Mlalazi’s debut play opens
First staged at the Harare International Festival of the Arts (Hifa), the play pulsates with the rich touch of first-time director and two-time Nama best actress Eunice Tava.
Election Day, which opens to the public on November 10, poignantly reflects the agitation people experience around election time, The Zimbo Jam reports.
The play’s cast, made up of talented actors and actresses, includes Privillage Mutendera, Teddy Mangawa, Tafadzwa Bob and Brezhnev Guveya.
According to the play’s brief synopsis, it is election time and His Excellency Poka Oka Ndiseng’s ruling party is losing by a very wide margin in the polls.
His wife, Samantha, and his personal advisor, Twenty, are both panicking and they are urging Ndiseng to flee the country, but an adamant Ndiseng tells them he is not going anywhere and wants to be buried under the soil of his ancestors.
“The intention is not to insult anyone but to just poke fun at election fever in not only Zimbabwe but the whole world,” Tava said.
“Elections have been a very sensitive subject in most countries and as artists we find the various stories about elections in Zimbabwe very interesting and full of drama hence a source for our creative work.”
Rooftop Promotions producer Daves Guzha said they were “on a deliberate drive as an organiasation to provide exposure to Zimbabwe’s emerging talent” in line with their mission.
“Our experience with emerging artists has been fulfilling so we are confident that what we are doing is to ensure posterity in the theatre industry,” Guzha said.
Election Day had its world premiere at HIFA 2010 as part of the Hifa direct theatre mentorship project by Hifa and British Council where it had three sold out shows at the 50-or-so seater Reps Upstairs theatre.
While Tava is not new to theatre, being an experienced actress in her own right, Mlalazi is prominently known as a novel, poetry and short story writer.
