Arts’ inaugural festival, African Voices Now!, was directed by Charmaine Mujeri.
It exposes the tangled web of deceit, desperation and hypocrisy that defines modern Zimbabwean life from the corridors of power to the pulpits of “self-proclaimed” prophets.
Set in one of Harare’s oldest suburbs, Rugare, ironically meaning “to live well”, the production captures everything, but wellness.
Here, broken sewage pipes, empty promises and shattered dreams are the rhythm of daily life.
Poverty is high, jobs are scarce and hope is rationed and served only through political slogans and prophetic lies.
The play features Benson, played by renowned actor Michael Kudakwashe, an aspiring councillor born within the same poverty he vows to get rid of once he becomes council representative.
His charm and eloquence win over the people of Rugare as he promises a youth-led economy, jobs and transformation.
- These People Are Evil play mirrors society’s rot
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To many, Benson becomes the light at the end of a dark tunnel, especially for Tindo, played by Tinevimbo “Tulmoney” Chimbetete, a young man burdened by loss, debt and an ill mother.
What begins as a partnership built on shared dreams quickly turns into a nightmare.
Tindo becomes Benson’s political commissar, linking him to all that he so much wants, the electorate.
Benson gets all that, but his hunger for power consumes him and so does his lust.
He seduces Sasha (Chiedza Matabuka), Tindo’s sister, a young woman desperate to go to Germany for studies.
She trades her dreams for Benson’s false promises of a better life.
Meanwhile, Melody played by Dalma Chiwereva, Benson’s neglected wife, the woman who financed his political ambitions through cross-border trading, is frustrated by his husband’s lack of attention.
She seeks comfort in the arms of Tindo.
The plot thickens with each second as the rot continues to multiply.
Even the so-called men of God are not spared from the rot.
The Prophet, played by Ronald “Madilax” Sigeca, seems to speak truth to power as the play begins, but his love for money leads him to give Sasha ritual pebbles (miteuro) in order to charm Benson so that “his ears bend to his wishes”.
By the time the election results are announced, it is too late.
The plot has already thickened.
Melody is pregnant with Tindo’s child, Sasha is heartbroken and Tindo is destitute.
Benson, who is later announced the election winner, dies by his own hand on the eve of the election results announcement, leaving behind a trail of wrecked lives and broken promises.
Tatenda Mutyambizi’s These People Are Evil proves to be nothing more than the truth dressed as art as it highlights political greed, moral decay and the exploitation of people’s faith and hope, something which most people are experiencing in Zimbabwe.
