The verdict is now out for all to see. Playwright Louis Thembachako’s Logos Arts Theatre has come out of its shell with a 2014 production, Verdict which satirises the controversial Cashgate scandal.
The one-hour-twenty minute play has a cast of eight played by Thembachako, Godfrey Machika and Isaac ‘Chopwicho’ Bonongwe and it will be premiered on Friday at Nanzikambe Arts Café in Blantyre.
The Nation
felt the tinge of the gripping performance during the group’s rehearsals at Blantyre Teachers College where it sent tongues-wagging due to its humorous approach to the plunder that cost Malawian taxpayers billions of Kwacha.
Verdict
is centered around an accounts clerk, Zatha, who, upon his arrest for misappropriation of public funds, is thrown into a prison cell. While there, he brags about his opulence and reveals techniques of stealing government money to fellow inmates, who later turn out to be the worst cashgaters after the completion of their jail terms for various crimes.
It also delves into the negative impact of the infamous scandal which left the needy patients in public hospitals dying from treatable diseases due to lack of drugs.
“This is mature production which has been rehearsed for close to two months. It is worth watching by any patriotic Malawian,” Thembachako, one of the founding members of Solomonic Peacocks, said.
He said the English play will also be on show at Katoto Secondary School in Mzuzu this Sunday at before being taken to Mzuzu University in the evening.
According Thembachako, the play will also be staged at Madsok Little Theatre in Area 2, Lilongwe in the evening of February 21 and Bunda College the next day.
On February 23, the group will showcase the play at Kalikuti Hotel before wrapping up their shows with a performance at the Kamuzu College of Nursing.
The playwright, who holds an advanced diploma in drama from Birmingham School of Drama in the UK, said this is Logos Theatre’s third production since its establishment in 2010. A Letter from Abroad was the first production followed by Chibadala in 2013.
Meanwhile, Chibadala is expected to be staged at the Casablanca Arts Festival in Morocco this September after it impressed German scouts during the 2013 Blantyre Arts Theatre.
