The Avant-Garde of Necessity: the Protest Theatre Movement in Zimbabwe

Abstract

This chapter not only explores the inherently avant-garde nature of Zimbabwean theatre, but also examines changing notions of avantgarde theatre in space and time. To further underscore the dynamic nature of theatre as a changeable cultural practice, Antonys Gyltzouris defines avant-garde theatre as “simply what a given society at a given time regards as such.”¹ Zimbabwe has its own unique avant-garde theatre, but its avant-gardeness is dependent upon context. Thus, I would assert that what constitutes avant-garde theatre not only differs from one society to another, but also gets transformed from time to time. Joachim Fiebach argues that what is often regarded as inventions of the Western avant-garde have been “traditional” African culture for centuries.² This chapter explores the exchanges, adaptations, and appropriations between the Western avant-garde movements and African avant-gardes – and within the latter. As such, my discussion primarily focuses on the extent to which avant-garde theatre in Zimbabwe defies, challenges, borrows, capitalizes, and builds upon the work of its predecessors and its peer practitioners from around the globe. I argue that transformation, innovation, and sometimes experimentation are endemic to Zimbabwean theatre out of necessity, not choice.