The last time she was in town, many theatre lovers missed the chance to see her in action. Wangu Wa Makeri got a standing ovation when she came back to life in her musical that was as educative as it was entertaining. It was a full serving, and it still left them hungry for more.
Well, from August 28th to 31st the roads lead to the Kenya National Theatre for a rerun of the well acclaimed musical historical that offers a sneak peak into women empowerment, radical feminism and the hurdles of matriarchy.
The Agikuyu community inspired play in Kikuyu on the life and times of the first Gikuyu chieftainess written by Lawrence Murage promises to reach the acclaim it did in its first sold- out run, hence prompting the rerun.
It tells the story of the first woman chieftainess in precolonial Kenya when women leadership was frowned upon.
She became a “headman”, which was the inscription of being a villain in her own story. It is a story telling play and people should expect to learn and see a different side of Wangu Wa Makeri that they don’t know.
“It is the story of a fierce woman of firsts, when women leadership was frowned upon. Wangu Wa Makeri’s role was traditionally for men but she became the first woman to occupy it. She was a villain in her own story because she ruled with an iron fist.
She was imperfect, and is in this story, what you would call a perfect imperfect character. She had her days in the sun and her days in the shade,” says Lawrence.
For the director and scriptwriter Lawrence who is also a scriptwriter for Njoro Wa Uber, the idea of Wangu Wa Makeri was first preconceived in 2018.
“One of the things that intrigued me about Wangu Wa Makeri was that the messaging was one sided, that she used to sit on the backs of men. I wanted to understand her. We heard about her growing up, she was mentioned in the same breath as Lwanda Magere, Koitalel Arap Samoei and others.
We mostly perceive these legends as mystic tales bandied around firesides as bedtime narratives and so I dug a little deeper and found her,” he says.
The play is amongst the few of a kind that is trying to veer off the script of traditional plays that were more inclined toward the traditional British leanings. It calls for improvisation inclined toward the factual element of history.
“I would acknowledge myself as the writer but a lot more credit belongs to the cast for making the idea come to a fruitive reality,” says Lawrence.
For the scriptwriter, his practice lies on the foundation of thespians fully embodying the spirit and inspiration of the play by way of speech, walking and talking and the liberty to be twin representations of the facts of the play.
“My workshopping and working around theatre make me a better screen writer,” he says, “but when I come back to theatre, I want the beauty and authenticity of us workshopping the story and creating it from ground up.”
For the play, he expects the audience to receive good performances tweaked for the better from the last edition.
For Mwana Mwende who plays Wangu Wa Makeri, the play takes a three-pronged approach where she highlights the life of the Wangu wa Makeri pre leadership, during leadership and in the fall from grace of leadership.
“The play is more than Wangu Wa Makeri, it shows not just how she was but also the life around the Agikuyu community in 1907. My experience on stage has been splendid. We locked out so many people hence the rerun.”
The play is a perfect mirror to daily happenings more than a hundred years later.
“When women become leaders, sometimes they are not as powerful as men and sometimes to match that power, they go overboard just to flex prowess. Every time there is a woman leader, she will always get opposition not only from men but from fellow women as well. It wasn’t easy for her (Wangu Wa Makeri). She faced a lot of negative energy from her people and even from home with having a husband who wasn’t a leader. The coping mechanism back then is just as it is now.”
What should people expect? “It is a musical show, therefore a lot of entertainment and learning, it is educative as it is entertaining,” she says.
