By Jonathan Mbiriyamveka
A new play — Molly Street — showing at Theatre in the Park sets out to show that African justice systems work and it is about time people appreciate that there is always a price to pay for whatever crimes committed.
However, truth is there is always need to right the wrongs affecting our society either culturally, spiritually or manually.
Molly Street is a one-woman play performed by talented film and theatre actress Chido Jo-Anne Tenga.
The play is a Complete Arts Project production written and directed by renowned thespian Peter Churu and music is by Patrick Tembo.
The performance at Theatre in the Park follows yet another good run at Jasen Mphepo’s Little Theatre where Molly Street got standing ovations during the One Hander Festival.
The one good thing is that throughout the performance, Chido is steadfast in character as the Molly ghost.
The play is based on a true story about a crime of passion set in early 1960 in the sugar plantation town of Chiredzi.
Molly finds a tragic end when murdered by a jealous boyfriend. At that point, the supernatural meets the natural as Molly’s spirit comes back to seek revenge for her death.
To give credence to the story, the local town authority in Chiredzi actually named a street after Molly.
Much more intriguing is that the story tackles issues to do with early child marriages, women’s rights to work, the definition of prostitution as work, and deficiencies in pre-colonial Zimbabwe.
By any standard this is thrilling and must watch play!!
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