Original Musical Theatre Productions &/or Versions of RAPSIDA’s Our Town Model, Created During RAPSIDA Training Sessions

(NOTE: Over 30 plays have been created during RAPSIDA’s Training Sessions.
The following are highlighted examples.)



Ishuri Ryacu (Our School), 2004—in association with VSO

A young girl named Ingabire walks into the school yard one morning to encounter the stares and negative words of the youth and teachers who discriminate against her, because she has HIV and she is on ARV treatment. She sings, alone on stage as the others turn their backs on her. Gradually, the youth and teachers begin to hear Ingabire’s song of despair, and they take personal responsibility for going to help her, resisting even physically the negative influence of their peers. The responsible youth go to stand and sing with Ingabire, soon drawing the rest of the peers onto the stage to sing as well. This play was the basis for RAPSIDA's Short Film, Ingabire.



Bira Shoboka (It’s Possible), 2005—created by Club Ejo Heza, Ntenyo, Gitarama

The play opens with the group of actors entering energetically from the audience until one of the boys realizes that he forgot his guitar for the play. The other actors get angry with him and kick him away from their group. He sings sadly about how he wishes he had a guitar so that he could sing a song about HIV/AIDS with his group. However, while he is singing sadly, he realizes that he is singing successfully without a guitar and therefore he does not need a guitar. He makes guitar noises with his voice (nanananananana) and makes an “air” guitar with his hands. Before too long, the rest of the group hear his beautiful song and join him, in a moment of pure musical theatre bliss as they all mimick guitars and sing the song in a line at the front of the stage.

The play then focuses on a woman and her son in a typical Rwandan town. The woman’s husband has died of HIV and she fears that she too has HIV. Her son, Phillipo, is a fun-loving young man who wants to go and have sex with many girls, and when the other boys and the audience in forum theatre try to convince him to resist such temptations, Phillipo is unconvinced and he eventually goes with the girl. The mother, meanwhile, is despairing about her HIV status, but a friend of hers asks her if she has had a test and the mother says no, because she knows she has HIV. After much persuasion, the friend convinces her to go to get a test to be sure, so that she can get medications if necessary.

Ultimately, when the mother catches Phillipo with a prostitute, she convinces Phillipo to go for a test with her, and while they are waiting for their results, the MC comes on stage for an interactive theatre moment to interview people from the audience, including PLWHA, about VCT. When it is time for the results, the mother finds that she is negative (because her husband always protected her from sex when he had HIV) and the son finds he is positive for obvious reasons.

A hushed silence comes over the audience when the popular, risk-taking main character Phillippo discovers that he has HIV. Phillipo lets out rage and frustration, and finally rests his head in his hands, smothering his face in silence. This is followed by a regret scene, where Phillipo addresses the audience directly, saying, “I should have listened to you, and you, and you,” because indeed the audience members had tried to convince him to make good decisions earlier in the play, but he had refused to listen.

After, family and friends in the play try to console Phillipo. He acknowledges and appreciates their love, and their willingness to accept him as an HIV+ person, but he also says, “first and foremost you must help me tell others to avoid what has happened to me, because life without HIV is easier than life with HIV.” Trying to acknowledge the humanity and potential of people who have HIV is very difficult in a play that is primarily trying to make a strong argument for prevention and the serious risks posed by HIV, but Club Ejo Heza pulled it off with sophistication and artistry.


Umujyi Wachu (Our Town), 2005—created by Club Imirasire, Kabagari, Gitarama

A young AIDS orphan is discriminated against by her entire village, but especially by her “employer.” During the forum theatre scene when the audience is on-stage to try to convince the employer to not mistreat the girl, the rest of the town begins to notice the audience members showing kindness to the girl. Soon the townspeople send a representative to ask the audience members why they are showing the girl love, and the representative becomes convinced by what the audience members say. The townspeople now understand that they should help her, but the employer remains against her. Discussion ensues after the play about that employer and whether the audience knows people like him/her in their town. The play highlights a wonderful array of interactive elements that implicate the audience in the action of the play.


Umujyi Wachu (Our Town), 2005—created by Club Marenga, Kayumbu, Gitarama

A magnificent traditional dance (which normally just stops and is not connected to the play thematically) now bleeds into another dance that reveals a man and wife who die of HIV due to the man’s promiscuity. Then, their four AIDS orphans must choose which path to take as they try to survive. Despite the urgings of one brother and the audience in Forum Theatre, several decide to split-up, and the girl who goes with an older man is abused by him and left alone on the streets. Soon, her drunk brother, who has failed to make it on his own and who is now in the streets living a vagabond’s life, actually tries to rape her with a gang of boys on a very dark night, but discovers just in time that it is his sister and realizes the terrible nature of his actions and his situation. They return home to the other orphans and learn that it is better to stick together as a group and get help from local associations and each other, rather than try to make as individuals.

Umujyi Wachu (Our Town), 2005—created by Club Tuzayitsinda, Kamonyi, Gitarama

A beautiful traditional dance with songs of welcome and well-being opens the play, leading to another dance where one of the women changes costumes to become a man and then he tries to dance with all of the women and they reject him, establishing him as a womanizer. When the song is over he is on the stage alone and he goes to the home of one of the women who has rejected him and he tries to convince her again to sleep with him. And she accepts. The next day, he exits that house and finds a young girl who is on the street singing about how she has been orphaned by HIV. He sings to her in operatic form that he can give her a good life. The audience tries to convince the girl not to go with him (in a forum theatre moment), but she always sings that she is going to leave with this man. Finally, the girl becomes sick and she is told by a friend to go for a test and she does and she is HIV positive and she regrets her actions, as does the womanizer.

Our Family, 2005—created by Club Supa Ingenzi, Gabiro, Umutara

Three children are seen playing together on the stage. One is an HIV orphan who has been brought to her uncle’s home, but the aunt discriminates against her, and encourages the children to start discriminating against her. The uncle is very frustrated by the aunt’s actions, especially when he hears the haunting singing of the lonely orphaned and abused child. The uncle, and the audience, tries to convince the aunt to stop discriminating, but she refuses. Finally, in a moment of funny, physical theatre, the uncle struggles with whether to take his anger out on her by hitting her, but ultimately he decides to leave her and build a house next to their first house, and invite the children to live with him. Soon, the children, all of them including the orphan, are living with him and the aunt is very sad. The play ends with a discussion about “What will she do?”