A misunderstanding between Rooftop Promotions and Complete Arts Project last week crippled the run of Vaclav Havel’s play, Audience.
Report by Silence Charumbira
The play was supposed to run at Theatre in the Park from Tuesday to Friday, but had to be postponed indefinitely.
Theatre enthusiasts that came to the Harare Gardens venue on Tuesday and Wednesday were disappointed with the news of the cancellation of the run.
Complete Arts Project director Peter Churu last week said there were business terms that the two organisations failed to agree on.
“When we did the play at Alliance Française, funded by the Czech Embassy, it ran concurrently with another Havel play and we thought it was a noble idea to do the same at Theatre in the Park,” said Churu.
“What we did not deliberate on was the business and financial side of the project, but Rooftop Promotions went on to advertise the run. “We tried to get actors ready but it was too short a notice, so we had to cancel the run.”
Contacted for comment, Daves Guzha, the director of Rooftop Productions, was singing a different tune altogether.
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“He [Churu] is not being sincere. I think he has internal challenges with his actors and to say that [we are to blame] is not correct,” said Guzha.
“I think this is just a case of a producer who has failed to do his job and it is wrong for him to start mudding us.”
Guzha then forwarded a thread of Facebook messages sent between him and Churu, which proved that there was adequate communication between the two parties.
Churu however, promised to compensate theatre lovers with a run of the same play before the end of the year.
Audience is one of Havel’s plays from his famous trilogy and its coming to Theatre in the Park would have been interesting. It would have complemented the other Havel play titled Protest that had run the previous week.
It remains to be seen whether or not Audience will finally be able to run before the end of the year as claimed by Churu.
