The local audience love Pula in its entirety. In everything that they do, rain is everything for them. This past weekend, multitudes of theatre enthusiasts, once again, showered the cast of Pula, the ensemble, with love.

By love we mean love ten- fold. For two straight nights, Maitisong Theatre was filled to the brim. The show was sold out, and yet the audience was still yearning to see more of Pula. This was the second time this year, that theatre goers thronged Maitisong Theatre for an unforgettable experience of Pula. Pula, was making history as the first show to ever fill out the once magical Maitisong Theatre in a long time. This was no surprise, as the production has been making history since it premiered on Broadway a few years ago. To give a better picture of what went down at the theatre, Maitisong has a capacity of around 550 people. For this particular production, 500 seats were available. And all those seats were occupied for two nights, Friday and Saturday consecutively.

The captivating and spiritual story of Pula, is centred on the newly- wed young woman, Mmapula, played by the enchanting Palesa Molefe. Mmapula has a mammoth task of taking over the reins of a rainmaker from her aging father, Ntirelang Berman. The story of ‘ Go roka Pula- to enduce rain’, takes the audience through the many beautiful dances of Batswana, showing off this ancient method of summoning rain from above through the lands of Basarwa, plains of Mbukushu, Kalanga and other tribes. Other cast members who were equally spell binding included the ever poignant and mind blowing Kalima Mipata, Solly Sebotso and his famous guitar, Gabriel Modise as the Storyteller, Lucky Kwapa, trading by the stage name, Moologa as well as Pesalema Motshodi to mention a few. The audience were kept on their toes by the spectacular, and breath- taking costumes, transitions that weaved the story in an unbelievable transformation and props that will literally blow them away. The past weekend showcasing gave those who had missed the April shows a chance to see exactly what they had missed.

Amongst them were the returnees who were part of the April show.

Speaking in an interview with this reporter, Hope Moumakwa, Spokeperson of Mophato Dance Theatre, shared that they were blown away with the love that they received from Batswana, and the local audience. “Batswana really love and appreciate the arts. They loved Pula, and supported us,” he says. He also shares that the key thing that they were pushing for at the moment was to get Pula out of Botswana. The idea, he says is to tap into countries such as Rwanda, and Angola to mention a few. As it stands, they are working hard to make that dream a reality. If all works out well, he points out that they were looking at having a home coming performance at the UB Indoor Arena. “The key thing is to get the act out of the country. That is when we can make money and the performers can earn a proper living,” he explains.

He also says that the production can return to the stage if there is support from the right people. Showcasing the production is a small fortune, with costs totaling somewhere around P600 000.00. The fact that they are unable to push the prices to a certain amount also means that they are not really breaking even. From a business perspective, he sadly notes that it will not make economic sense to bring it back without financial support. “We love and appreciate the effort. But we want the passion to feed the body,” he says adding that they want to see the production feeding the 70 member team, including the technical team. However, he says that they appreciate companies such as Hilton Garden Inn Gaborone Hotel, and Protea Masa Square Hotel for their support.