Prominent author Christopher Mlalazi has partnered with Umkhathi Theatre for the re-launch of the play Soil Of The Son, which has been renamed Warrior.
BY SHARON SIBINDI
The re-launch of the play will be held during the Intwasa Arts Festival.
Mlalazi said the play was not new as it was first premiered in 2003. This time, however, they have decided to re-brand it.
“This time we decided to re-brand the play and call it Warrior. Why brand it? Because I have grown as a writer and I believe that titles should reflect what they purport to represent, rather than to be too poetic, so much that the viewers do not know what they are in for,” he said.
“And so, Warrior is a play about warriors and in this case Shaka the Zulu, who is the subject of this piece.”
Mlalazi said the storyline is a fictionalised psychological glimpse of the childhood of the protagonist and what might have led Shaka the Zulu into becoming the legend that stories about him describe.
Warrior is a historical play and suited for family entertainment.
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Mlalazi said on an academic level, the play was good for students studying humanities.
“Shaka, despite his achievements, was a rogue dictator who caused a lot of suffering in southern Africa that was felt as far as modern day Malawi. What lessons can we learn from that if we compare it to the present day world politics?” he said.
Asked why he had partnered Umkhathi Theatre, he said: “Umkhathi has been one of the leading performance groups in Bulawayo and in Zimbabwe for a very long time, both in terms of talent and discipline. Thanks to the stewardship of Matesu Dube, who is the director of the group. It is always an honour to work with them.”
Mlalazi said the play belonged to Umkhathi Theatre,who were the producers, with Intwasa being the platform where they would re-launch it.
He said they were hoping to run the play at other venues around the country soon after the re-launch at the Intwasa Arts Festival.
“We also hope to get invited to international venues. We are working on that,” he said.
The play was written by Mlalazi and directed by Dube. It will be re-launched on September 29 at the Bulawayo Theatre.
