LESS THAN 30 theatre enthusiasts attended the Zimbabwe Theatre Association show Half Empty, Half Full held at the Bulawayo Theatre on Saturday much to the chagrin of its promoters.
NONHLANHLA SIBANDA OWN CORRESPONDENT
The not-so-impressive attendance has been attributed to in adequate advertising of the show staged in conjuction with Savanah Trust, but its organisers insist they had fully advertised it through Facebook and posters.
The Zimbabwean National Arts Merit Awards 2010 best theatre actor winner Teddy Mangawa and Tafadzwa Hananda make up the cast.
The opening scene portrays two villagers Teddy and Taffy who go on a journey to a big city in Zimbabwe in search of job opportunities to support their loved ones back home. The two walk the stage in a merry-go-round manner symbolising a long journey they have embarked on.
The play projects anticipations, expectations, rather than reality and was projected with well organised transitions.
Teddy and Taffy begin to imitate the life they would adopt living on gold. They imagine what their loved ones back home would expect from them through probably truck drivers made to freight good fortune and goods in plenty.
They act out various scenes depicting real life situations, for instances teachers who have love affairs with students, employees who ill-treat workers in mines forcing them to work under dire circumstances.
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The Bulawayo Theatre audience seemed captivated by the characters who seemingly improvised on the stage by acting various roles.
They used onomatopoeia to portray various scenarios – animal voices, vehicle sounds and other phonetic imitations — to make the play natural.
An emotional scene as the two separate gripped the audience when the plot suddenly turned with Tafadzwa deciding to return to the village to take care of his dying sister.
The play logically ended with that high emotion. The play premiered last year at the Durban, South Africa, Musho Theatre Festival and was this year staged at Harare International Festival of the Arts.
