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Home Entertainment Entertainment News

Lions roar in Go to Hell

by Johnny Kasalika
22/06/2012
in Entertainment News
2 min read
0
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His alleged off-stage antics might have quoted bad publicity last week, but Thlupego Chisiza and his Lions Theatre are pushing and shoving to show the country what keeps them relevant in people’s minds.

Chisiza, who became the first actor to be arrested, jailed and fined for staging a play without clearance from the Censorship Board, has sprung back with Go To Hell, a play which calls on parents to stop politicising their children’s marriages.

In an interview, the dramatist said the board has rated the upcoming play fit for persons over age 13, averting the dramatic setback of December 27 last year when censors and armed policemen jumped on stage and stopped Semo premiere at Nanzikambe Arts Space in Blantyre.

“Everything is set and the censors have classified the play Grade A ahead of the launch at the end of the month,” said Chisiza on Wednesday.

In the play, the vice president’s son marries the president’s daughter. However, the marriage cracks down and the newlyweds venture into extra-marital affairs when their parents disagree on political viewpoints.

How do they solve the breakup when their counsellors belong to different political sides? Will the wife bow down to her father’s pressure to abort her first child?

With a cast of eight, the play’s theme and conflict matures when the president dies in a car accident while his vice-president is visiting her daughter in-law in hospital. The heir to the presidency has the option to start insulting the deceased or to pursue reconciliation.

At the climax, Go to Hell seems to be a direct recount of President Joyce Banda’s rise to presidency after the sudden death of Bingu wa Mutharika on April 5 this year –and a repeat of Chisiza’s soundly chronicled shortfall: Failure to rise above layperson’s view of contemporary political trends.

The play Semo earned scathing reviews as an inartistic and unrealistic replay of street discussions of Mutharika’s dictatorial tendencies, but the playwright-cum-actor says his upcoming feature will show theatre lovers how he—and the country’s theatre scene—–navigates or stagnates after the power shift.

“It is very easy for the president and Malawians to tell a dead leader to go to hell, but it is uncultured to do so. Instead, the play urges the president to manoeuvre carefully and tell the plunderers and opportunists who made her predecessors bad leaders to go to hell if the country is to move forward,” he said.

The play will premiere with two shows at Kamuzu College of Nursing in Lilongwe on Friday next week. The performers head to Steers Gardens in Blantyre on Sunday, July 1.

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FIriday was a night of nightmares at the Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC) in Lilongwe during the premiere of Is the President Dead? 
Technical glitches, indications of ill preparedness came one after the other during the screening of the movie leaving patrons wondering why the premi-ere was slated for the night. 
As one was taking a seat in the  auditorium, one was  greeted by a screen looking rather too small. The name big screen did not befit this particular ‘screen’.  
The movie was scheduled to start at 6pm, but it started at 8pm. Patrons then stopped grumbling, but their joy was short-lived as at 20 minutes before 9pm the movie went mute and a few minutes later the whole screen went black.  
The patrons protested in unison with a loud ‘aaah!’ By 8.43 pm, the screen came back to life only for it to go black again for five minutes. 
At this moment the MC, Joab Chakhaza came on stage with an apology while the technical team addressed the problem. He called on stage the lead actor Edin Chonde to engage patrons as they waited for screening to resume.  
Chonde shared a brief history of the movie industry in the country.
 His narration started from the time of  To Ndirande Mountain With Love, a movie that was shot when Blantyre’s Ndirande Mountain had trees. 
Chonde talked about other local movie producers such as Charles Shemu Joya and Joyce Mhango Chavula.  
He then started explaining what the movie they were premiering was all about. In his words, Is the President Dead? relates to relatable issues in the coun-try, especially events that happened towards the end of president Bingu wa Mutharika’s reign.  
Chonde was, however, quick to dissociate the movie from the true story of the late president saying: “There could be some similarities here and there, but this is purely a work of fiction.” 
The patrons started booing him as they felt that he was pre-emptying the movie’s storyline. 
Then it was clear that there was a serious technical problem so much that there was high possibility of the movie not being screened. 
The audience got tired of Chonde’s talk and shouted at him to leave the stage. He  obliged and the DJ played some music to fill the gap. 
At 9.06pm, the screen came back to life but the movie did not start from where it stopped. It was also obvious that the movie was played  from an editing programme Adobe Premiere.  
The movie producer Isaac Misoya told The Nation that the copy  had been corrupted; hence,  audio was mute.
“Now, on Adobe Premiere, there were jump cut transitions which presented black screens as the clips were transitioning from one clip to another,” he said. 
There were too many technical glitches and the patrons’ patience ran thin. 
The challenges continued until 11pm when the movie premiere ended unceremoniously as there were no credits at the end of the film.  
Misoya, jumped on stage to apologise to patrons, but he was met with hostility.  
However, he acknowledged that they had worked under pressure because they had set the deadlines of their project too tight.  
He said: “We couldn’t cancel the premiere because the dates were already set. The product which we have shown is not what we arranged to show.”
 Looking through the movie, one can tell that the movie has a good storyline and the project was well planned save for the last part.  
On Saturday, the movie producers released a statement apologising to patrons and promised them  another premiere using the same tickets.
On its part, Film Association of Malawi also released a statement advising the producers to postpone the Blantyre premiere which was scheduled for yes-terday, until all the challenges are sorted.
Patrons left the venue before the movie ended
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  • FIriday was a night of nightmares at the Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC) in Lilongwe during the premiere of Is the President Dead? 
Technical glitches, indications of ill preparedness came one after the other during the screening of the movie leaving patrons wondering why the premi-ere was slated for the night. 
As one was taking a seat in the  auditorium, one was  greeted by a screen looking rather too small. The name big screen did not befit this particular ‘screen’.  
The movie was scheduled to start at 6pm, but it started at 8pm. Patrons then stopped grumbling, but their joy was short-lived as at 20 minutes before 9pm the movie went mute and a few minutes later the whole screen went black.  
The patrons protested in unison with a loud ‘aaah!’ By 8.43 pm, the screen came back to life only for it to go black again for five minutes. 
At this moment the MC, Joab Chakhaza came on stage with an apology while the technical team addressed the problem. He called on stage the lead actor Edin Chonde to engage patrons as they waited for screening to resume.  
Chonde shared a brief history of the movie industry in the country.
 His narration started from the time of  To Ndirande Mountain With Love, a movie that was shot when Blantyre’s Ndirande Mountain had trees. 
Chonde talked about other local movie producers such as Charles Shemu Joya and Joyce Mhango Chavula.  
He then started explaining what the movie they were premiering was all about. In his words, Is the President Dead? relates to relatable issues in the coun-try, especially events that happened towards the end of president Bingu wa Mutharika’s reign.  
Chonde was, however, quick to dissociate the movie from the true story of the late president saying: “There could be some similarities here and there, but this is purely a work of fiction.” 
The patrons started booing him as they felt that he was pre-emptying the movie’s storyline. 
Then it was clear that there was a serious technical problem so much that there was high possibility of the movie not being screened. 
The audience got tired of Chonde’s talk and shouted at him to leave the stage. He  obliged and the DJ played some music to fill the gap. 
At 9.06pm, the screen came back to life but the movie did not start from where it stopped. It was also obvious that the movie was played  from an editing programme Adobe Premiere.  
The movie producer Isaac Misoya told The Nation that the copy  had been corrupted; hence,  audio was mute.
“Now, on Adobe Premiere, there were jump cut transitions which presented black screens as the clips were transitioning from one clip to another,” he said. 
There were too many technical glitches and the patrons’ patience ran thin. 
The challenges continued until 11pm when the movie premiere ended unceremoniously as there were no credits at the end of the film.  
Misoya, jumped on stage to apologise to patrons, but he was met with hostility.  
However, he acknowledged that they had worked under pressure because they had set the deadlines of their project too tight.  
He said: “We couldn’t cancel the premiere because the dates were already set. The product which we have shown is not what we arranged to show.”
 Looking through the movie, one can tell that the movie has a good storyline and the project was well planned save for the last part.  
On Saturday, the movie producers released a statement apologising to patrons and promised them  another premiere using the same tickets.
On its part, Film Association of Malawi also released a statement advising the producers to postpone the Blantyre premiere which was scheduled for yes-terday, until all the challenges are sorted.
Patrons left the venue before the movie ended

    Chaos at ‘Is the President Dead’ movie premiere

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