Malawi folktales come to the theatre

Over the course of the Malawi Folktales Project, which started at the end of 2011, over 250 folktales from across Malawi were collected and recorded through the cooperation of the Malawi National Commission for UNESCO (MNCU), National Library Service, Rei Foundation Limited and Sony Corporation. This collection represents a key part of the rich cultural heritage of Malawi. Once these folktales had been recorded, there was an eagerness to get them out to the people of Malawi.

MNCU and Rei Foundation came up with the idea that adapting some of the stories could bring them to life to large audiences. Local theatre company Nanzikambe Arts was brought on board as the ideal partner to adapt a number of folktales into plays, performed by well-known local actors, with direction from prominent theatre experts including accomplished playwright, actor and theatre director Smith Likongwe.

In the initial pilot, five folktales were adapted and staged in the Blantyre district of Malawi. The preparatory phase included the selection of the folktales, set conceptualisation, adaptation of the selected folktales, costumes and props development, auditioning, scriptwriting, and casting and training of all thirty-five artists in core theatre elements and mask management.

Nanzikambe Arts’ project officer, Thlupego Chisiza, explained that the project involved a lot of local creative talent. “There are twenty-five different artists cast for roles across the five pieces. There are also ten dancers and drummers who feature in the dramas.” Along with this, Chisiza says that five production directors led the team of performers. Rehearsals took place in 2017 and performances began in 2018 with twenty-five drama performances across five venues in Blantyre.

This project is a valuable addition to other government driven initiatives that aim to protect and promote of expressions of cultural diversity, and further contributes to the availability of materials to the education curriculum in Malawi in the teaching of creative arts as a subject. Artists and crew involved gained valuable professional experience and knowledge of theatre production, and performance and

audiences develop a greater appreciation for the country’s cultural heritage through the arts.

Using folktales as theatrical inspiration has proved popular in Malawi, and other community theatre groups have since begun staging their own folktale theatre adaptations – a positive by-product of Nanzikambe’s initial stage drama productions.