Performance in the Local Village, Zambezia, Mozambique

A delay in writing means I haven't posted further pictures and stories of the Mozambique trip in October.  Here are some in retrospect.

About to start

I was in my Othello costume with the other members of the cast in the late afternoon sunlight surrounded by 300 villagers of the tiny remote village of Serefina with it's traditional wattle & daub huts and roads of sand in rural Mozambique. We had come down to the village to try and film our show, The Gospel of Othello as we haven't got it properly taped. Since our version of Shakespeare's story takes place during a tribal assembly it was amazing to be in a setting that resembled the scenario almost exactly.

The Gospel of Othello opening in a perfect setting

Our stay happened to coincide with a visit by National Geographic photographer Marcus Westberg who has kindly let me reproduce the photos he took of the show and audience here.  www.lifethroughalens.org for more of his work.

Patrice making the most of the light as the sun sank low

Waiting to start I had another moment of 'how exactly did I come to be here?'  I get this every so often, usually as I find myself in another brilliantly random scenario where you could never pin down an exact 'career choice' or strategy which led me to be there.  Don't get me wrong - no soul-searching or lack of clear 'career' means I don't feel extremely lucky to be doing what I'm doing.  If you try to classify the last 5 years from a career perspective, I guess it's roughly termed 'freelance.'  And that's putting it kindly.  One occupational hazard is lacking a well-defined job description which can sometimes make hard to measure success or if you're on (or at least near the) the right track!) at a given moment.

Standing there in the randomness of that moment, I had such a profound sense of everything being so 'right' as if this is what I was created for!  Such moments of alignment and clarity amid a generally out-the-box existance are even more precious and golden.  

Musical director & keyboard set-up

As a company we were interested to see what affect the language barrier would have (assuming fairly large) but because our narrative is very physical and there's much non-verbal dialogue as a way of expressing the tale. Led by our director, we have worked a lot on physicalities. We were intrigued to see how much of our story would translate if not via the threads of Elizabethan English that also run through the piece. In our our text we also have Ndebele, Shona, and English plus music and songs from those, as well as other West African languages.

As performers it was a challenge to see if we could hold the audience (there were about 400 people of all ages) gathered. It was a great atmosphere and required fresh and dynamic acting and storytelling.  It's truly interactive. 

Audience

It's sharing of theatre and story, it's human connection, it's entering into the spirit of generosity and giving and receiving.  I love it.  For me it's the best feeling ever. Afterwards we realised that, 45 km through the coconut plantations from the next town, it was likely that we were the first theatre company ever to have performed there. What a privilege.

Despite language barriers the audience kept growing

Groups assembling to share and tell a story is exactly what I'm about. Coming together despite the language barrier and numerous other factors to participate in a creative experience.

To the sponsors who have backed this and continue to see the value and merit of what we're about and what we do, a huge thank you.