The Convert

A powerful play exploring British colonialism in southern Africa and the use of Christianity for cultural disruption.

Set in 1896 Rhodesia, a young girl whose father has passed away is to be traded, by her uncle, to an older man with ten wives in exchange for a number of goats. She escapes this forced marriage by taking refuge in the home of an African teacher in the Catholic church. In exchange, she is given a new name, forbidden to practice her traditional beliefs, required to wear clothing of the colonizers, and, eventually, is cut off from her family to prove her Christian faith. As tensions in the surrounding villages grow, THE CONVERT explores the struggle between tribal customs and the ways of the British settlers, between traditional African beliefs and the Christianity brought by the colonizers. As tensions rise in the nearby villages, resistance could mean death.

 “After producing ECLIPSED nearly a decade ago, we have been pursuing the rights for THE CONVERT and we couldn’t be more thrilled to embark on this adventure,” says director Wendy Knox. “In some ways, THE CONVERT is a very unFrank play: it’s a big, historical, realistic, three-act play! Thematically, however, it’s right up Frank’s alley. During auditions, I had two actors, who were unfamiliar with Frank’s work, ask why I was doing this play. I answered that I thought the play was an excellent exploration of the roots of white supremacy, and that the play had much to contribute to the larger conversation we are still having, and need to be having today.”

“The Convert is shown…to be a work considering questions of racial, political and religious identity and assimilation with a provocative intelligence …” —The Guardian

“Where do you belong? It’s a question that just about everyone has to face, sooner or later, in Danai Gurira’s The Convert. And the further we go, the more complex that question becomes. It’s a terrific play — a rich, thoughtful, carefully crafted piece..” —The Financial Times

ARTISTIC TEAM

Directed by Wendy Knox
Scenery designed by Joe Stanley
Costumes by Kathy Kohl
Lighting by Tony Stoeri
Fight direction by Annie Enneking
Sound by Dan Dukich
Stage managed by Megan Fae Dougherty

CAST

Maje Adams
Yinka Ayinde
Warren C. Bowles
Hope Cervantes
Ivory Doublette
A.J. Friday
Ashe Jaafaru