Tonderai Munyevu
Writer, United Kingdom
Tonderai Munyevu is an actor, writer and director for stage, screen and radio, he is the co-artistic director of Two Gents Productions. His writing includes Mugabe, My Dad and Me (York Theatre Royal/ETT/Audible), The Moors (Tara Arts Theatre/ Two Gents Productions), Harare Files; How 700,000 People Lost Their Homes (written with Sarah Norman), Zhe [noun] Undefined (written with Antonia Kemi Coker and Chuck Mike) at Soho Theatre; the short radio play A Tranquil Mind (BBC Radio 4) and various prose pieces including The Visiting Hours; A Dispatch From Zimbabwe (Johannesburg Book of Reviews), Bullets (Team Angelica) and On James Baldwin (Queer Bible.) He is in development of several projects across stage and screen. He has been shortlisted for The Alfred Fagon Award 2019, is part of the HighTide Writers Group, a member of the Stockroom Writersroom (formerly Out of Joint) and a recipient of The Peggy Ramsay Foundation Grant for his latest play Black Farce.
Another Shakespeare Play
Five actors stand on a stage. They have a story to tell. Shakespeare is the playwright. The audience knows what to expect from them. But this time round, this simple and seemingly everlasting trope may just need to be broken. A play that seeks an urgent “revising” of the narrative of Shakespearean myths for what they tell us about perspectives of our cultural histories. I am to dramatise how “culture” perpetuates class and racial inequity. I want to tackle race head on by having a company of only black actors —playing with a range of tools including white face, spoken word, puppetry, song and movement.