Award-winning theatre production company, Savanna Trust will tonight carry on with its fight for the rights of the girl child with the premiering of their new play, ‘Ukama’ at Alliance Francaise.
The play explores issues of marriage and failure to conceive, family relations, urban and regional migration, and other issues relating to the girl child. Set in rural Zimbabwe, an ambitious 17 year old girl.
But one would wonder why the production company is investing in a production whose subject matter has been heavily explored by many other thespians?
Savanna Trust director, Daniel Maposa shared with Zimbo Jam why they chose this subject saying, “It is our opinion that the issue of the girl child is still a virgin issue within the sector. While plays have been produced that focus on the girl child, it is our feeling that there are a myriad of other stories around this issue that have not been told.
“Secondly, in producing a play, we are guided by the phrase that there is no new story in the universe. But it is how the story is told that differs. As Savanna Trust we have only tackled the girl child story through radio and not on stage. In tackling this issue on stage, we found out that the story we tell in Ukama is unique in how it is being tackled.”
Besides performing the plays in theatre spaces in Zimbabwe Savanna also uses such productions for their community outreach programmes.
Responding to how effective these plays are in communities Maposa said, “As stated above, we have tackled the girl child stories through radio and yes, the stories have had some amazing impact to the people that listened to them. For the community plays, we have been working more on change of behaviour, attitude and practices among communities regards how they view and treat the girl child and this has registered some positive change in the communities.”
The play was written and directed by Bongani Masango and features seasoned actors namely; Teddy Mangawa, Heather Mlingo and Charlene Mangweni.
Asked how the three were selected Maposa said, “For the two ladies, we held auditions 3 weeks ago which was attended by several female artists. Charmaine Mugweni and Heather Chiedza Mlingo were successful. For Teddy Mangawa, the director of the play was responsible for casting him as he was yearning to work with him.”
