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Angela Sibanda, Showbiz Reporter
The Intwasa double-bill show was one of the well-attended theatre shows last Friday as Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo partnered with Umkhathi Theatre Works and gave art lovers a show that left them yearning for more.

Compared to the few shows that have been hosted at Bulawayo Theatre, the show was well-attended and the directors did not disappoint as they selected very interesting plays that had a lot of impact on the audience.

The show had two plays, The Legend of a Black Heroine directed by Memory Kumbota and Father of the House choreographed by Richard Ndlovu.

The Legend of a Black Heroine was centred on the life of a young black woman, Nomzamo, (a role played by the talented Musawenkosi Sibanda) who was chosen by the ancestors to lead her tribe during colonialism.

The director of the play Memory Kumbota said it was aimed at highlighting the plight of women and the role of religion during the struggle.

“The play sought to look at the role of African spiritualism in the context of colonisation and liberation.

It set out to look at the role of women, especially the female heroines of black resistance.

“Looking at the plight of the girl child as represented by Nomzamo is critical.

Nomzamo is an independent and empowered young person who despite earlier reservations about her character, ends up respected and honoured by the people,” he said.

In the play, actors used various languages such as Ndebele, Shona, Xhosa, Sotho and Venda and they dressed up in different African attire to show that the colonial suffering was felt by all tribes across Zimbabwe.

“The issue of language is an attempt to make the universe of the story inclusive of all African people and regions.

It is an African story.

The young girls gave as much as the young boys and we deliberately made the commissioner black to highlight the existence of those who forgot their roots to serve as pillars of the system that oppresses their fellow man,” said Kumbota.

The play featured star artistes like Lady Tshawe, Charmaine Mudau and Zenzo Nyathi among others.

The other play was Richard Ndlovu’s first-choreographed production titled Father of the house.

It told the story of a father who leaves his wife and children to look for a job at the mines.

But when he finds the job, he squanders all his money drinking beer with women and one day, he gets involved in a fight at a bar, gets arrested and his wife bears the financial burden of bailing him out.

Ndlovu said the story was inspired by the daily struggles that women and kids go through because of irresponsible men.

“I’ve seen a lot of men who go to look for jobs in South Africa and abroad as well as those who leave rural areas and go to town to look for jobs, but when they start adapting to the new life of going to nightclubs, they totally forget about their responsibility,” he said.

The storyline was set in different dance categories that according to Ndlovu, represented different life situations.

“For the first part of the story, we used contemporary dance which goes with the feeling of love while the gumboot dance was used to represent the working class in mines.

We used hip-hop for the men fighting,” said Ndlovu.

Actors also danced to amapiano, golden oldies like kwela-kwela and some pantsula songs during the performance.

The double-bill show was set to show at the Bulawayo Theatre on Friday and Saturday but the Saturday show failed to kick-off owing to electricity challenges. However, directors have assured the audience that another day will be set for the show.

Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo director Raisedon Baya said they had to make do so as to make the show a success.

“You can never prepare enough or invest enough for these shows.

There’s more that our sector still needs. Due to a lack of proper resources, sometimes we cut corners.

For these productions, we had to cut out things that might have helped make the production richer.

“But at the end of the day, we did what we could and we’re happy with the response,” he said.