Theatre in The Park will stage a first in the history of Zimbabwean theatre when it hosts the first ever, one woman theatrical production, “Narratives from the Dark” from May 25-26, 2017.
The play written by Special Matarirano and directed by Eunice Tava, features debutant on the big stage, Edith Masango in a production that glaring proves that disability does not mean inability.
Zimbo Jam caught up with the director, Tava who said working with Edith was a life changing experience.
“When I received the offer to direct the play I was really skeptical about how it would go down, especially considering that Edith is visually impaired and it was her first time on the big stage,” said Tava.
“However, I got myself composed and agreed to direct the play and today, I don’t regret making that decision as working with Edith was a life changing experience for me as a director.”
Tava says she was shocked with the level of artistry shown by Masango throughout the time there were in rehearsal.
“I was really blown away by the way Edith memorized her lines so perfectly, missing not even a single word in our first rehearsal – even when we added new lines during the rehearsals she would easily catch them smoothly sync them into her performance.
“Overall I believe this will be a great production and people should come out and watch it,” said the award-winning Tava.
The upbeat actress says what made her fancy taking up the role of lead actress is that the story mirrored her life.
“What made me really want to attempt to act in this play was the fact that the storyline speaks about people with disability and to an extent mirrors my own life,” said Masango.
“It was really challenging to master the script as there were 32 pages for me to memorise but with the aid of my director and the playwright, I managed to pull through.
“This being my first time on the big stage, am not nervous at all but just want to tell the real story of people with disability from our own perspective,” highlighted the 25 year old who hails from Southlea Park who has been involved in a couple of short films
Writer of the play, Matarirano says that, “When I started writing this play, I had already met Edith and knew her capabilities hence the process was mainly guided by what I knew of the actress. One thing that stood out clearly was the actress’s power to remember things. Maybe the issue of the process was very much made easy for me because Edith Masango had told me her story of her life and what she went through and in creating the narrative that had a quasi-biography of her life as a direct mirror and sample of the larger reality of “people leaving with disability”, it was not very much difficult now,” said Matarirano.
Matarirano highlights that the main message of the play is that life is a struggle.
“The important message in the play is life is a struggle and everyone who lives on
