Short, sweet, catchy and straight to the point – that is how one can describe an ambush drama play titled Shattered Silence served in a moving train from Limbe in Blantyre en-route to Balaka by Paragon Arts.
There was no proper stage in the morning train but the cast which included seasoned actor Edwin Chonde, who starred in Chiwetel Ejiofor’s film The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, improvised.
The cast embarked the train as passengers and sat unconnectedly and only unified during one of the scenes in a play that addresses post-abortion care as part of sexual reproductive health issues.
The flash or ambush theatre production opens with a young woman played by Mirriam Phiri, who is in a pain following an abortion she had.
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Walking in pain in the aisle, Phiri who has acted in films such as Shemu Joyah’s The Road to Sunrise, attracts attention from the passengers in this carriage before she drops down.
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She gets help from fellow women including another member of the cast before Chonde starring as a Reverend and another religious leader join in a conversation.
In between the conversation, some passengers call for help from train crew with others saying she needed to be rushed to the hospital as soon as possible.
In the midst of the incident in the play, some even went to the extent of saying that the train needed to stop for the woman to be taken to the hospital.
Later Paragon Theatre Director Philmon Kuipa opens up that this was drama, creating a delirium of ‘aaah’ from passengers before he praised them for being part of the post-abortion care conversation on the move.
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“Theatre is powerful and this production is part of bringing awareness on post-abortion. We did not tell people about it but were involved throughout,” Kuipa said.
Chonde said he has performed in various places including markets but describe the train experience as his first time.
“It was splendid, it was tense at the beginning but eventually people knew it, the topic discussed was important especially looking into post-abortion care,” the seasoned actor said.
The cast disembarked at Wenela leaving passengers in a confab of the matter but also the creativity that Paragon Arts deployed to earn their attention.
“I just love how they did it, we thought it was true. I think if they opened up in the first place maybe there would have been little interest from some passengers,” one of the women, said.
Before the train performance, Paragon Arts also staged an ambush theatre in Lunzu.
Apart from the performances, Paragon Theatre which has reached out to people in different areas with Shattered Silence, has also conducted training with other theatre outfits.
Post Abortion Care project was launched in November last year and runs up to January 31 2025.
