Mmegi

Play addresses mental health issues

Nnasaretha Kgamanyane Correspondent

With men finding it hard to express themselves on issues of mental health, Tshupa Matontshe and Neelo Lentebanye created a beautiful play dubbed, ‘Dreams Only Dreamed’ that was showcased on Saturday evening at Little Theatre Museum.

The play touched on many issues that affect life aspects faced by many people especially the abuse that men go through but still keep quiet about it before they explode and find themselves in trouble. The play was about a man, Thuso who was molested at a tender age only for his past to haunt him and destroy his childhood dreams of having a perfect family in adulthood. The play kick-started with Thuso and his wife Thapelo enjoying a dinner night only for the evening to end badly after Thuso’s bad erection. According to the play, he had been going through the same ordeal for years but his wife Thapelo had been supportive. However, the couple cheated on each other whilst still in a relationship and never addressed their past that had been haunting them all those years instead of talking things through. In most cases men do not discuss things that bother them and end up making wrong decisions. The beautiful and intimate scene with soft music in the background made the audience relate to the story. In the story, the couple enjoyed an intimate night up until the man failed to have an erection. Disappointed as he was, he tried calming down and begging for an erection but nothing happened. That turned his wife off. When disclosing why he could not get an erection, Thuso finally confessed he was molested by a woman he trusted and treated as a mother figure, ‘Mmangwane.’ Bommagwane (aunts) are supposedly expected to protect and love their nieces and nephews. According to Thuso, Mmagwane was a woman of prayer who encouraged the children in the hood to be prayerful and fear God to avoid being punished by ‘Satan.’ She enticed the children in the streets with candy and a variety of snacks.

One fateful day the main character was enticed to her house only to be molested, given him a hand full of candy and told never to talk about it. Coming up from a poor family background, he tried telling his mother but he disregarded his cries because his family was poor while Mmagwane was filthy rich.

Meanwhile, after Thuso confessed his ordeal to his wife, she told him that the daughter that he thought was his was his friend’s cousin’s daughter. What made him more angry was the fact that her friend made fun of him on social media. After hearing her confession about their daughter not being his, he lost it and got temporarily insane and killed both of them.

The play illustrated a lot of issues answering the why, how and when that the public does not normally address.

SHOWTIME

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2022-12-05T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-12-05T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://enews.mmegi.bw/article/281913072139957

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