The Sunday News
Kudzai Mpangi, Sunday Life Reporter
A NEW stage play is set to revive the art of storytelling, and is set to be premièred at the end of the month at the Bulawayo theatre.
The play — The Eye in the Sand — was written and produced by Nonka Mabaleka.
“I wrote this play for a workshop but it didn’t happen so I just thought to myself why not put it up as a stage play, so I came up with something light and nice rather than coming up with a heavy play. A play that will bring families together once more and remember our African culture,” Mabaleka said.
She said she wanted to revive African folklore and the art of telling it.
“We cannot afford our stories to just faint and fade away just like that, it’s time we remember when our forefathers used to tell us stories it was a precious time, I remember my mother used to tell me stories, it was a great time and this play is inspired by her,” she said.
Mabaleka believes that the play will bring an impact to the generations to come, as the current generation has neglected our norms and traditions. The play is set to tell the world about the African stories.
“It is time we told the world our stories as they have told theirs through Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. My play is written in English for a purpose that it serves to accommodate people from different tribes so that the world can have a taste of our own African folklore tales which identifies us as Africans,” she said.
The play is about a hare trying to survive. In the story the hare buries the lion which is the king in the jungle and leaves his eye showing to attract the other animals to come to his trap hence The Eye in the Sand.
“What I have always loved about African folklore is that they bear a lesson and this stage play is one of those which comes about with its own lesson as the hare in the story is a small character but conquers the king of the jungle,” she said.
The play has a 15-member cast on stage and it’s a one-hour play. -@kayskudzai
