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Zimbabwe.
This schedule of performances was in many respect, a response to some theatre critics who have argued that Zimbabwe cannot create a viable theatre industry when successful theatre productions are “killed” after a few performances to a few hundreds of people mainly in Harare and Bulawayo.

Already 18 new plays have been premiered in Harare this year mainly at Theatre in the Park, REPS Theatre, Theatre Upstairs, Jameson Hotel, the Anglican Cathedral Hall, Prince Edward School Hall, University of Zimbabwe’s Beit Hall and at several high schools. Most of these plays have already been “killed”.
It is a pity that scarce resources are spent on producing good quality theatre that is consumed by few people.
Full time occupation in theatre becomes unsustainable and unviable if theatre productions are accessed by very few people.

What is worse in this regard, is that many of these new plays that have been well received will not be available in published form for other theatre companies to consider producing them.
It is not common practice of theatre companies in Zimbabwe to produce local plays that have been performed by other theatre companies.
The killing of new plays after a few performances seems to have become a dominant feature of Zimbabwean theatre.

This is why the news about the tour of “Burn Mukwerekwere Burn” to colleges through the country should be exciting to all those who subscribe to the view that theatre products that are not consumed by the people for whom they are created are a wasted cultural heritage.
NKM and Development Artists began their national tour of colleges with a performance at the Harare Institute of Technology on the 28th October. Other performances in Harare were at Belvedere

Teachers College on 2nd November. Tomorrow the play will be presented at the Harare Polytechnic College. The group travels to Bulawayo for one show at the Bulawayo Polytechnic College on the 8th November.
In Mutare the group is scheduled to perform at Marymount Teachers College and Mutare Polytechnic College on the 9th November.

The last show in Mutare will be at the Mutare Teachers College on the 10th November. From Mutare the group will travel to Masvingo for performances at the Masvingo Theatre College on the 11th November and at Bondolfi Teachers College on the 15th November.
The group will conclude the Masvingo tour with a performance at the Masvingo Polytechnic College on the 16th Novem- ber.

They will return to Harare for a show at Seke Teachers College on 17th November, before travelling to Gwanda for a show at Gwanda Teachers College on the 18th November. Blessing Hungwe expressed gratitude to the principals of these colleges who have embraced the performance tour of “Burn Mukwerekwere Burn” and who enabled their communities of students and staff to access this brilliant theatre production.

Hungwe said NKM and Development Artists were motivated to initiate a performance tour of colleges after a very successful performance tour of both state and private universities undertaken in September and early October.
The second phase of taking “Burn Mukwerekwere Burn” to the remaining universities will be done in the last two weeks of November.

“Burn Mukwerekwere Burn” is a story of two young Zimbabweans running from home who “discover the realities of the Rainbow Nation when South Africa erupts in an orgy of xenophobic violence. Finding shelter in the oddest of places they are forced to examine their situation and reflect on their predicament as they try and journey to safety wherever that may be.”
NKM and Development Artists are looking for partners to enable them to take “Burn Mukwerekwere Burn” to high schools throughout the country.

The Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture urged the group to take the play to high schools next year. The group has also received an open invitation to take the play to Grahamstown Festival in South Africa and to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Stockholm next year.
It is the groups hope to garner support from the corporations, development agencies and individuals to enable it take up this offer to perform at these prestigious international arts festivals.

Also undertaking a national performance tour of institutions of higher learning from the 10th November is Rooftop Promotions with its play “The People” which premiered on 27th September in Theatre in the Park.

The play, which is directed by Cont Mhlanga, is an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s play “An Enemy of the People”.
The play, which was first performed in Norway in 1882, is a “story of one brave man’s struggle to do the right thing in the face of extreme social intolerance”.

The protagonist in this play is a doctor who discovers that the water that a city is consuming is contaminated by a leather factory.
The doctor expects the people of the city to consider him a hero for saving the city from disease outbreak but instead the ungrateful people band against him mercilessly. They throw stones and break

the windows of house and ostracise him and his family.
The guest audience that patronised the premier of the play in Theatre in the Park were impressed by the adaptation of the play which brought home the reality of the water crises our big cities are facing especially the dilemma of leaving factories to pollute rivers and water reservoirs and then struggle to get money for chemicals that are required to treat the water and make it fit for human consumption.

The star studded cast of Daves Guzha, Jasen Mphepo, Obrien Mudyawenyama, Sarah Mpofu, Getrude Munhamo and Vincent Ngwenya render this 1882 play very current, topical and very relevant.

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