Tony Durham, ActionAid media officer

"You can see there has been a funeral there." On a showery afternoon, three women are sitting outside on a sofa. When there is a funeral, my colleague George Matonhodze explains, Zimbabweans move the couches outside the house. "Or sometimes they take down the curtains."

We have just dropped the actors, dancers and drummers of Zvido Zvevanhu Arts Ensemble back at their base in the Harare suburbs, after two high-intensity performances of a dance-drama that is part of ActionAid's campaign to prevent the spread of cholera.

Zvido Zvevanhu (People's Questions) are one of Zimbabwe's top performing arts groups. An airline label on one of their drums is a souvenir of the time they performed in China. They can act, sing, dance and play traditional instruments. Besides socially-committed work like this, they are available for weddings and parties.

The first show was in a church hall in Mabvuku, with an audience mainly of health activists, seated around the edges of a rectangular arena. This was preaching to the converted.

The second show was authentic street theatre, with a crowd pressing in on the performers, the smallest kids at the front. This took place in the township of Warren Park, in a big open space where a row of stalls sell hot sadza (maize mash) and stew. Customers sit and eat under a long, open-sided shelter, a comfortable distance from the heat and wood-smoke of the half-oildrum stoves. Check out the gallery here.

The plot of the show is basically Men Behaving Badly. A young man eats fruit off the filthy ground, pees against walls and shows general disregard for hygiene. The women shout at him and show him how to wash his hands, but he falls ill before he takes much notice. Disputes are resolved and at happy moments there is a lot of fist and wrist bumping, which has replaced handshaking among cholera-conscious Zimbabweans.

Afterwards children grabbed for the 'Beware Cholera' leaflets that the cast handed out. Some leaflets ended up on the ground but some, perhaps, went home to parents. It would be a lot easier to follow the precautions if the water supplies and sewers were working properly, but ActionAid and other agencies are spreading the message that people can still take simple measures to protect themselves and their community.

Margaret Kanaventi, a volunteer in Mabvuvu, mentioned two local cases of cholera: a woman who went for treatment at the Beatrice infectious diseases clinic, and a man who for some reason refused to go. The woman got better, the man was dead the next day. Cholera does not give you much time to decide. The wrong choice can mean yet another funeral.