Festival of Creative Arts must explain the ‘Forbidden’ suspense

What’s confusing about Festival of Creative Arts’ latest production, Forbidden, is not that John Kamau (Nick Ndeda) is a taxi driver with two homes, two wives and a friend named Ambrose (Xavier Nato) who tries to help him keep his double life secret from both wives, Barbara (Veronica Wacuke) who lives in South B and Mary (Nice Githinji) who’s in South C.

Nor it is that Kamau gets clobbered over the head when trying to help a little old lady who was being robbed by two guys who ran off in time for the lady to mistake Kamau for one of the crooks and beat him with her big, blue handbag.

Nor is it surprising that Kamau and Ambrose tell so many untruths to the wives and to two female cops that eventually Kamau gets ensnared in his own web of lies.

What’s also not confusing is the way Festival of Creative Arts (FCA) puts both of Kamau’s homes on stage simultaneously as it’s all the better to see the risky game that Kamau is playing.

What is confusing is the ending of Forbidden, which I won’t reveal since FCA is restaging the show at Alliance Francaise from October 3 to October 5.

But for me, the ending is too abrupt and unclear, so that I left the AF auditorium wondering what actually transpired.

Was it confusing because the electricity died in the middle of the show, leaving the cast to perform practically in the dark?

Or was it unclear because the “indigenising” of the play wasn’t done well, so that FCA’s version didn’t bring out essential points found in the original, such as the thugs following Kamau home in search of the old lady’s handbag which somehow ended up in the taxi driver’s cab?

I also didn’t catch that the “gay guy” Bobby J (Robert Agengo), who supposedly was Barbara’s neighbour, wasn’t really gay or even a neighbour at all. That was merely a ruse to keep under the cops’ radar.

Nor did I catch that one of the two cops (Janet Kirina, not Umi Rajab) was on the attempted theft, which is why she kept showing up at both of Kamau’s homes.

The only reason I’m interrogating the issue is because FCA shows are usually so slick, witty and clear that I wonder why I came away feeling so dissatisfied with this version of the play.

Hopefully, next month’s production will bring more clarity to the play.