WHEN the West launched their regime change agenda against the country, they thought it was a matter of days before Harare crumbled — but it did not.
And the increased visibility of community theatre projects points towards a drastic shift in their anti-Zimbabwe project.
Theatre, the focal point where messages are passed on to the consuming public through direct contact with artistes, has in the past proven to be an efficient tool in galvanising masses against the leadership.
The French can testify to the effectiveness of theatre as it played a role in that country’s so-called revolution.
With Morgan Tsvangirai and his stuttering MDC-T on the wane, the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA), which has been aiding the opposition campaign albeit in a subtle but lethal manner, is slowly getting out of the blocks, being conjugated with community theatre activists with appropriately crafted theatre plays.
Such has been the unrecognised role of community theatre that a perusal of plays being staged throughout the country unravels a shocking link to the regime change agenda.
Everything from shaping and conditioning mind sets of opinion makers to ‘heightening consciousness’ about President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU PF Party’s alleged misrule has been exhibited through theatre by HIFA. And now the tide is being turned towards communities.
The strategy is to render the country’s history a non-event through invoking bitter but well-managed images of Zimbabwe as a failed state.
Never at any point will the success stories of the many empowerment programmes that have been initiated by Government be given prominence.
The messages are sent systematically to put in the minds of Zimbabweans that without whites, they are nothing.
The plays send signals that draw comparisons between Rhodesia and Zimbabwe but never the message that Harare has survived almost two decades with support from outsiders.
Even the recent approbation of the Command Agriculture Programme by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) must be taken with a pinch of salt.
To demonstrate the momentum being garnered in community theatre, recently the University of Zimbabwe ran a Theatre week project that saw a satirical play, Honourable MP, written by Gonzo Musengezi in 1984, taking centre stage .
The play talks about pot-bellied politicians who drain the national coffers, abuse young girls and abandon the electorate only to re-surface towards election time.
“Theatre remains any society’s sharpest way to hold a live debate with itself,” writes renowned English director Peter Hall in his book The Necessary Theatre.
“If it doesn’t challenge, provoke or illuminate, it is not fulfilling its function.”
An article by Tara Bracco in The Brooklyn Rail in September 2008 reveals the underlying and sometimes undetected impact of theatre.
Bracco says:
Unlike film or television where it is too easy to hit the mute button, theatre requires the audience to come face to face with its characters. Theatre shows the depths of these characters, their circumstances, and what motivates them to take specific actions. I never understood the Israeli-Palestinian conflict until I saw the plays ‘Golda’s Balcony’ and ‘My Name Is Rachel Corrie’. My history books just presented factual events and outcomes. These two plays showed the human elements driving this conflict and why tensions exist.
In 2004, Government banned the satirical play, Super Patriots and Morons, which was staged by production house, Rooftop Promotions, at HIFA, Theatre in the Park and the country’s 10 provinces in 2003.
The play, which premiered in 2003, centres on an iron-fisted leader of an imaginary African state who is intolerant of opposition political and economic sentiments.
The dictator sees all dissenters as enemies and fronts for neo-imperialists who have to be eliminated.
Raisedon Baya wrote the play while Daves Guzha, a familiar face of the regime change agenda was the producer.
The Censorship Board duly banned the provocative play saying it contravened the Censorship and Entertainment Control Act (1967).
On November 10 2010, prominent anti-Government writer Christopher Mlalazi’s play, Election Day premiered at Theatre in the Park with the intention of emboldening people to rally against ZANU PF in elections that were held on July 31 2013.
It was no surprise the play was first staged at HIFA.
A local daily gave rave reviews to the play, saying;
Election Day, which opens to the public on November 10, poignantly reflects the agitation people experience around election time.
The play’s cast, made up of talented actors and actresses, includes Privillege Mutendera, Teddy Mangawa, Tafadzwa Bob and Brezhnev Guveya.
The play’s synopsis was compelling and revealing.
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.
Election Day had its world premiere at HIFA 2010 as part of the HIFA Direct Theatre Mentorship Project by HIFA and the British Council where it had three shows at the Reps Upstairs Theatre.
It then came to Theatre in the Park with support from The British Council, British Embassy, HIVOS and NORAD.
Some time back, HIFA staged a play by one Blessing Hungwe in which Mbuya Nehanda, reawakening from the grave, regrets ever supporting the Second Chimurenga after seeing the ‘deplorable’ state of Zimbabwe.
Zimbabweans must be wary of the new strategy being employed by merchants of the regime change agenda.