Zimbabwean actors in Dorchester for powerful play (From Dorset Echo)

Zimbabwean actors in Dorchester for powerful play

10:27am Tuesday 17th August 2010 in

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ZIMBABWEAN actors Kevin Hanssen and Anne Fischer have come to Dorchester with the full weight of the British Council behind them.

The council, which promotes the exchange of knowledge and experience worldwide, funded the actors’ flights to the UK from Harare and their arrival has been a major coup for Dorchester Arts, where they are performing Doubt: A Parable.

Alistair Nisbet, the chairman of Dorchester Arts, said: “It is wonderful to have Kevin and Anne here in Dorchester and I am very excited about it.

“The fact that we have them here is amazing and it must be a bit of a first for Dorchester to have actors travelling thousands of miles to be here. It is just a shame that they have not been able to find other venues to perform the show in while they are here.”

Both Kevin and Anne are highly regarded in their home country and have won prestigious theatrical awards. Kevin has performed at the Edinburgh Festival and was a member of the Over the Edge theatre group, whose members included Lucian Msamati who starred as mechanic JLB MKaketoni in the BBC adaptation of The Number 1 Ladies detective Agency.

Doubt: A Parable is the Pulitzer Prize-winning tale of a forward-thinking priest and extremely conservative nun locked in combat over her suspicions that he has abused a young black boy in their care. Written by John Patrick Shanley five years ago, and here led by Dorchester director Mel Hooley, it was most recently made into a highly-acclaimed film starring Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Kevin and Anne are joined on stage by Katie Davis from Dorchester as a buoyant young nun in the convent and Molly Jackson, from Poole, as the mother of the young boy at the heart of the play.

Doubt is at Dorchester Arts in School Lane, The Grove, Dorchester, from Thursday to Saturday, August 19 to 21. Performances are at 8pm and tickets are £8 plus concessions from the box office on 01305 266926 or in person.