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Zimbabwe: Theory X theatre Project
OVER THE EDGE
Over the Edge theatre company was born in October 1994. From humble street-theatre beginnings they have grown into one of Zimbabwe’s proudest theatrical exports, with performances in the USA, Europe and Southern Africa.
Highlights of their 12 year history include performances 6 times at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with critical acclaim, including two nominations for Best Actor and Acting Excellence from London’s prestigious theatrical publication The Stage. They were also awarded a Spirit of the Fringe Award.
Over the Edge have
also performed at the American Repertory Theatre in Boston, USA as part
of performances
linked to Harvard University. Returning there a second
year the gang met Natalie Portman of Star Wars fame when they had
lunch with her in the Harvard dining room. Wiina sat next to her and got
to pass her the vegetables (“She’s very pretty” - WM). Zane, Adam Neill
and Michael Pearce enjoyed being plastered all over Bath in the UK as
the faces of the Bath Shakespeare Festival when OTE took Taming of the
Shrew there. A great joy for OTE has been performing twice in the Neuss
Shakespeare Festival in Germany, particularly because the performances
took place in a Globe theatre, similar to that originally used by
Shakespeare’s actors.
Most recently Over
the Edge was invited to send a team to the 2006 World Improvisation
Championships in Germany. (You can see some images from those
performances dotted around these pages.) Gavin and Craig Peter and Kevin
Hanssen donned colourful trousers, created especially for the event by
Mr Heeten Bhagat, and set off for the land of beer, sausages and
football. They came a modest 9th out of 16 teams, but certainly put
Zimbabwe on the map as a land of talent and innovation. ‘Improvisation’
didn’t seem to be a particularly foreign concept to a Zimbabwean team.
Over the Edge’s
AWOL members include Adam Neill in Cape Town, who recently acted Horatio
in a touring South African play of Hamlet; Sarah Norman recently
assistant-directed a Royal Shakespeare’s production of The Comedy of
Errors in London; Chipo Chung of OTE history is active in the
professional scene in London, having just finished performing at the
English National Theatre in a play about Rwanda, and Wiina Msamati is
presently playing Pericles in the Royal Shakespeare’s production of
Pericles! Not bad huh!
As for the future of Over the Edge, the company will continue to do productions when and where they can. This production of Much Ado is expected to tour next year in the UK and Germany. And outside of their own productions OTE assists in developing theatre through the Theory X initiative, both in developing new talent, such as Rumbi in Much Ado, and in the staging of new productions that Theory X produces, this being one of them.
Thank you for your continued support of a theatre company we can all be proud of. For more on Over the Edge visit their website at www.overtheedge.co.zw. Click on the TheaterSport icon to see Gavin’s hilarious diary of ze German trip.