HARARE - A new play that explores the untold cultural and religious collisions caused by colonialism in southern Africa and the reverberating effects still felt in the region has opened.
The Convert opens on the December 10 at the Prince Edward Beit Hall and runs through to the December 24 2013.
Come and meet these characters who are vividly brought to life by well-established Zimbabwean actors including Michael Kudakwashe, Rumbidzai Karize, Tafadzwa Bob Mutumbi and Charmaine Mujeri.
Set amid the colonial scramble for southern Africa in 1895, The Convert tells the tale of Jekesai, a young girl who escapes a forced marriage arrangement with the help of a stalwart black African catechist, Chilford Ndlovu.
Caught between her loyalties to her family and culture and indebted to this new Christian God, she becomes Chilford’s protégé, but when an anti-colonial uprising erupts she is forced to decide which side she will choose- and where her heart truly belongs.
This three-act melodrama is written by Zimbabwean-American playwright/actress Danai Gurira of In The Continuum, Eclipsed and Walking Dead fame, directed by visiting American director Adam Immerwahr and produced and presented by Almasi Collaborative Arts (Patience Tawengwa and Danai Gurira co — founders).
The Convert is a riveting and thought provoking play that explores inter-woven themes of personal identity and crisis, African culture, Christianity and colonialism.
It also implores the question, if you were alive when the first collision of faith, culture, traditions and foreign presences took place, who would you have been? And who are we now as a result?
The Convert is the winner of the 2012 Stavis Award, The 2012 Whiting Award, the 2013 LA Drama Circle Award, The Edgerton Award for New American plays and Six Los Angeles Ovation Awards.
It was commissioned by Centre Theater Group in Los Angeles and premiered at the McCarter Theater in Princeton, New Jersey.
After five highly-successful productions across the United States, it is now, finally staged in the land of its inception.