Monologue presents Sibi Okumu in his element as top writer

John Sibi Okumu is a child practically born into Kenyan theatre. Mentored from an early age by one of Kenya’s leading theatre critics the late Nigel Slade, Sibi is a pioneering Kenyan performer.
Best known locally for his TV appearances as anchor man and interviewer on ‘The Summit’ and MC for the Zain Africa Challenge colleges quiz show, Sibi’s receipt in 2002 of the highest honour the French government can give, the Chevalier des Palmes Academiques is likely to be less known (even though it’s equivalent to a knighthood or an OBE).
That was a big deal. Sibi probably earned it for being not just a teacher of French and translator, but also a gifted performer, published playwright and poet, journalist, film and stage actor, and director. What’s more, Sibi wrote Elements in French (not English) and narrated the French-funded Spotlight on Kenyan Music, again both in English and French.

In recent times, Sibi may be best known as a playwright of works like Role Play, Minister Karibu and Meetings.
His skill as a writer was on display last Wednesday night when Natalie Viarac performed his powerful monologue about an emotionally damaged woman writer and lecturer struggling to keep her head above deep waters that threaten to drown her under the duress of dealing with multiple losses: the loss of a child, two husbands and her own virginity at an early age.

Elements is the name of the script Viarac mastered many months ago; but when the play was restaged last Wednesday, it was quite a different story from the one staged the first time round. More sobering, it still had the same structure and theme, but new details.
Divorced from both her spouses, Dana Otieno had a multicultural background (like Viarac) which resulted in her having to cope with curious onlookers’ stereotypic notions of who she was.
Not that Dana knows who she is, being a mix of half Caribbean, European, African and Asian. So understandably, identity is one of the myriad themes that Sibi explores in this emotionally taut play.
But he does seem to play with the theme of multiple identities, given Viarac’s Dana role-plays a whole range of characters as she responds to students’ queries asking everything from her spouses and late parents of her son.
Viarac gives an explosive performance that conveys the rage Dana had kept hidden all these years, starting from when she was raped by her father at age 10 through the loss of her husbands and the death of her son.
Dana is more damaged this time round. The pace of the play is just as polished but slowed down, giving her audience more time to feel the pain of her sensitive soul. And implicitly she conveys a touch of maudlin madness similar perhaps to the sort that led to her father landing in a psychiatric ward for the remainder of his life.
Sibi’s son Jacob provided soulful music for the monologue. A skilled guitarist and vocalist, Jacob’s original lyrics gently revealed that he is definitely his father’s son.

Meanwhile, poetry also formed the pithy part of last Saturday night’s performances at PAWA254, where Fatuma’s Voice paired up with the Arterial Network Kenya (ANK) to celebrate World Literacy Day. Fatuma has become a magical magnet for young artists to come and feel free to perform either ‘spoken’ word poetry, original songs or musical instruments.
So ANK’s Christine Gitau was wise to link up with Nuru Bahati, Fatuma’s master of ceremonies when they were not just celebrating the positive value of literacy. Nuru led his house-full crowd of mostly college students in a debate over the pros and cons of reading and writing.
“Was literacy essential to achieving success?” was the debatable question, and it stimulated probing and provocative discussions, which was exactly what Gitau and ANK’s new co-ordinator Gibson Mawira wanted to elicit as a way of illustrating ANK’s concern for ‘freedom of expression’ especially as it is exercised by Kenyan and African artists.
Following the debate and a panel that sifted through the fascinating points raised by the artists present, Nuru welcomed a long string of spoken word artists and musicians, all of whom embodied the freedom to express their heartfelt views on everything from politics and negative ethnicity to social justice and revolution. The sheer amount of creativity expressed that night was breath-taking.
Finally, Heartstrings Kenya opened at Alliance Francaise last Tuesday night in another one of their outrageously amusing, original shows entitled ‘How Dearly I Hate You.” They will have a 10-day run.

Immediately thereafter at the same venue, Festival of the Creative Arts will put on Forbidden from September 18 to 21, followed by Friends Ensemble performing ‘Don’t Dress for Dinner’ from September 25 to 28.