Wait a second...who has to die?

A few weeks ago, I got an e-mail from one of my friends about this theater group featuring 15 young Zambians. Their story was phenomenal. Just two years ago, many of them were living on the streets. Now, they had been accepted to be a part of Contacting the World Theater Festival, an opportunity that would allow them to travel the world performing in England, Ireland, and Poland. Before they could go, though, they had to fundraise approximately 50,000 U.S. (an absolutely RIDICULOUS amount here in Lusaka). They were amazingly successful at that as well. For their final fundraiser, they were to put on a performance at the Lusaka Play House days before they left.

Now, I’m not exactly the most cultured individual you’ll ever meet and I don’t exactly seek out such opportunities, but I was planning on going. Then, I found out the name of the play: ‘Tujuka Must Die’.


Wait a second. ‘Tujuka Must Die’? Maybe, just maybe, this was going to be a Zambian adaptation of the major motion picture, ‘John Tucker Must Die.’ Okay, now I was definitely going.


Imagine my immense disappointment when the play was absolutely NOTHING like the movie. Not even a single character playing the role of ‘trampy high school girl.’

Sure, it was an entertaining play. Sure, the actors did a fantastic job. Sure, it was for a phenomenal cause. But still, by the end of the movie, I didn’t want Tujuka to die as much as I had wanted John Tucker to die. I guess they just picked an unfortunate name.