Reliving Doris Lessing Doris May Lessing
Doris May Lessing

Doris May Lessing

Entertainment Reporter
The life and works of Nobel Literature Prize winner and renowned author Doris Lessing are under the spotlight in Norway through a play titled “Play with Guinea Fowl”. Lessing, born Doris Taylor, was a thorn in the flesh of all the settler regimes both for her communist beliefs in her youth and for her exposure of the pettiness, triviality and shallowness of settler society as well as its better known wrongs and evils.
She was declared a prohibited immigrant throughout the then Federation and forbidden to return until independence in 1980.

Born in Iran she grew up in Zimbabwe, gaining most of her formal education at Harare’s Dominican Convent while her parents farmed near Banket.

The play, which is being staged in a number of venues including Tornsberg and Oslo, was born out of a collaboration between Norwegian production house Theatre Nova and Zimbabwe’s Rooftop Promotions.

Local theatre practitioners Daves Guzha and Gibson Sarari are in Norway for the play run. Sarari is one of the actors while Guzha co-produced the play.

The play mirrors Lessing’s life as she grew up in Rhodesia and her clash with the settler lifestyle and the regimes that protected it. She left soon after the end of World War II when her second marriage to a German leftist refugee collapsed. She settled in London where she still lives.

Famed for her novel “The Grass is Singing” Lessing came to Zimbabwe when she was five years old and left in her early twenties.
Most of her writing has been influenced by events in Rhodesia and later Zimbabwe. Lessing briefly returned to Zimbabwe after independence.

The play is a trajectory of Lessing’s life through the characters that have dominated her writing. It starts with Lessing’s keen interest in reading at an early age and explores her move to Harare to work as a typist. It also reflects her family life showing how she left her children and first husband.

The topical issue in the play hinges on Lessing’s defiance after she was declared persona non grata in Rhodesia and how she later moved briefly to South Africa and finally the United Kingdom.

Theatre Nova founder Simone Thiis said making a play about Lessing’s life was a fascinating experience.
“I am the artistic director of the group and for every project I find different artistes that fit the project best. I always make performances with a new text and this time I decided together with the writer, Elisabeth Beanca Halvorsen, to do a play about Les-sing,” Thiis said. Thiis and Halvorsen came to Zimbabwe to research on Lessing’s life before creating the play.

“We met some people that knew her, went to schools that she attended and also went to see her house in Banket. Going to Zimbabwe to meet people who knew her and feel the atmosphere in which she created her writings was so important for how we see Lessing.

“I find it as a very big enrichment for the play that Sarari will play music in it. It will lift the performance and give it a small feeling of the mood in Africa. I also think that Guzha’s interest for the play and his willingness to help us is great for both parties as an interesting international exchange. I am sure we can learn a lot from each others work.”

Guzha also applauded the collaboration.
“This collaborative effort is good for the growth of our sector and has proved the importance of telling a different narrative. Sometimes we do forget that there are individuals like Doris who suffered a lot at the hands of the Rhodesians and whose narratives of defiance and beliefs have assisted in shaping our Zimbabwean identity,” said Guzha.

The play is expected to come to Zimbabwe next year courtesy of the Norwegian Embassy.

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