Midsummer African dream

African Dream; a brand new play with all the magic, laughter and some added marulas of its inspiration, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
The play is on this week at 7pm nightly from Wednesday to Saturday at the Harare International School. Tickets are available at the door for Z$350,000 (Z$200,000 for students and pensioners.)
“True to the original, the African version is a story of love, coarse acting and cheeky monkeys performed by one of Zimbabwe’s most exciting new professional theatre companies,” says the director, Kevin Hanssen.
The star-crossed lovers all end up lost in the African bush under a full moon, unwittingly initiating a rendezvous with a comedy of errors. And of course they are not alone. For with the bush comes the magical animal kingdom; a night world of hooting owls, chirping crickets and a certain naughty group of apes who find great amusement in playing havoc with anyone in sight.
This is in addition to the fact that they are having some problems of their own: Naledi, Ndebele Queen of the Monkeys, has gone shopping in Malaysia and returned home without a gift for her proud Shona husband Mukanya. It is an action that elicits a punishment that Mukanya and Puckai set about executing with the bark of a Msasa tree, some Amarula Cream and a large helping of relish.
The cast includes Kudzai Chimbaira, Remo Chipatso, Rumbidzai Machingura, Gift Marovatsanga, and Tendai Mutukwa. Movement and dance choreographed by Rahim Solomon, and Tumbuka’s Mathias Julius.