SizweBansi is Dead goes North

For the first, Athol Fugard's play SizweBansi is Dead as performed by Nanzikambe Arts in collaboration with Lions Theatre will be staged in the Northern Region this weekend.
This calls for a smile among theatre lovers in the region after being on the sidelines since October last year when the play moved from stage to stage in the Southern and Central regions.
SizweBansi is Dead, written collaboratively with two South African actors, John Kani and Winston Ntshona, is a dramatisation of the blacks in apartheid South Africa.
The play, which centres on Styles who opened his own photographic studio in an African township and SizweBansi, a migrant labourer, deals with the struggle for freedom and the assertion of human dignity in the face of oppression.
It was premiered in Cape Town, South Africa in 1972. The play has been adapted in Malawi by Nanzikambe Arts and Lions Theatre in a two-man act involving Misheck Mzumara and Thlupego Chisiza.
Mzumara said the play will be staged for the first time in the Northern Region since its launch in Blantyre in October last year.
"We have staged the play from Chikwawa to Lilongwe. But we have not been to the Northern Region.
"People have been asking us why we are not going there. So, this time we have decided to reach out to theatre lovers in the North as well," he said in an interview.
He said they expect to hold three shows in the Northern Region after staging the play for more than ten times in Blantyre and close to seven times in Lilongwe.
The play will be staged at Jacaranda Lifestyle Lounge on Friday night, Mzuzu University on Saturday night and Karonga Museum on Sunday afternoon.
"It is not easy to stage our plays in the North due to high travel costs and lack of venues," said Mzumara.
The performances have been facilitated by Chigo Gondwe-Chokani, Jacaranda proprietor, and Karonga-based actor Manaseh Chisiza.