Lovers in Time, by Blessing Hungwe, will be premiered at the Harare International Festival of the Arts on 29 April. Through comedy, the play examines traumatic events around legendary local female tribal leader and spirit medium, Mbuya Nehanda, who was executed by colonial rulers in 1896. In the play she returns to life in the present day, but as a male.

Manuel Bagorro, creative director of the festival said:

“I can't wait to see it all come together. The themes are very powerful and no doubt controversial. We are delighted to have Agnieszka and Blessing collaborate on this.”

The production is supported by the University of Bedfordshire, the Nimberi Trust (with the participation of the European Union) and the Zimbabwe Theatre Association – and this is the first time the Association has directly supported a production directed and initiated by a British practitioner.

Leading African theatre and music talent will take part in the production, including the band Mafrique with Pauline Gundidza and Lovedale Makalanga. Pauline Gundidza said:

“I am very excited to be a part of this production. It is an astonishing and bold move to take on such a sensitive story and somehow make it into a tale about reconciliation - race issues are still taboo in Zimbabwe. I worked with Agnieszka in 2011 and that was an amazing adventure too. Oral tradition is very important here and theatre in a way is part of that tradition”.

Dr Piotrowska, the leader of innovative courses at the University of Bedfordshire (MA of Creative Digital Production and MSc of Digital Production and Technology), will also be making an experimental drama documentary connected to the play.

In 2012 she was the recipient of a British Council arts research grant, which she used to make a documentary, The Engagement Party in Harare, nominated as best documentary at the 2012 International Images Film Festival in Harare. Dr Piotrowska, who is working on a new book about the arts in Zimbabwe, added:

“It is a great privilege to be given a chance to explore history through theatre and film, but I am also writing an academic book at the same time. The play is not political, but on the other hand anything to do with race relations in Zimbabwe is deeply political.”

Dr Piotrowska is the author of Psychoanalysis and Ethics in Documentary Film (Routledge, 2014)