Internationally acclaimed Zimbabwean choreographer and performer Nora Chipaumire brings her latest work, Dambudzo, to REDCAT in a groundbreaking performance that defies boundaries of genre and form.
Drawing from the Shona word dambudzo—meaning trouble—and inspired by the writings of celebrated Zimbabwean author Dambudzo Marechera, the piece interrogates colonial legacies while imagining new revolutionary possibilities of performance.
For this production, REDCAT is transformed into a shabini—an informal bar once central to Zimbabwe’s political and cultural life—where citizens gathered to debate, organize, and resist. Within this immersive environment, audiences encounter a soundscape of barking dogs, live music, and shifting visuals that blur the lines between theater, ritual, and lived experience.
Chipaumire, a four-time Bessie Award winner, describes Dambudzo as “a name, a desire, a lament, an inspiration, even a loathing—a poem—that speaks to the 1980s before the fall of communism and the end of apartheid.” The work reflects on the ongoing struggles of Zimbabwe while offering a radical vision of performance as an act of resistance, memory, and dreaming forward.
The cast features Tatenda Chabarwa, Joyce Delores Edwards, SoKo Jena, Fatima Katiji, Jonathan Kudakwashe Daniel, tyroneisaacstuart, Shamar Watt, and Gilbert Zvamaida, alongside chipaumire. Music includes recordings by the legendary Bhundu Boys, with sound engineered by Vusumuzi Moyo and Kwamina Biney.
On September 26, audiences will have the opportunity to engage further in a post-show Q&A with nora chipaumire, moderated by REDCAT Deputy Director and Chief Curator of Performing Arts, Katy Dammers.
Presented in both English and Shona, Dambudzo is an ambulatory piece, inviting audiences to move freely through the space. While the production incorporates loud sounds and low lighting, limited seating will be available for those who need it.
A commission of Wiener Festwochen and Festival d’Automne à Paris, the work was produced by nora chipaumireand developed during a residency at Callie’s Berlin.
With Dambudzo, chipaumire once again affirms her reputation as one of the most fearless and innovative voices in contemporary performance—challenging categories, disrupting conventions, and opening space for radical collective imagination.
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