The Sunday Mail
Although, the going was tough for Hifa organisers this year, thousands of people still attended the six-day arts fiesta
EVERY thespian wants to showcase their work at the Harare International Festival of the Arts (Hifa), as it is also a platform to meet theatre practitioners from other countries.
By Dereck Nziyakwi – Leisure Correspondent
Rated as one of the best festivals on the African continent, it is the only platform in Zimbabwe, which has managed to convince local audiences to pay US$10 to watch a play.
With a huge audience, professionalism and renowned international acts, it is disheartening for an artiste to be left out.
However, this year a lot of theatre practitioners were thankful not to have been part and parcel of the festival’s theatre programme, with most of the plays failing to rise to the occasion.
Athol Fugard’s play “Master Harold and Boys”, which has also been performed on Broadway, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Capital Fringe Festival, to mention but a few, is one such play which was showcased.
The play which is set in the apartheid era was commandeered by an internationally acclaimed director who happens to be my mentor, Zane E. Lucas and features Sam Brakarsh, Act Muronzi and Tanaka Vengere.
Despite the popularity of the play, using inexperienced actors on such a platform proved to be a disaster with the cast failing to do justice to the play.
The actors failed to execute what was required of their characters except for Brakarsh who seemed to have his moments, but still it was not enough to salvage the situation and the terrible acting from the other two actors did not help either.
I believe my teacher made a huge blunder on this one.
Talking of blunders I cannot close the chapter without mentioning Jens Vilela Neuman, who directed “Water Games”, an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s an “Enemy of the People”.
The play illuminated challenges facing most African communities, especially that of receiving clean and safe water.
It tackles how some decision makers in our society use their influence to derail development in communities.
The local audience could relate to the play, which had a star-studded cast featuring award-winning Michael Kudakwashe, Nama nominee Tichaona Mutore and veteran Kudzai Sevenzo.
However, it was killed by a bad choice of style by the director.
It was brave on his part to turn such a conventional play to a slap stick show.
However, we ended up losing great moments because some actors resorted to shouting too much.
Had it not been for Kudakwashe, the show was going to be a disappointing one but he managed to use his experience to save the day.
From the dialogue I had with various people, I got mixed reactions but they ended up mentioning Kudakwashe for saving the show.
“Water Games” should have been a masterpiece if it was presented well, thank God I was not associated with the play but it had its moments.
Hifa organisers showed that they are not rigid when they included the ASSITEJ Mini Festival and Shoko Festival in their programme.
Zimbabwe Association of Theatre for Children and Young People hosted five countries namely Sweden, South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe with their project from idea to action.
I watched a play by Pamushana School in the youth zone it was brilliantly acted and was presented better than what some of the countries did. I hope next year these guys will work on quality.
