An academic twist to traumatic saga

Dr Agnieszka Piotrowska has been helping develop Lovers in Time, by Blessing Hungwe, which will premiere at the Harare International Festival of the Arts on April 29. Through comedy, the play examines traumatic events around legendary local female tribal leader and spirit medium, Mbuya Nehanda, who was executed by colonial rulers in 1896. In the play she returns to life in the present day, but as a male.

The production is supported by the University of Bedfordshire, the Nimberi Trust (with the participation of the European Union) and the Zimbabwe Theatre Association – and this is the first time the Association has directly supported a production directed and initiated by a British practitioner.

Dr Piotrowska, the leader of innovative courses at the University of Bedfordshire), will also be making an experimental drama documentary connected to the play.

In 2012 she was the recipient of a British Council arts research grant, which she used to make a documentary, The Engagement Party in Harare, nominated as best documentary at the 2012 International Images Film Festival in Harare. Dr Piotrowska, who is working on a new book about the arts in Zimbabwe, said: “It is a great privilege to be given a chance to explore history through theatre and film.”