O’tooli Masanza flies Malawian flag in Europe

For two years, she has been out of the limelight in Malawi.

Her absence, to some, might mean she disappeared into oblivion. But she has and continues to carve an acting name for herself.

“I have been occupying myself with acting lately. Play-season here starts from September to July. So, I have been in one production after another since September last year,” explained O’tooli Masanza.

Masanza is based in Konstanz, Germany where she is working at Theater Konstanz, one of the oldest theatres in the country.

Before she left, she had done stage drama with Nanzikambe.

“In Malawi I did two big plays with Nanzikambe; The Messenger in 2011 and I Will Marry When I Win in2012,” she said in an interview.

Having moved to Germany for an acting gig, luck smiled on her as, instead of heading back to Malawi, she was offered a job. And she continues to use that opportunity to sell herself and market Malawian theatre.

“And, as we are coming close to the end of the season, I am in another play which is my last one before summer holidays. From the beginning of the season, there are always plays that are mostly targeted at the young generation, so last year we did a presentation of the fairy stories from The Grimm Brothers’ book, where you find stories such as Cinderella and Snow White.

“And after that I was part of the Pinocchio play, and then I was in Iris where I played the main role. Now I am acting in Das Spiel ist Aus which is translated to ‘the chips are down’ written by French playwright Jean-Paul Sartre. The play, which we are currently rehearsing, also stars Mphundu Mjumira, who came in mid April to perform in the play,” she explained.

Masanza has starred in several plays and has made over hundred appearances since she moved to Germany in the beginning of April 2012.

Other than working with Theater Konstanz, she also worked briefly with Theater Tubingen through a multinational play, Global Players which was produced last year.

Global Players

was a combination of several stories with African child slavery and surrogate mothers in the west taking centre stage. It was a play of seven actors; namely Masanza, Lassana Justin Yao from Burkina Faso, Konstantin Frolov and Svetlana Chaplygina from Russia, Veronika Reichard, Steffen Riekers and Raul Semmler from Germany, with Clemens Bechtel as a director.

And now she is focusing on the new play which is based on World War II.

Said Masanza: “Das Spiel ist Aus is a story set during the World War II. The plot centres on two characters, Pierre Dumaine and Eve Charlier, who are predestined to be soul mates, but this destiny is prevented by their premature violent deaths, and they do not meet until passing into the afterlife.

“They meet in the afterlife and fall in love and are given 24 hours to go back to life and prove that they were meant to be together. When they go back to life, Pierre, who was until his death a revolutionary, goes back to his group to continue with the revolution while Eve goes to her sister to wait for Pierre’s return. I am playing Renaudel, Pierre’s revolutionary friend,” she explained.

The play is scheduled to be premiered at Theater Konstanz today and is set to be performed 22 times.

Asked if the performance of the same play is not tiring, Masanza noted: “That is nothing. We performed the Pinocchio play 45 times.

“Since I started professional acting, I have performed about 156 times in a career that has seen me acting in Malawi, Germany and most recently, Switzerland”.

And the 23-year-old actress, who is young sister to Zodiak journalist Gloria Masanza, is not done yet. She still has a lot of energy in her to do more.

“I am still aiming high, acting is in my blood. So, I will do that until all my energies are gone,” she enthused.

For now, she is concentrating on her career and is not sure of her homecoming.

“Right now I can’t really say exactly when I will be coming back, but I am thinking this coming August. I might come for holidays if all works out or I might come to stay. I can’t really say right now because everything is not yet figured out,” she mused.