Mental health talks in theatre

When the inaugural  University of Malawi (Unima) Theatre Festival was announced, the focus was on the established, professional theatre groups lined up to perform.

    But the organisers had a bigger dream to promote networking between the established and up-and-coming groups. These included secondary school groups whose members are just being introduced to stage drama and theatre productions.

On the second day of the festival, November 25, organisers arranged for secondary students’ groups to perform in the afternoon.

One by one, the groups went on the stage in the Great Hall towards the end of the student’s segment came Dreppa Community Day Secondary School.

One by one the 40 actors dressed in black went on stage. The audience started murmuring: “Ana onsewa abale? What type of production is this?”

But once they started performing, the audience was on the edge of their seats, taking in the interesting and elaborate production before them.

The play, a musical theatre production about men’s mental health condition focuses on two 16-year-old  lovers Mavuto and Khumbo. When later Khumbo falls pregnant, both their parents chase them from home and they travel from Zomba to Mulanje to look for work. While there, they struggle as Khumbo falls ill and Mavuto is employed by an older woman who demands sex from him.

He refuses her advances and she threatens him with false rape accusations. In the meantime, Khumbo gets seduced by a male nurse who treated her at the hospital. They tried to get intimate with each other but got ‘stuck’ allegedly due to a magic spell that the nurse’s wife had placed on her husband.

Mavuto learns about the betrayal and wants to commit suicide.

But then comes the intervention just before he kills himself and he is encouraged to talk about his issues.

The production is a masterpiece as it involves a lot of singing alongside acting. The actors do not speak much, but act out their scenes and communicate effectively. When they depict the lovebirds leaving Zomba for Mulanje, they effectively demonstrate the chaos at Limbe Bus Depot, Bvumbwe in Thyolo and other stages until they reach their destination. 

The play’s standout star is Wezzie Manda who plays Khumbo. She effectively shows emotions in her speech as well as singing.

At the end of the play, the message on mental health, especially affecting men is clearly and artistically delivered.

In a post performance interview, director of the production Kelly Alinafe Chikoko said the students were involved in creating the storyline.

“I wanted to involve them as much as I could so that they fully understood and delivered the storyline. We had no script to memorise so we all sat down and agreed on what to do,” he said.

Chikoko said they settled for the theme of mental health as they wanted to stage the production for the Nasfest competition. They eventually did and are in the finals having excelled at Zone and district levels.

On her part, Wezzie Manda, who started acting three months ago, said she wants to use her skills to change people’s minds on important issues.

“I believe this play will help people to talk to someone when they are facing problems instead of killing themselves,” she said.

The male nurse Luis Maudzu hopes that people can learn to avoid using their positions to abuse vulnerable groups.