Will It Play in Harare?(Brief Article)

Dare--"The Trial" in Zimbabwe's Shona language--is anything but subtle. "How I love my land of milk and honey, the breadbasket of southern Africa!" exclaims one character at the play's climax. "Breadbasket?" cries another. "How can that be, with what you are doing there on the farms that produce the food?" She is immediately shouted down: "Shut up, you negative woman, you sellout! Listen to the success stories of black people in this country!"

The show may never be ready for Broadway, but all over Zimbabwe it's packing them in. Some 370,000 people have flocked to open-air performances at bus stops, train stations and shopping centers in the past couple of months. A morality play about free speech and the right to vote, "Dare" has provoked not only cheers but stones and threats. More than once, outbursts of violence have forced a cast to flee midplay, leaving set and costumes behind.

Drama doesn't end at the footlights these days in Zimbabwe. The presidential election is set for March 9 and 10, and President Robert Mugabe is battling for his political life. He's counting on grass-roots support from a campaign to break up the nation's big white-owned farms. But that effort is a disaster: farm production has plunged so badly that Zimbabwe is getting U.N. emergency food aid for the first time ever. Voters are expected to turn out in huge numbers for the opposition. If they do, and Mugabe keeps power through force or fraud, violence seems likely. The military has already cracked down on peaceful protests in the townships, and recently one top general hinted that the Army might not accept an opposition victory.

The arts have become a bastion of dissent. The opposition and independent press have been targets for bombings, beatings and arbitrary arrests for the past two years, ever since a fledgling reformist political party nearly won control of Parliament. Three weeks ago a new law banned any criticism of the president. Last week the head of the country's independent press association fled the country, in fear of his life. But some musicians, writers and actors are fighting back. "We can be persecuted, but we will not ...