BULAWAYO - Bambelela Theatre Arts Ensemble will premiere its new play The Civil Servant during the Inxusa Theatre Festival and World Theatre Day Colloquium at Amakhosi Cultural Centre.
The play, written and directed by Thabani Hillary Moyo, will be one of the key features of Inxusa that will run in Bulawayo from March 25 to 29.
Amakhosi programmes officer Thulani Mbambo confirmed to the Daily News the participation of Bulawayo-based Bambelela Theatre Arts Ensemble in the five-day event whose guest of honour will be veteran theatre academic David Kerr from the University of Botswana.
“In line with World Theatre Day and Inxusa Festival tradition, a new play by Bambelela Theatre Arts Ensemble has been selected to help us join the rest of the world in celebrating the art of theatre,” said Mbambo.
The Civil Servant revolves around a soon-to-be-retired government worker Elton who is battling with the fact that he has failed to achieve his dreams.
Elton becomes paranoid and irritable. All he can show for his 37 years of service are worthless insurance policies that expired due to the hyperinflationary economic environment.
What also compounds the situation is the fact that his two sons have also failed to make it in life. Elton dreads the coming back of the Zimbabwe dollar which is rumoured to be on its way back. He fears that his retirement package might come in the form of the worthless Zimbabwean dollar.
To save himself from this predicament, Elton decides to commit suicide so that his sons can get his retirement package in United States dollars.
At his funeral what his wife Khaya comes to realise is that being a civil servant is a thankless job because not many people attended Elton’s funeral despite his long years in the public service.
Inxusa Festival that will run under the theme “Merging Cultures” will kick off with the play Song of A Woman directed by Thembi Moyo and produced by Nonhlalo Dube.
The play was written by various women playwrights who took part in workshops organised by the Bulawayo-based Women In Theatre (WIT).
Song of A Woman will be showcasing for the fourth time in the City of Kings ever since it premiered last year during the weekly Plays on Sunday programme hosted by Amakhosi Cultural Centre.
The play went on to receive rave reviews when it was presented during the annual Intwasa Festival and at the Bulawayo National Gallery in commemoration of 16 days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.