The play, written by new playwright, Patrick Chasaya and directed by Daves Guzha produced a compelling stage performance that was raunchy but fell short in basic storytelling and struggled to build its internal logic. Given the dearth of playwrights in Zimbabwe, Chasaya needs to be commended for his courage and tenacity in making this first effort.
Suffice it to state that while the acting was on point and touched on issues of sex and sexuality that are often not discussed in our society, the overall storyline was rather choppy.
With its often raw humour and rough language, coupled with adult themes, the play is a raunchy strut-your-stuff performance with the all-female cast of Eunice Tava (Keresenzia), Charity Dlodlo (Chipo) and Gertrude Munhamo (Samantha) being bawdy, brazen and, sometimes, philosophical. While characterisation is a great strength of the play, the actors have a very limited scope of a play to function within.
The play, which is rated, “No Under 18”, has its comical and provocative moments, some even bordering on the pornographic, especially the rape scenes.
For a new playwright, it must have been a mammoth task to try and flesh out all the three characters that a lot of time is spent with each trying to establish their case. Because the three women are not radically different, at the end, it appears like one character rolled into three, resulting in unnecessary repetitions.
The beginning is deceptively promising with the three characters narrating why and how they are involved in sex work but a quarter-way into the performance, the play loses its spark which it compensates with bawdy jokes.
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Play needs a more convincing plot
The simple premise of the play is that three sex workers narrate and gyrate about their experiences, get into trouble and embark on a botched business venture.
The play does attempt to highlight the abuse that sex workers experience at the hands of the police but very little is explored in this regard.
Overally, the production needs to be better polished; the storyline, in particular, needs to be tighter, with scenes not appearing to be hashed up.
It needs to balance form with matter, and develop a sense of audience empathy in its character portrayal as well as develop a more convincing conclusion.
