Sly men and monsters

By Claire Allfree 19.02.08

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Zimbabwean actor Lucian Msamati is about to become indelibly associated in telly watchers' minds with shy, unassuming manhood.

Alexander McCall Smith's The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency comes to life this Easter in a BBC film directed by Anthony Minghella, with Msamati playing the long-suffering love interest to Jill Scott's fiery protagonist, Precious Ramotswe.

But while he was on location in Botswana, he received a phone call from the Lyric Hammersmith's artistic director, David Farr, proposing something quite different - the lead role in a version of Brecht's The Resistible Rise Of Arturo Ui, set in Africa.

'So, I put on my best actorly voice and said [here Msamati's rich, plump Zimbabwean vowels morph into a posh accent]: "Of course, I'd be delighted, absolutely!" Seriously, though, I spent some time in Zimbabwe kicking ideas around. It's a play about men who become monsters; obviously there are a million parallels and resonances.'

Arturo Ui is indeed a murderous thug who first conquers the cauliflower business and then the city itself in Brecht's fiercely funny - if heavy-handed and literal - parable of fascist tyranny.

Brecht wrote it in 1941 as a horrified response to the ease with which he considered Germany had capitulated to Nazi ideology. Although it is set in downtown Chicago, every character and incident is based on a real person or historic event associated with the Third Reich.

Farr's original plan was to locate the play in Zimbabwe, with Ui modelled on that country's very own political monster, President Robert Mugabe.

'In the end, we decided that a Zimbabwean setting would simply be too specific,' says Msamati, a co-founder of the now-defunct Zimbabwean theatre company Over The Edge. 'Instead, we are using a more general African backdrop, even though I wrestle with this notion of a generalised Africa because I just don't think it exists as a concept.

'So many strong men - Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Adolf Hitler, Robert Mugabe and into that group I include George W Bush, Tony Blair, even Gordon Brown - all share the same marks and distinctions of men of power. The play should make you think of all of them, not just one.

'What interests me is that the circumstances under which anyone rises to power are incredibly human. These people are not animals formed in some lab. All of us have these tendencies and they come out in us in all sorts of ways.'

Msamati was born in Tanzania but moved to Zimbabwe when he was six, spending the next 17 years there. Long enough to mean he considers himself Zimbabwean; certainly long enough for him to grieve over the devastation wrought in recent years by Mugabe's economic policies.

'In the 1980s, Zimbabwe was the boom town and there was a big emphasis on attracting black African expats such as my dad, who is a doctor, to train people up,' he says. 'Harare became this thriving cultural centre. There was so much talent there.

'At one point, Zimbabwe had a higher adult literacy rate than the US. You are talking about the most educated population in sub-Saharan Africa, although many people didn't get that. I remember touring with Over The Edge to the US and people saying to us: "But you speak Shakespeare so well." And we would go: "Hello, we went to school. We don't live in huts." So to see all that potential wasted and crushed hurts dreadfully.'

Brecht's play makes its point in its title: in nearly every circumstance, the rise of a murderous or even just morally questionable government can be resisted if there is enough popular will to stop it. So where does Msamati lay the blame for Mugabe?

'Look, we can't pretend the people doing the raping, pillaging and stealing are Westerners: they are Zimbabwean,' he says. 'But there's a political flipside - you'd be amazed, even in times of crisis, how much money is still passed between the Zimbabwean government and Britain in terms of business, for example.'

It's unsurprising Msamati should be delighted to star in The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency film - it offers a very different story.

'Yes, it's just so beautifully positive,' he says. 'There are no child soldiers or corrupt politicians. But it's a double-edged sword:

being a person of colour, your representation is so limited that you want everything to be in there all the time. But I'm learning that every story is a beginning.'

The Resistible Rise Of Arturo Ui, in preview, opens tomorrow until Mar 15, Lyric Hammersmith, King Street W6, Mon to Sat 7.30pm, Wed mats 1.30pm, Sat mats 2.30pm, £9 to £27, £10 concs.

Tel: 0870 0500 511. www.lyric.co.uk Tube: Hammersmith

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