Dirt in Dirty world
The legendary in creative sector Stanley Mambo on Saturday 15th May 2021 has proven to the world that Malawi has a talent. Recently Mambo produced an adaptation of a play *Dirt* which was staged for the third time at Madsoc Theatre in Lilongwe. The one man show, played by Beatus Msamange, a talented he is with full of energy and humour.
The play is in line with the current traits of cleaning the Rubbles but this time at a large scale hence the title dirt.
Dirt tackles Issues of racism which continues to affect the world. The fun thing is that everyone is talking about it but few are willing to clean the dirt of racism. Beatus echoes *Black life matter* to emphasise the point that there is dirt to clean especially in the white supremacist arena.
Stereotype on non whites is also highlighted in Mambo’s 1 hour 10 minutes production. The actor indicated how he had to hide his name Saddam to Sed to make sure that he is not labled a terrorist or all other negative words.
Mambo couldn’t resist to bring issues back to Malawi when he talked about the electricity challenge. The actor who was staying in a house with electricity had to stay throughout the play in Candles which was so upsetting. He was even disconnected from the world as he failed to tune in to the radio because the batteries did run out of power.
Social Challenges (electricity)
The musical aspect (the music that calm the audience after a tragic experience of man stabbed and claim will not scream coz of pain but because of everyone was right).
Religion “what I about to say about Allah… I eat pork”. This is happening when recently another comedian was the talk of the social media when she made jokes about sighting the moon. Ruth, with her stage name Rute or Ma Labi made reference to the sighting of the moon as her monthly period as it is known in Chichewa ‘ali kumwezi’ (she is in her messes).
The way he jokes about religion conquers with maxims thought that religion is an opium of the poor. Mambo managed to established his actor as religious person right from the beginning as the play begins with Beatus in his prayers.
The ridicule of the whites supremacy was so profound through out the production. Beatus had to tint his hair gold to conform to the whites so that he receive respect from the white supremacist.
Language is claimed to be a determine factor of acceptance by the whites. This is one claim by some scholars who said that we need to decolonize our minds starting with the language as it is referred by the whites to be formal.
At the centre of the play is how foreigners are treated in foreign land. Sed says “A foreigner has no right to say thank you”. This happening in the midst when Malawi is also relocating its refugees to the designated place, Dzaleka. Most host country citizen claims that foreigners are stealing their jobs. This is so relevant with the current state of Malawi, some quarters of the society are claiming that foreigners are stealing our jobs so foreigners must go back to Dzaleka.
However commenting on this issue during one sermon Pastor Dr. Felix Nyika of Kairos International Church said “you are claiming that foreigners are stealing your businesses. As if you had the business in the first place”.
In his words Stanley said Schneider’s play about prejudice and anti-foreign sentiment has been creatively adapted to tell the story of an illegal African immigrant living overseas. A tale to close home. And it has achieved its purpose.”
The sound at the end was well balanced that it could not overshadow the characters voice at the beginning. Just as one would appreciate how well it blended with the voice of the actors, there was a total chaos as it shadows the voice and we could not hear a thing unless if it’s a familiar shout. This signify but one thing, the Dirt in our world and how confused one is.
In all fairness Dirt challenged the status core of social norm.
The standing ovation to one Beatus Msamange was well deserving. Big up to the team, that’s all one would say after a well staged performance
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