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Contributions from
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Focus
Soccer enthusiasts in Latin America
Soccer World Cup: Togo’s top athletes
Why African museums struggle
„Mosambicans love plays“
Visual media and sports in India
06/2006
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“Mozambicans love plays”
People outside Mozambique are aware of the Teatro Avenida thanks to Henning Mankell. The Swedish author of best-selling crime novels has been working with – and writing for – the theatre for 20 years. It is located on the Avenida 25 de Setembro in central Maputo, the capital city. The theatre was founded by Manuela Soeiro, who has been leading the small company team since 1984. It currently has five professional actors, who are supported by amateurs whenever more actors are needed.
[ Interview with Manuela Soeiro ]
What is your target audience? Which social classes come to watch your plays?
All social classes, as it happens. Mozambicans love theatre . . .
So your attendance numbers are always good?
No, not always. Our tickets cost only about two dollars, which is relatively low. But people here do not have much money.
So you do not reach the very poor?
We do reach them, because we go out into the poorest quarters where the people cannot afford to come here and buy tickets. In those areas, we perform plays that deal with specific problems such as AIDS, for instance.
What are your criteria for selecting a work you will perform?
That depends on the social and political issues which are topical in our country. For example, at the time of the great floods a few years ago, we dealt with those. AIDS is another important matter. We look at the issues which are affecting the people and then think about how we can tackle those issues. I write many of the plays myself, or co-write them with Henning.
You are currently performing a play for children, which was originally performed by Berlin’s Grips Theatre. Do you work with other foreign companies, too?
Yes, we have contacts with colleagues in Switzerland, Germany, Portugal and France, to name but a few.
You also work with amateur actors – where do they come from?
They come from the many theatre groups in Maputo, which have their roots in the various neighbourhoods. That’s where I discover the actors. If I take them on for the Teatro Avenida, I hold workshops to enhance their acting skills.
How important are drama, movies, music and other cultural forms of expression for disseminating values throughout society in Mozambique?
Our country has a high level of illiteracy. Many people do not have access to media such as radio and television. That is why the forms of expression you mention, and particularly theatre performances, are very important for spreading information. The government and international development organisations also ask us from time to time to collaborate in projects.
In Germany, plays appeal mainly to well-off people with higher education, while poorer classes prefer to go to the cinema . . .
Well, I’d say, it’s the other way round in Mozambique.
Are urban audiences different from rural ones?
Theatre is popular everywhere, including rural areas. We translate many of our plays into the local dialects, for the rural people to understand them too.
What led you to start a theatre company?
I dreamed of doing so even when I was a child. We lived in the north of Mozambique, on the island of Ibo. My father always told me a lot of stories when I was young. That is what made me want to work in the field.
What did you do before you started the theatre?
I was a sports coach in Maputo.
Where did you get the money you needed?
The building was in ruins. There was no water or electricity. But I had a group of dedicated young people, and I worked with them to rebuild the building. That was in 1982. We performed in schools and other places to raise the money we needed.
How did the civil war affect your work?
That was a difficult time. It was hard to get materials for the scenery, for example. It was dangerous to go anywhere to buy things. And we needed donations. Today, the Norwegian government and the German Embassy support us.
Do you also get support from the Mozambican government?
The Minister for Culture visited us in late March earlier this year and was very interested in our work. But we haven’t received any financial support yet. So we are running a bakery next to the theatre to make some extra money.
Should the government give more financial support to culture?
Yes, I think it should, even if funds are short. As a theatre, we have done a lot for the development of Mozambique. And whenever I have the opportunity, I ask our government to make a contribution.
Questions by Tillmann Elliesen.
“Mozambicans love plays”
Tremendous enthusiasm
As the actors from the Teatro Avenida confessed to Wolfgang Kolneder when they said farewell at the airport, they were really only used to practising for two hours a day. Kolneder had kept them working for five hours every day. “That’s when I realised why they were always falling asleep during rehearsal breaks,” says the Austrian director. Kolneder teaches music and drama performance at Mozarteum University in Salzburg. He says that, inspite of the tired actors, he has seldom worked with such a committed and gifted team as the one in Maputo.
According to Kolneder, it did not take him long to agree when the German-Mozambican Cultural Institute asked him to direct a play for children at the Teatro Avenida. The 63-year old man has travelled the world for almost thirty years, staging plays from the repertoire of Berlin’s Grips Theatre, a company he worked for until 1978. “Plays for younger children, lets say five-year olds, can easily be transferred into other cultural contexts. It becomes difficult with plays for older children, because the societal context becomes more important, and that varies strongly from one country to the next. Just consider school systems.”
The play “Mugnog-Kinder” has been on at the Teatro Avenida under Kolneder’s direction since April. It originated in the anti-establishement days of the early 1970s in West Berlin. Like most other Grips Theatre plays, it is about children who, with craftiness and self-confidence, overcome the small-mindedness and high-handedness of adults. Wolfgang Kolneder says that Manuela Soeiro, the head of the Teatro Avenida, told him that this was the first time a realistic play for children was being performed on stage in Maputo. “In this respect, the Mozambican capital today is like Berlin was in 1969.”
Kolneder and the company rehearsed the play in only 20 days. “That was pretty much a strain. It was February and, on stage, it was 45 centigrades hot. That was unusually tough, even on the actors.” Unfortunately, he did not have the time to develop the parts individually with every actor. Instead, they copied an earlier production. Accordingt to Kolneder, the company nonetheless showed tremendous enthusiasm.
The conditions at the Teatro Avenida pose challenges to any director. According to Kolneder, “things are quite amateurish. There is no staff for certain jobs such as prop master.” Manuela Soeiro takes care of everything herself. Without her, nothing would get done, says Kolneder. (ell)
Manuela Soeiro
is director of the Teatro Avenida in Maputo.
teatroavenida@tvcabo.co.mz
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