Directing Familiar

Harare, September 25th 2019 | Tafadzwa Bob Mutumbi

Familiar By Danai Gurira is a master piece. A gem, A masterclass in writing and storytelling in general. It is deep. It is FUNY! It is indicting. It is very very FAMILIAR!! I relate a LOT to the characters, the story, the mask and the world of this play. The first time I read it, I had a real gutsy visceral response. Real great things happened to my soul, my mind and my body when I was reading it. It is a very exciting world to be in.
It is indeed, a huge honor and privilege to be a provocateur in this process of bringing this masterpiece to life in Zimbabwe for the first time.

The masterpiece has a very specific world. A world that is full of different shapes, colors, contours, and paths. It has its own specific demands in terms of how it wants to be channeled through and experienced. Some of these demands include: that it needs to be real, as real as life itself, no caricature and playing at. It needs no anecdotal playing, it hates playing to the gallery and hates to be pushed too much in its channeling and invocation.

We had the privilege of getting a wonderful stellar cast that slipped quite easily into this intricately woven world of familiar. The world is so so familiar to most of us, so perhaps that is why it was very easy for us to get into it safely, softly and generously. They managed to beautifully balance the comedy and the drama that is being married in this piece. To have such a wonderful response from the audience was such a fulfilling experience. To hear the audience demanding that we do another read of it and perhaps a full production is a very clear testimony that indeed this masterpiece is familiar and it does belong to the people. They need it.