The company itself is so genius at embellishing their deeply insightful truths with jokes and brilliant body language that their audiences can’t help laughing.
In Too Late we meet three crafty women who have already figured out they’ve got to fend for themselves, and not expect support from any man.
Heartstrings’ latest comedy, ‘Too Late’ is the most cynical indictment of marriage that the company has produced to date.
It wasn’t necessarily a new message, that modern-day marriage as an institution is broken. But it is still disturbing to see it brought out with so much passion as was expressed by Heartstrings cast.
The company itself is so genius at embellishing their deeply insightful truths with jokes and brilliant body language that their audiences can’t help laugh when they could just as easily weep over the loss of security, trust, and love that marriage used to promise.
In Too Late we meet three crafty women who have already figured out they’ve got to fend for themselves, and not expect support from any man. Instead, each one, enacted by Mackrine Andala, Bernice Nthenya, and Adelyne Nimo has figured out means of taking care of themselves.
They all, at multiple points in the play, give their graphic reasons for why they don’t rely on untrustworthy guys. They’ve got grounds for their convictions so it’s already ‘too late’ to turn their heads around.
Mackrine’s case might be the most dramatic since she puts up the most convincing argument for leaving her husband Christian, played by Paul Ogola. He comes to beg her forgiveness for his infidelity, although we can see he isn’t fully cured of it despite his agreement to hand over the long-awaited dowry to her people.
Her initial refusal to accept his pleas leads to his calling their marriage counselor (Mary Muturi), who looks like a pillar of rectitude, to convince them to stick to their vows.
It's stunning to see how easily she falls back into his arms. But in act two, we discover her true colours when she arrives at Adelyne’s massage and beauty salon. She tells her girlfriends how her ‘two-minute man’ is now going to build her a house and pay her kids’ school fees as if that was all their reconciliation really means to her.
He is there for his ‘full-body massage’ and hears her every word. Coming out of hiding to accuse her of deceit, he notes she is such a brilliant actor (meaning liar) that she deserved an Academy award.
Yet Bernice and Adelyne are equally amazing actors. At the restaurant where Bernice meets men like Paul and Mzee on Valentine’s Day, she treats them like puppets. And in act two, she tells Adelyne that women must learn to be tricksters like herself.
She apparently also works at Adelyne’s salon where she again encounters Paul and Mzee. The old man is especially keen to have her give him a full-body massage. Yet while he waits for her to come, Paul calls the counselor again to reconcile the irreconcilable.
That’s when the last little bit of marital credibility falls apart when we discover the lusty Mzee is none other than the counselor’s spouse!
But in Too Late, there are multiple stories interwoven by a thread. Adelyne plays the shrewd, older businesswoman who gets set up for a blind date with the 23-year-old lad. He’s the embodiment of foolhardy romantic love.
He’s fantasised about their prospective affair, but she’s only come for the meal, the bill of which she allows him to pay. The poor guy only has Sh5,000 while her hefty bill is Sh18,000. The management agrees to allow him to work the difference off by working for the owner whom we discover is also Adelyne.
But when act two opens, it’s not clear where we are since the young man now has skills in massage and manicure and works for his former ‘valentine’. Ultimately, everybody shows up at the salon, first Bernice followed by Mzee, Christian, and counselor Mary.
Mzee shows up, insisting on having a full-body massage with Bernice’s character Melissa. After that, we see that Christian is also waiting his turn.
But when his wife shows up with her stories, that generates the climax of the play. Christian comes out of hiding, calls their counselor again, and now it’s his turn to feel wronged with his wife’s style of deception.
Once the counselor arrives, the couple are again contemplating a compromise in light of her conviction and moral example. But then comes Mzee demanding his massage, only to find his wife in front of him.
Like a game of cards, the delicate balancing act called marriage crumbles and we are caught by surprise at how well we do not understand the tragic loss of happy marriages in our lives.
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