BY SHARON SIBINDI Playwright and theatre director and photographer Mgcini Nyoni made his debut performance as an actor in his latest production titled Shuffle, which ran from Thursday till yesterday at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe (NGZ) in Bulawayo.
Directed by veteran theatre director and actor Memory Kumbota, the stage play Shuffle — interrogates identity markers like tribe, religion, sexuality and financial status.
“It is my first theatre production as an actor and I used a series of personal monologues to highlight the incongruence of identity,” Nyoni said.
“It is everyone’s wish to have a neat and easily identifiable identity and to be able to place others in neat identity documents, but is that the case in real life?”
Nyoni said issues of identity, instead of getting better and help build communities, are getting worse.
“Recently a Zimbabwean was burnt alive on the streets of South Africa because his identity was not South African,” he said.
Keep Reading
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
“There is urgent need to address toxic issues of identity.”
Nyoni said the tittle Shuffle was inspired by the music player function of shuffle.
“The shuffle function can take you from hip-hop, jazz to sungura… that’s the nature of human existence,” he said.
Nyoni said he will not be actively pursuing acting but might consider doing it full time if he gets offers.
He has written and directed a number of theatre productions, including The Really Stupid Things that Men Say, which initially featured Mbo Mahocs and later Lady Tshawe.
“I also did a lot of poetry and photography is a later addition to my arts career,” he said.
Shuffle is set to go on tour and its first port call is the Jason Mphepho Little Theatre in Harare on May 22 -23.