STAGED READING OF ‘TAPE’: A bold unpredictable grilling of rape and sexual assault

Almasi Collaborative Arts, tp kick start its dramatic voyage for this year, is pleased to present an exhilerating staged reading experience of the play Tape which was written by Stephen Belber, an American playwright.

The show shall take place on Saturday the 24^th of February, 2024, 2.30pm at Reps theatre and admission is free.

The story of TAPE follows through the unpredictable love-hate chemistry that endures between friends. Jon, an aspiring filmmaker whose fortunes are about to twist for the better is joined for the weekend by his longtime friend from high school Vince. Over the course of the evening, Vince gets John to admit that he was involved in the gruesome encounter of date-raping Amy, a girl whom they both once dated. Within the heat of this confession, Vince shockingly reveals that he has taped the entire conversation. Matters go for the worst when Vince also pronounces that he has invited Amy over to have dinner with them that night. Beneath its suspenseful, high stakes surface, TAPE examines the pillars of motive, memory, truth and perception.

Tape is bordered on everyday lived realities where involvement in acts of sexual abuse places one in a perpetual mental prison. The play also interrogates the depths of what we embrace as friendship, how trustworthy is this social tie when it comes to a place where it has to choose between that which is right and that which is wrong even in an associate and will its motive be pure? Tafadzwa Bvumbe, a seasoned theatre practitioner directs this profound piece of dramatic art by Stephen Belber and he hopes the play shall be able to spark essential discussions around sensitive social ills during the audience engagement, “I am excited to be directing TAPE by Stephen Belber. It is such a topical play dealing with issues around rape and sexual assault, memory and perceptions. We have a tough job of peeling back the layers of each character until we reach the core of who they are but I have a talented cast who will undoubtedly rise to the challenge.”

The writer of the play, Stephen Belber is not a stranger to Zimbabwe’s dramatic arts exchange programs. In 2015 and 2023 he was in the country facilitating the Almasi African Playwrights Conference. According to Almasi’s Artistic director Elizabeth Zaza Muchemwa ‘this staged reading is an experience one can look forward to and it remains to the bulk of Zimbabwe’s dramatic arts lovers to come and see what they can discover.’

The Staged Reading of Tape is part of Almasi’s staged reading series. An initiative aimed to advance dramatic literacy in the community, which is a crucial component of play making, a noticed component needed in Zimbabwean dramatic arts development. Almasi’s goal is to facilitate excellent new Zimbabwean works that can compete on a global level and leave behind a Zimbabwean dramatic literature legacy. Staged readings also nurture dramaturgy which allows for the portrayal to be rich, resonant and specific to the placement of the play in time, space and moment in history.