Sixteen-year-old Takunda’s world is turned upside down when her father is arrested for his political activities in the turbulent Rhodesia of 1973. This coming-of-age story in relevant for our complex times, carrying a message of hope and courage. The play incorporates African folk tales and songs, featuring an ensemble of four actors and the vibrant art of storytelling.
The original version of Takunda, titled Tales of South Africa, was commissioned and produced by the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis’ Imaginary Theatre Company, Tony Kushner, artistic director, Russell Vandenbroucke, associate producing director.
Under the titleTakunda, it was produced with nine other plays for The Great Chicago Playwright’s Exposition, a joint venture of Victory Gardens Theater and Body Politic Theater. The production was directed by Nick Faust and featured Johnny Lee Davenport, Michael E. Myers, Pat Bowie, and Synthia Hardy.
Takunda has been produced under TYA contracts by several other theaters including Seattle Repertory Theatre and Berkeley Repertory Theatre.
“…a winning blend of folktale and political fable that uses the most basic – and the most magical – elements of theater to weave its spell, a blend of storytelling, song, and pure theatrical imagination.”
-Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun Times
“In its outpouring of new, short theater pieces, Play Expo has found over a dozen strange bedfellows, sharing nothing but the same stage. In Shorts #1, the clear favorite is the most ambitious work, Charles Smith’s Takunda.
But Takunda is more than just one more third-world tragedy. Smith’s poetry ennobles every survivor and every fatality–Takunda’s frightened mother and fable-spinning grandmother (Pat Bowie), her self-serving lover (Michael E. Myers), and particularly her father (Johnny Lee Davenport)–whom she loses sooner than anyone so young can ever be ready for. In a gripping scene, Takunda finds herself torn from dreaming that she finally told her father goodbye–and Hardy is simply heartbreaking.”
—Lawrence Bommer, Chicago Reader
Cast size: 2m., 2w.
Takunda is available in Multicultural Theater II: Contemporary Hispanic, Asian and African-American Plays, edited by Roger Ellis, Meriwether Publishing, Ltd., 1998.
Takunda was also published by Plays In Process, Theatre Communications Group, New York, 1988.
Scenes from Takunda can be found in Multicultural Scenes for Young Actors, edited by Craig Slaight and Jack Sharrar, Smith and Kraus, Inc., 1995.
For licensing information, please contact Barbara Hogenson, Barbara Hogenson Agency