From left: Maggie Karanja, Marianne Nungo and Jacob Otieno co-star in John Kani’s Nothing But The Truth. PHOTO | MARGARETTA WA GACHERU
Hardly a weekend goes by without at least two theatrical productions being staged in various venues around Nairobi.
Last week’s performance of The Globe Theatre’s Hamlet at the Oshwal Centre’s Chandaria Auditorium was unprecedented and revelatory. Who knew there was such a magnificent stage in the heart of Westlands?
One person who was inspired by Shakespeare on the Chandaria stage was Safaricom’s CEO Bob Collymore, with whom I spoke last weekend at Village Market where he was guest of honour at the ‘Burdens’ art exhibition.
Mr Collymore has become a keen advocate of the arts in Kenya and says he hopes in the not-too-distant future to establish a performance space with seating that will potentially rival Oshwal’s.
Offering a sterling example of the way Kenya’s private sector can support the arts, Mr Collymore has translated his aspirations into action with the Michael Joseph Centre’s servicing not only local thespians and visual artists but jazz musicians like those who’ll perform there Saturday night.
Local thespians are also seeing the potential to stage plays in unexpected places like Casual Bite, a coffee ‘n snack shop in Westlands where The Theatre Company gave the premier performance last night of Anne Manyara’s brand new script entitled Miss Brown, which co-starred Silvia Cassini as Miss Brown and Fridah Muhindi as Miss Mwangi.
The 20-minute play is a product of a two-week Kenyan women writers workshop that was run in late 2013 by Keith Pearson of The Theatre Company. Miss Brown will be restaged along with several other scripts by women that came out of that inspiring session aimed at encouraging original new works by Kenyan writers.
In the meantime, Jacob Otieno managed to obtain the stunning post-Apartheid script by South African actor, playwright and filmmaker John Kani entitled Nothing But the Truth, which is on at Phoenix Players through February 22.
During the height of apartheid, Kani worked closely with South Africa’s leading playwright and director Athol Fugard. Kani co-wrote award-winning plays like The Island and Siwze Banzi is Dead with Fugard and fellow black actor Winston Ntshona.
The two actors also co-starred in those intensely powerful plays, which were also staged in Kenya in the 1980s directed by the late John Ruganda and co-starring Wakonyote Njuguna and Odingo Hawi.
Nothing But the Truth is Kani’s first solo script-writing venture and it explores black on black issues that have emerged since the end of apartheid. The play is about two brothers, one who stayed in the country throughout the oppressive apartheid era, the other who fled into exile and died overseas, never having returned even after Mandela was freed.
So when his ashes are brought back home by his UK-born daughter Mandisa (Maggie Karanja), she’s welcomed warmly by her ‘sister’ Thando (Marianne Nungo), but treated rudely by her late father’s brother Sipho (played by Jacob Otieno who also directed the play).
The reasons for Sipho’s bitterness are manifold and unfold gradually in the course of the play. The contrast between the young women’s joy at meeting and Sipho’s sour demeanour is a glaring reflection of the latent unrest and ill-feelings that still exist in that country today.
The political undercurrent in Nothing But the Truth is subtle but revealing of what the mass media doesn’t tell us about what many black South Africans are feeling today about everything from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to the ongoing racism that still plagues the country.
Finally, Heartstrings Kenya is back at Alliance Francaise through this Sunday night with yet another comedy that’s both whole-heartedly entertaining and revealing of real life social issues that reflect everyday lives in Kenya today.
Take It or Leave It is one of those rare productions based on a Western script but definitely adapted to the Kenyan context. (Normally, Heartstrings devises its own comedies.) All about two sisters, Joanne and Sally (played by Bernice Nthenya and Natasha Wanjiru) who are rivals for the affections of a guy called Adrian (Timothy Ndisii). Or at least that’s one of the scenarios that unfold as Joanne tries to figure out her feelings for the man.
Compounding the comedy are the girls’ parents played by Bilal Wanjau (last seen on stage as Herod in Phoenix Players’ recent Christmas musical) and Anne Kamau who have their hands full with these two volatile daughters.
The other mischief maker in the show is Trizah Kabue who as the house help injects added sparkle into another one of Sammy Mwangi’s hilarious shows.
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