ABSTRACT
This chapter describes Heal the Wounds by Stephen Chifunyise to examine how theatre design might be a site to foster grassroots/ society-centric civility on healing/reconciliation in political conflicts that result from the use of violence in political contestations. It examines Heal the Wounds as a site for promoting grassroots or society-centric civility and healing. In Zimbabwe, theatre design approaches are characterized by multitasking, emanating from a combination of ideological or deliberate need to subvert realist conventions or poverty. Since many theatre artists survive on donor funding, they often make ideological compromises when Western-based donor agencies fund local theatre productions. The chapter demonstrates how theatre as agent of urban elite civility may unwittingly undermine rural forms of cultural civility in relation to respect and dignity of rural characters. In the productions that the researchers watched, Zinyemba wore a multicoloured woollen hat, an old brown jacket, a green shirt, and multicoloured tie, grey trousers, and old dusty brown shoes.
