‘1955 was a bad year for little black girls’ says one of the lines in the most moving theatrical performance Zimbo Jam has watched this year. Our hearts break, because looking around us at what is happening to little black girls in the world today, we see that 1955 must have been as bad as 2014.
But all you need to do is go over to Reps Theatre Upstairs between now and Saturday, August 16, to watch ‘For Colored Girls (Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf)’ to understand that most years are bad years for little black girls, big black girls – and as Sandra Chidawanika Goliath, one of the members of the terrific cast, explained – for women in general.
‘For Colored Girls’ is a series of 21 poems by Ntozake Shange that take you through time and space, exploring the often tragic world of ‘little black girls’ and women. Set in the U.S., this unusual and innovative physical theatre piece provides a visceral window into the passion, the pain, the extreme vulnerability experienced by women, black women, as they navigate life.
The cast of six, Goliath, Munyaradzi Guramatunhu, Joylene Malenga, Privillage Mutendera, Charmaine Mujeri and Rutendo ‘R Tendo’ Tapiwa, were on fire last night as they sang, swayed, sashayed their way through the performance, exploding into the full spectrum of human emotion right there on stage. No props. Just movement and voices.
They were capably directed by Harare theatre veteran David Bvumbe, who we are more familiar with seeing on stage than behind the scenes. These talented, strong women suck us into their short poems about being catcalled at on the street, having an abortion, seducing a man – making their world real to every person in the audience.
And yet to call them poems is not accurate. They may be poems on paper, but when they roll off the lips and leap out of the bodies of these talented actresses in 80 gut-wrenching, soul-flipping minutes they are transformed into the very matter of life.
You feel their joy when they laugh about boys chatting them up. You sense the despair when they talk about looking for real love. You experience the pain when they cry real tears – all six of them – after one of them talks about losing her children.
Tanaka Vengere did the costumes and assisted with the production of the play while Mildred Madzokera made sure the atmosphere was just right at every point of the production with light and sound management.
When Shange originally released the play in the USA in 1975 it became a landmark piece in African American literature and black feminism. In 2010, renowned filmmaker, Tyler Perry, made it into a star-studded movie featuring the talents of Whoopi Goldberg, Janet Jackson, Thandie Newton Kerry Washington, Kimberly Elise, Loretta Devine, Anika Noni Rose and Phylicia Rashād.
Tough act to follow, you’re probably thinking. During a post-performance Q&A, one audience member said he preferred the Bvumbe production to the film version and We agree. Do yourself a favour and make sure you see this before the run ends later this week.
If it is possible to make a victorious play about pain and suffering, then David Bvumbe and his cast of six have created the template for it. And that tint of victory colours everything about this play. It reminds us, without saying it, that throughout all the sad things we do to each other we find reasons to believe in life, love, friendship and humanity. There is no reason for suicide. The rainbow of possibilities for overcoming all these things is more than enough to hold onto.
