THE recently opened Theatre in the Park venue in Harare Gardens will from this Wednesday and Thursday host its first play on the new stage called Super Patriots and Morons that was once banned by authorities.
BY ARTS REPORTER
Raisedon Baya’s explosive play will be performed by the original cast — Daves Guzha and O’Brien Mudyiwei, who will be joined by veteran Theatre in the Park actor, Mandla Moyo, and Eunice Tava.
Rooftop Promotions producer, Daves Guzha said staging Super Patriots and Morons as the first play at Theatre in the Park was making a bold statement about their vision for the space.
“This will be a space in which the people of Zimbabwe can engage each other in debates raised by our socially and politically conscious performances. We want to open discussions and facilitate connections between citizens, artistes and policy-makers,” he said.
The play was first performed in Harare at the original Theatre in the Park in 2003, before it was sent to the country’s 10 provinces engaging local communities.
“When Super Patriots and Morons returned to Harare in 2004, the Censorship Board used an entertainment control law passed by the Rhodesian government in 1967 to ban the play, proving the power of the play’s proclamation against failed leadership,” he said.
“The actors responded by touring across southern Africa and Europe. The regional and international response to the play was positive, generating a wide base of support for Theatre in the Park, and raising serious questions about the nature of censorship and repression in Zimbabwe.”
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Guzha said the play resonated powerfully across Zimbabwe — as people struggling with food and fuel shortages identified closely with the principal character, a woman who vents her frustration with the failed leadership of her country.
“Super Patriots and Morons tells the story of a woman living in a non-functioning State. In a queue one day, she explodes with frustration, and is arrested for her outburst. She is brought before the unnamed leader, who she confronts. By your greed and mismanagement you have failed us, she tells him,” he said.
“Twelve years after the play was banned, the message is a strong and a relevant one. As the country remains stranded in political stasis, Zimbabweans look with anxiety to the future of leadership in the country.”
Guzha said the play raises universal questions about the nature of leadership, the need for accountability and transparency in political systems.
“The play imagines the success of a carefully imagined and executed Indigenisation policy, which genuinely assists Zimbabwean businesses. It imagines a successful agricultural and land reform policy, which provides food enough for the country and the region,” he said.
“It asks why we have squandered our diamond resources and failed to sustainably exploit our platinum, gold and uranium. And it looks for a political system where diversity of political opinion strengthens rather than factionalises the parties, and in which there is no need to hide behind the tinted windows of a bulletproof Mercedes.”
Tickets for the play are selling at $3 and are available at Theatre in the Park offices or at the door.
