Thinking on theatre

“The spirits of Malawian Theatre are beginning to dance. Strange sounds are being shaken our of throats. They slice through the evening air. Men rattling tines run back and forth across the arena. The notes leap from the drums to meeting the advancing shapes, the drama movement is getting underway.”

Introduction: 9 Malawian Plays

Malawi is a theatre of song, dance, and folklore interwoven within the tapestry of local culture and morality. It is a theatre that has evolved amongst the people from being a weapon of popular mobilisation for political change during the ‘Wind of Change’ in pre-democratic era – to a tool of community transformation in various areas of social, cultural and economic development.

Theatre’s role is of crucial significance. Especially in this increasingly modern, urban, fast- changing democratic era. Its function is to build a bridge between the widening divide between the urban, consume culture of the cities and the traditional culture of rural Malawi.

Performance does not just take place in a ‘theatre’ either. It breaks out into new spaces – and so too does it reflect possibilities for the future.

Theoretically, the work is split between a conscious intellectual understanding of humanity and physical instinctive and sub-conscious levels of expression.

European theatre-making practice has been adapted so that in discovering a theatrical language in the ensemble, we focus on tempos, tensions, rhythms, sounds, tones, images, sensations, emotions manifested both publicly and privately, that make up the specific human experience in Malawi.

Malawian culture, practice and manner are the focal point for forms of expression and are rigorously explored in rehearsal so we discover what blocks exist in human communication, explore how desires manifest themselves, how fears are hidden… and on and on through the cycles and depths of discovering meaning through theatre.

What we discover in our work that crosses cultural, class and ethnic boundaries, is that we are, at the root, not so very different to one another.