Following a successful run at York Theatre Royal earlier this year, ETT (English Touring Theatre) today announce the UK tour of Tonderai Munyevu’s Mugabe, My Dad & Me, co-produced with Brixton House and York Theatre Royal in association with Alison Holder. Directed by John R. Wilkinson and performed by Munyevu and Millicent Chapanda. The autobiographical play about growing up in 1980’s Zimbabwe following independence opens at Brixton House on 17 February, with previews from 15 February, and runs until 6 March. It then tours to Scarborough, Oundle and Oxford before concluding in Edinburgh, 23 - 26 March 2022.
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| Tonderai Munyevu in Mugabe, My Dad & Me. Photo: Jane Hobson |
See full details of the production below:
MUGABE, MY DAD & ME
Written by Tonderai Munyevu
Performed by Tonderai Munyevu and Millicent Chapanda
Director: John R Wilkinson; Designer: Nicolai Hart-Hansen
Sound Designer and Composer: Nigel Glasgow
UK Tour: 15 February – 21 March 2022
Press Night: Thursday 17 February at Brixton House
Tonderai Munyevu was born in 1982 Zimbabwe, what they call the “born frees” – one of the generation born in the 1980s after independence.
He tells us how the first cracks of prosperous Zimbabwe’s decline began to appear in the 1990s, and how he emigrated with his mother to England, where he has since remained. How his father lost his job at the hands of a white man, and how this changed both their lives irrevocably, until his father’s death prompted Tonderai to question his identity and what it means to return ‘home’.
Interspersing his dialogue with the audience are Robert Mugabe’s speeches: ranging from the 1980s figure in a Savile Row suit to the bitter and derisive missives from the 1990s, up until 2017 when Mugabe was ousted by a political coup.
Tonderai Munyevu writes and performs. His writing credits for the stage include The Moors (Tara Arts Theatre), Harare Files: 700,000 People Lost Their Homes (Harare International Festival of the Arts), and Zhe [Noun] Undefined (Soho Theatre, international tour). For radio, his writing credits include The Tranquil Minds. As an actor, his theatre credits include Black Men Walking (Royal Court Theatre), Treasure Island (Birmingham Rep), The Man Who Almost Killed Himself (Edinburgh Festival Fringe), Sizwe Banzi Is Dead (Young Vic), and Zhe [Noun] Undefined (Soho Theatre). Munyevu is co-Artistic Director of Two Gents Productions.
Millicent Chapanda is a Shona cultural artist and performs vocals, mbira, ngoma drum and hosho shakers.
John R. Wilkinson directs. His theatre credits include Hello and Goodbye, Swallows and Amazons, Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down (York Theatre Royal), Talking Heads (Leeds Playhouse), Winter (Young Vic – for which he won the 2018 Genesis Future Directors Award), and The Drowned World (National Theatre Studio).