Sitati’s satire is never short of humour, often bordering on the absurd as when one man comes to court to sue his ex-girlfriend for damages since she’s “broken his heart.”
The irony is that the Counsel defending the jilted lover is Laura, the woman with whom the judge cheated on his wife (Grace Waihuine).
In All I Ever Wanted, playwright Walter Sitati goes on an attack against corruption and the capricious nature of our so-called rule of law in Kenya. Using the pen like a double-edged sword, the writer sets up a courtroom scene where three cases are being prosecuted before Judge Harvey (Peter Kawa).
The judge has already been compromised, not by money but by a love affair he’s had with lawyer Laura (Ellsey Okatch) who’s appearing in court on the State’s behalf.
Sitati’s satire is never short of humour, often bordering on the absurd as when one man comes to court to sue his ex-girlfriend for damages since she’s “broken his heart.”
The irony is that the Counsel defending the jilted lover is Laura, the woman with whom the judge cheated on his wife (Grace Waihuine). Now she feels jilted too as the judge broke off their affair in an effort to restore his family life.
As it turns out, it’s too late for the judge as he learns when his wife and daughter (Tracy Amadi) give him his comeuppance. Meanwhile, Sitati’s also got a bone to pick with social media and millennials obsessed with their cell phones. Case number two is a teen (Anne Kariuki) charged with murdering her mother when she disconnected her life support system to charge her cell phone. It sounds absurd again, but she gets convicted anyway.
Sitati doesn’t spare lawyers either since the convicted child claims her Counsel (played by Sitati) kept her quiet throughout the case; yet she had a back story that she believes could have saved her from jail. Implicitly we see his arrogance is what kills her case.
But it’s case number three that sticks the two-edged blade into the social fabric, and even the State. Citizen Y (Pauline Kyalo) comes on strong as she defends herself after refusing to pay taxes or stand for the national anthem; she even shredded her ballot papers. She’s an impassioned woman, angry over the way government’s mismanaged and corruption reigns everywhere. She’s convicted as charged, but the judge gives her a suspended sentence.
So we see he has sympathy for Citizen Y who makes a powerful plea and becomes the conscience of the play.
Judge Harvey is a conflicted man who tries to be good and even to stand against the powers who want Citizen Y silenced. But he loses out in the end having violated his own ethics and cheated in his personal life.
Mental health
All I Ever Wanted in effect is a modern morality play dressed up in satire with a touch of absurdist comedy.
Meanwhile, Justin Mirichii takes on the issue of mental health in My Better Halves which premiered last weekend at Alliance Francaise.
Like Sitati, Justin scripted a satire and co-starred in the key role of the shrink who’s suffering from a split personality and who makes his wife’s (Joyce Musoke) life hell. On one hand, he’s an argumentative paranoid schizophrenic. On the other, he’s a “bad guy” burglar and mysterious masked man who invades his own home, terrorising his wife in the process.
His disguise is a bit hooky but the concept is cool. Shrinks are known for occasionally acquiring the mental maladies they diagnose.
It’s the wife who (as in Sitati’s script) is aggrieved and frustrated by her man. She doesn’t understand his rants; nor is she enthused about the arguments they consistently have.
But when the masked man gets cosy on her couch and they start to chat, she opens up to the mystery man. She’s even tempted to get intimate with him, so estranged she has been from a spouse who’s technically a mad man. She doesn’t understand his disease until he finally opens up to her and explains his duo-personality. She’d also contributed to his stress, given her mother was always meddling in their marriage.
Ultimately what the play reveals is that the key to a successful marriage is clear communication, trust, honesty and time spent having fun together.
Finally, today there are two performances not meant to be missed. The first is at 3pm at Kenyatta University where the late theatrical genius and great playwright Francis Imbuga is being celebrated with a performance of his play, The Successor.
Then at Kenya National Theatre, Rogers Otieno’s group from the Aroji Drama Academy will stage Dead Talk through the weekend.
Finally, in Lamu, the bi-annual Shela Hat Contest is on all day Saturday with the Mad Hatter Dhow Race on Sunday.
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Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
