....2011 has seen a flurry of plays coming out of my pen. The first was opened at HIFA 2011, the hilarious comedy COLOURS OF DREAMS, and the second opened at the PROTEST ART INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL, also in Harare, in October. The following is an extract from the press statement posted by Leonard Matsa of Savanna Arts, the organization behind PROTEST ART FEST. This was copied from Facebook..
....However,
one of the plays that is certain to leave lasting impressions at the
festival is Fes’bhuku performed by Savanna Trust, a play that talks
about the impact that social networks such as Facebook have made to
communities in Zimbabwe. Until recently, remote areas in Zimbabwe have
been insulated from the rest of the world due their inaccessibility and
other reasons. With the advent of internet and e-mobile, the rural folks
have suddenly found the whole world at the tip of their fingers.
Social networking sites have become as popular as elsewhere in the
world giving the hitherto “invisible” rural folks a platform to speak
and access world-wide views. Everything is now almost within reach. But
it is the social network wave that has taken these remote areas and
other places by storm. Such a powerful tool in the hands of anyone and
everyone is bound to present interesting questions and scenarios.
The play, Fes’bhuku written by Chris Mlalazi, is based on this new
social networking phenomenon. In the absence of specific regulation, how
does this platform of expression impact on remote communities that are
suddenly fast-tracked into “ownership” of this powerful tool? Or does it
even need to be regulated seeing regulating it would be tantamount to
crafting what to and not to say for the previously disempowered voices?
The setting is a rural growth point. Marvellous is new on Facebook and
his past posts have not be so clean so to speak, well according to his
friends and family. His wife has hidden the only record of his profile
password to discourage Marvellous’ obsession with Facebook and
Marvellous, oblivious of how to recover the password is prepared to lose
everything for his password so he can throw an important post.
Marvellous will stop at nothing to be heard. Fes’bhuku is a must watch....
***
I must also add that I have written two other plays for 2012, and this time I am going for the one man cast, so watch out for them. I hope the first will premiere at HIFA 2012 if they accept it, but following the success of my 2011 plays, I bet it will be taken...
I have another important announcement to make in the following weeks about my writing career, something has happened, and oh yes it is GOOD!
And those who already know please keep your lips sealed....:)
