Bordering on farce: Tanya Fear as Chipo, Don Gilet as The Narrator and Nyasha Hatendi as Commander Specimen.
Play: The Epic Adventure of Nhamo the Manyika Warrior and his Sexy Wife Chipo
Theatre: Tricycle Theatre
Playwright: Denton Chikura
Review by Natalie Gormally
Tiata Fahodzi and Denton Chikura’s first ever collaboration – the snappily titled The Epic Adventure of Nhamo the Manyika Warrior and his Sexy Wife Chipo – is an energetic and outrageously comical quasi-panto-play whose first priority is fun.
The prologue introduces our Narrator (Don Gilet), who has 24 hours to pull together a soap opera and find a hero for his African fable. When he prays to the ancestral gods for help, they direct him towards Nhamo (Ery Nzaramba), a simple goat herder.
When Nhamo is unimpressed by tales of stardom, Harry Potter and Wikipedia, the Narrator promises that he will find a sexy wife by participating in this adventure. With the hero on board we meet the two final main characters, the ambitious Princess Chipo (Tanya Fear) who is determined to let “no man, object or animal” get in the way of her dreams, and Nyasha Hatendi’s Commander Specimen, who switches hilariously between exaggerated thespian to trigger-spear-happy tribal warrior.
As the rest of the cast seem unsure of their new hero’s acting ability, the Narrator assures them it is just “his method”. With this motley crew nothing goes completely to the Narrator’s plan, but the fast paced chaos ensures that the audience’s attention never wavers. “The world is running out of stories,” the Narrator cries as he tries to convince Nhamo that the TV community needs him. Nothing could be further from the truth as Chikura’s script is full of inventiveness.
Directed with verve by Lucian Msamati, the play moves rapidly between fiction and reality as Nhamo quickly falls in love with the fiery feminist Chipo. Nhamo’s attempts to woo Chipo are humorous and sweetly innocent. Hatendi’s Commander Specimen grabs a significant proportion of the laughs as the audience immediately warm to him, despite him taking up the “best of the best villain” role. Nzaramba captures the dumbfounded Nhamo perfectly.
Gilet is excellent at playing the frantic Narrator, and manages to hold the whole show together despite its riotous nature. Fear is impressive as Chipo, battling against a conventional patriarchal storyline. At the heart of this is a witty satire that dodges weighty issues in favour of gentle pokes at African stereotypes which the Western film and theatre industry usually fall back on.“Why must we start every African story with these zoo noises?” Chipo asks. “They really like the zoo noises,” the Narrator responds.
With audience participation encouraged, this is a thoroughly entertaining, good-humoured, often silly but immensely likeable piece of theatre. At 90 minutes, the production is perfectly timed. Any longer and it would have lost momentum. From start to finish, this play is highly recommended.
The Epic Adventure of Nhamo the Manyika Warrior and his Sexy Wife Chipo has an extended run at the Tricycle Theatre until 24 August 2013.