4. The Plays (2): Breakfast with Mugabe

Breakfast with Mugabe is a big play with a small cast. A predominantly English text is peppered with short sections in Shona.

Synopsis Breakfast with Mugabe tells the story of Andrew Peric, a white psychiatrist called upon to help free a paranoid President of Zimbabwe from the ngozi, or bitter spirit, that is stalking him. As he investigates the President's demons, both past and present, Peric also reveals his own need for salvation- with disastrous consequences.

(Published 2005, Reprinted 2008)

Cast: Four (3 male, 1 female)

Production History

Royal Shakespeare Company 2005/6: Commissioned by RSC in  January 2002, 'Breakfast with Mugabe' was first produced as part of the RSC's New Works Festival  at Stratford-upon-Avon, opening in the Swan Theatre on 17 October 2005.

Andrew Peric..................David Rintoul

Robert Mugabe .............Joseph Mydell

Grace Mugabe.........Noma Dumezweni

Gabriel........................Christopher Obi

David Rintoul as Andrew Paric	Noma Dumezweni as Grace Mugabe	Joseph Mydell as Robert Mugabe	Christopher Obi as Gabriel

The show was designed by Colin Richmond, with lighting by Wayne Dowdeswell, sound by Martin Slavin and Music by Chartwell Dutiro. This production was also adapted for radio, and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and on the BBC World Service, again directed by Antony Sher, and produced by Marilyn Imrie for Catherine Bailey  to BBC.

Fraser's View: I started work on BWM... in the back end of 2001, and felt  a HUGE responsibility to GET IT ON. I thought, in my hubris, that the piece might play a small part in waking people up to what was going on Zimbabwe. Believe it or not, at the time Comrade Bob wasn't getting much attention!

 The dramaturgical  process at the RSC- who had commissioned the play - is  a very thorough one. Also the company had lost, or given away, its London base, and there was no simple route to production for a new play on such a subject. Nonetheless, the commission survived the comings and goings of personnel, and was picked up by Dominic Cooke when he arrived to take charge of new writing.

When the play finally emerged blinking, into the New Works Festival in 2005, it was all worth it. The Swan Theatre, Stratford is one of my favourite theatre spaces, anywhere, and Antony Sher in his directorial debut pulled together a great cast for a really supercharged 90 minute production that went on firstly to Soho Theatre, and then to the Duchess Theatre.

The intensity of this production was beautifully offset by Chartwell Dutiro's heartbreaking music-a great  squaring of the circle, since meeting Chartwell early in 2001 was one of the accidents which had set me writing the play in the first place. It was a combination of his music and conversation that summoned the spirit of his country and provided the prompt to attempt the play.

BWM was influenced by many other journalists and writers, most of them unwittingly.

Rebecca Thomas as Grace Mugabe	Ezra Barnes as Andrew Peric & Don Marshall as Robert Mugabe

Fraser's View I have always written plays about places I have never been to, half-hoping that I will travel there to see them performed. So, obviously, a play about Zimbabwe in 2001 became the pretext for my first visit to the US in February 2008!

Quantum Theatre's modus operandi is to find a venue to fit the show- a previous production took place in a summer orchard, and another in an empty swimming pool. For BWM, whirlwind director Karla Boos took over an abandoned department store on Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh. They sited the play in a ripped-out stairwell on the second floor. Designer Tony Ferrieri did not have a big budget to play with, but as the pictures show his impact was stunning.

 Karla's in-the- round production drew a sell-out crowd on the first night, some coming from as far as  New York- eager to engage with the play and its subject, and to say very nice things to the disappointingly white playwright.

Ustinov Theatre, Bath, February 2008, a new production directed by Paul Robinson.

Joseph Mydell as Robert Mugabe	Andi Osho as Grace Mugabe

Fraser's View. You wait an age for  a production, and then...

BWM's second production of February 2008 was in Bath Theatre Royal's newly- refurbished Ustinov Studio. The play was chosen to launch the first season in the new-look studio- a great honour, and  as it turned out, a sharp move on their part. Paul Robinson directed. Like Karla Boos in the US, Paul inserted an interval. This reduced the play's intensity a little, but also allowed room for some very subtle playing. As a Zimbabwean himself, Myles Anderson also brought authority to the role of Peric, and contributed, like the rest of the cast, to a fine production in every sense.

Bridge Theatre, Nairobi, Kenya, 12 April 2008: a public rehearsed reading, directed by Katie Richardson:

Andrew Peric........................Andy Williams

Grace Mugabe........................Lorna Irungu

Robert Mugabe.................John Sibi Okumu

Gabriel.........................Makbul Mohammed

Awards John Whiting Award 2006 Best Play (Joint Winner)

Reviews Clipped

...the piece cracks and pops with wit, but the humour sugar-coats a deadly seriousness...The shock of the evening lies in Grace's even-handedness. Dominic Cavendish, The Daily Telegraph

...a brilliantly imagined journey... Mark Shenton, The Stage.

...an intriguing, powerful and witty drama...This work's beauty lies in exposing the human frailty at the heart of belligerence and murder. Oliver Duff, The Zimbabwean

...contains a dazzling number of vectors of political and psychological power-play. Ian Shuttleworth, Financial Times

...gripping theatre... a powerful contribution to a much wider debate. Patrick Carnegy, The Spectator.

...Grace's probing of Mugabe' s mind, speculative but riveting, ensures that this Breakfast  offers plenty to get your teeth into Sam Marlowe, The Times

Zimbabwe may seem an improbable subject for a white Derbyshire-born playwright. But Fraser Grace writes as if Africa were his homeland. His play is short, tense and devastating. Kate Kellaway, The Observer

We are often told that political theatre is one-sided, partial and unfair. But I recommend the sceptics to take a look at Fraser Grace's compelling 90-minute play...Michael Billington, The Guardian

...Fraser Grace's piquant new play...on the problems of post-colonialism. Breakfast with Mugabe offers serious food for thought. Paul Taylor, The Independent

...Grace's cerebral but emotionally accessible play...the playwright's sardonic humour courses through it like  a subterranean river of death, reminding us that when it comes to dictators, irony, banality and tragedy swim in the same waters. Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Grace's great strength as a playwright is in viewing Zimbabwe's tragedy from both sides- the paranoia and corruption of Mugabe's regime set against the role that earlier colonial rule has played in the catastrophic decline. Jeremy Brien, The Stage

From the moment 'Breakfast with Mugabe' begins you can feel the tension....Alice T Carter, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

...a provocative thought experiment...Fraser Grace's tough, intelligent and suspenseful drama....Robert Isenberg, Pittsburgh City Paper

The play is a fascinating look at the nature of power and the complex legacy of colonial oppression in Africa. Allison Vale, The British Theatre Guide

...an excellent, explosive play... The writer's strength is that while he exposes the present horrors he does not shirk from revealing the arrogance of the nation's colonial past masters. Alan King, Bristol Evening Post.