VIRTUAL REALITY, A NEW WAY OF KENYAN LIFE

 By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted February 26, 2022)

‘Virtual Reality’, the play scripted and directed by Derrick Waswa and produced by Dorion Production Ltd., is not about VR, the technology that creates illusory experiences that enable people to feel as if they are in the Himalayas while they are just sitting on their living room sofa.

VR is an incredible technology which can give one a 360-degree perspective on just about any place on or off the planet. But in the case of Waswa’s ‘Virtual Reality’, the term has a more literal and down-to-earth meaning.

It’s still about some people seeing and believing illusions rather than what most people call reality. Take the case of motherhood. Tiana (Arara Awuor) looks like she is a mother of several daughters, including Camilla (Claire Wahome). But her behavior is anything but motherly, in the sense of being selfless and loving, especially towards her daughter.

Tiana doesn’t display a single one of those qualities. For a moment, after hearing Camilla has been raped by her social media manager, Calistos (Keith Maina), she almost considers going to the police to report her daughter’s experience and exposing her business partner. But then, he appeals to her vanity, a factor that plays a big role in Tiana’s life. He also tells her he will destroy all her YouTube videos, reveal all her intimate emails, and cancel all her precious social media contacts. She’s currently using those contacts to build bridges into the heart of cable TV. He ultimately succeeds in convincing her it’s in her interest not to save her daughter even though she contracts AIDS from the guy.

Virtual Reality in Waswa’s play takes on many shapes and constructs, it would seem. That includes the reality and virtual reality of marriage, including family. Another virtual reality to be tackled by Waswa is monogamy, which has been attacked by African traditionalists from the first days that Christian missionaries introduced it as part of the ‘Good News’.

Philip (Martin Mwanzia), the spouse to Judge Joyce (Flora Okunji), plans to take on a second wife, which is valiantly fought by Joyce. Incidentally, she is not the same judge who presides over the court case between Tiana and Camilla who is suing her mom for emotional abuse. That case is presided over by Judge Steph (Stephanie Warua) and it’s integral the play’s central storyline.

In any case, the law is meant to give us a clear sense of social civility. It’s meant to give us a line that is clearly drawn between good and evil, black and white, right and wrong. As it turns out, there is nothing that concise in Waswa’s world.

For instance, baby-making is something that normally happens between a man and a woman who have intimate relations. But now, medical science has invented new ways to make babies. Now you can do it ‘in vitro’, by sticking an embryo in a test tube and then mixing in a bit of sperm. After that, if conditions are right, you can find the egg getting fertilized by the sperm. Then, the magical mix can be transferred into any available womb. And finally, Presto! After nine months, a baby is virtually born!!

Waswa illustrates the hazards of making virtual babies by ‘in vitro’ means. First, you have to find a virtual or surrogate mother like Sasha (Mithcele Atieno) to make her womb available for the nine-month process for the plan to work. In the case of Judge Joyce and Philip who try the ‘in vitro’ method of baby-making, they are shocked at the outcome. The baby is born with virtually no genitalia, neither boy’s nor girl’s. For Joyce, it’s as if this is not a real baby, but to Philip, the baby is acceptable as long as he can be raised as a boy.

Given I didn’t see the tail-end of the show, I can only assume Waswa had intended to send a message. And that was that our society has gone crazy with virtual reality, so much so that it’s making people hypocrites and fraudsters from morning till night. The plainest illustration of that is Tiana who is essentially trying to create her own ‘reality show’ comparable to the one that made the Kardashians rich and famous. But there is nothing genuine or spontaneous or even real about what she and her manager are filming. Perhaps when I missed the last portion of the play, I missed the arrival of characters who had some integrity, honesty, and simple goodness. Otherwise, they were virtually absent from ‘Virtual Reality’.     

 

KIMANI QUIETLY MOVES MTS. IN KENYAN THEATRE

                         Kevin with World Impact Award winner John Sibi Okumu and Millaz' producer Claire Waweru

By Margaretta wa Gacheru posted February 25, 2022)

The quiet, behind-the-scenes dynamism that assembled the First Performing Arts Conference held this past week at Kenya National Theatre also happens to be the new Principle Creative Production Officer (PCPO) at the Kenya Cultural Centre.

Kevin Kimani Kahuro has a number of other claims to fame under his theatre belt which he also doesn’t boast about. He founded the Kenya International Theatre Festival (KITFEST) in 2016 when few people could figure out how he was single-handedly going to set up an ‘international’ festival when he seemed to have no big bundle of funds backing him and few believers in his international ambitions. But he has managed to pull it off annually ever since. He has operated on a shoestring, but has managed to bring global theatre groups from as far Scandinavia, the USA, and Senegal and as near as Uganda, Egypt, and South Africa.

KITFEST has grown and prospered gradually up until November 2021 when he and his team held the most successful festival yet. The intrepid Kimani didn’t even miss a festival during the darkest days of COVID-19 when in 2020, a portion of it went online and another part was staged in five regional counties. He was even able to produce the first edition of the Journal of East African Theatre containing scholarly papers from a KITFEST Conference that was held in 2018.

Then, right after KITFEST 2021, the Kenya Theatre Awards were announced and the public was invited to participate in the awards-selection process. Kimani had already brought together a team of theatre-minded Kenyans to serve as members of the KTA jury. But for the sake of democracy, transparency, and interactivity, the process of voting was digitalized with the public gaining 40 percent of the decision-making power.

Kevin (5th from Left) with other Kenyatta University studens of David Mulwa who just won Lifetime Achievement Award at the first Kenya Theatre Awards for 2021 at Kenya National Theatre

The awards were also the brain-child of Kimani, assisted by his team. So one can now see that this man has had a vision from the beginning. His obtaining a senior position at the Kenya Cultural Centre may have come as a surprise, especially as he is still a doctoral candidate, writing his Ph.D dissertation at Kenyatta University where he got his Bachelor of Arts in 2013 and Masters in Theatre Arts in 2019.

But his desire to build a thriving theatre culture in Kenya has its own history. Starting with his performing in Church productions from age 10, Kimani, as Chairman of the Drama Club, went on to act in the Kenya Schools Drama Festival during his days at Komothai Boys School in Githurai.

By then, his destiny was pretty well set as he joined Jicho 4 Players following secondary where he went all over the country staging set texts and performing in plays like Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, Kifo Kisimani, Utengano, and Ngugi’s River Between.

By the time he joined Kenyatta University, the Department of Film Technology and Theatre Arts had been established, but he had to set up the Drama Club in order to take shows to the Schools and Colleges Drama Festival. Surprisingly, that hadn’t happened before. “I wasn’t just chair of the Drama Club,” he tells BDLife. “I did everything from logistics to ticketing to acting,” he adds.

Kimani can’t identify exactly when he developed the vision of building a thriving theatre scene in Kenya. “I’ve always had a passion for theatre, since I was very young,” he says.

But by the time he entered the Masters program in theatre at KU, he already saw the way forward. “I had two career paths ahead of me. I could have opted for film, as most of my classmates were doing. Or I could go into theatre which is where I could see there were limitless possibilities,” he says

It has been a long road to finally hosting the first Performing Arts Conference at the Kenya National Theatre. The three-day conference featured mainly scholars like Professors Christopher Odhiambo, Frederick Ngala and Emily Akuno as well as Drs Mshai Mwangola-Githongo, Fred Mbogo, Mbugua Njoroge, Zippy Okoth, Emmanuel Shikuku, Kahithe Kiiru, and Mukasa Situma Wafula. All of them addressed the three-pronged theme of ‘Decolonization, Intercultural Collaboration, and Social Disruption’ from one angle or other.

One of the major issues that various scholars addressed, especially Dr Mshai and Dr Mbogo, was the site of the conference, Kenya National Theatre itself. Established in 1952 by the British colonial power, it was a no-go zone for Africans for more than a decade. But has it been fully decolonized today? The same issue applies to the School Drama Festival since it was also launched during colonial times.

These and many other topics were discussed during the conference. But the most inspiring presentation was given, not by a scholar but by the renowned singer-songwriter Eric Wainaina who encouraged young artists to be courageous, adventurous, and fearless in pursuit of their passion. It was a message that resonated widely among the academics and artists alike, including Kimani who is already at work on his next theatre project, the KTA 2022.

WOMEN'S ROLE IN SCRIPTURE AMPLIFIED ON STAGE

Reviewed by Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted February13, 2022)

                                          Cast of Spread your Garment over me'

‘Spread your Garment Over Me’ is both a glorious teaching device and an elegantly-crafted production staged last weekend at Kenya Cultural Centre’s Cheche Gallery.

Chemi Chemi Players made their acting debut last Friday night, featuring a bevy of beautiful storytelling Kenyan women, all of whom have theatrical credentials that say much about the advanced stage of our entertainment industry.

Julisa Rowe, who produced and directed ‘Garment’, has played a significant role in that progression, having taught most of the cast during her days teaching Theatre at Daystar University.   An actor in her own right, Rowe founded Chemi Chemi Players to nurture and build a Christ-centric community of professional performers. But one didn’t necessarily have to be a Christian to enjoy the ‘Garment’, given the quality of storytelling which was neither didactic nor preachy. It was however rich with passion and energy as all the actors had amazing stories to share about women who played heroic roles in Biblical history, women like Deborah (played with authority and militant power by Wambui Kyama) and Mary Magdelene (Julisa Rowe).

                                                                        Julisa Rowe

Yet beyond the actors being charismatic storytellers, it was the script by Gillette Elvgren that intrigued me. That’s because I have often asked myself where are the women in the Bible? Is their absence from much of the Scriptures purely because the texts were all written by men who overlooked the role of women? Everyone knows about Eve (played by Sakina Mirichii) and Mary, Mother of Jesus. Many have heard about the Witch of Endor, (played with wily agility by Nyokabi Macharia) and possibly even the prophetess Anne (Wambui Kyama) whose single-minded intention to meet the Messiah ultimately paid off.

 But it was Elvgren’s script that gave me an answer to my query and also a deeper appreciation for the many more women who played significant parts in advancing the broader Scriptural story. But I confess, the show made me scurry home to examine my Bible to find out if the play was actually meant to exclusively portray women mentioned in the Good Book, or did the playwright simply exercise a bit of poetic license.

I had to do a bit of biblical research to see if it was I who had the blind spot, not having come across women in the Bible like Claudia (Sakina Mirichii), Rizpah (Lucy Wache) and Michal (Wamwirua Joyce Musoke). I have a friend named Rahab (Tina Banja), but didn’t know she had been a harlot mentioned ten times in the Old Testament for her heroic role in hiding two of Joshua’s spies who’d come to check out the opposition at Jericho. But somehow, I’d overlooked her as well as Rizpah and Michal, both of whom were daughters of King Saul.

What was wonderful about this play is that one didn’t need to be a Bible scholar to discover these real women. Like Claudia (Sakina Mirichii) who wasn’t one of the twelve disciples obviously, but she was clearly referenced by Paul as being among the early followers. The script itself enable every woman to tell her own tale. Each character made you feel she had walked straight out of history into our lives, resurrected just to remind us of who they were and the part they had each played.

The fact that none of the seven cast members ever left the stage, (despite Cheche Gallery’s space being quite a bit smaller than the National Theatre stage) was effective. In part this meant there was far less commotion between monologues and the scenes easily melted from one into another. The simple black costuming also meant that the women could easily change their ‘garment’ when they picked one of the colorful scarves off the back wall and used it as the one prop that most of the characters required.

Julisa Rowe took a minimalist approach to her stage, thus enabling her audience to stay focused on the message, which is all about these women being obedient to the word of God. Not that they were all stoical and serious by any means, although Deborah (Wambui Kyama), being a judge and a prophetess, had the serious business of seeing God deliver Sisera into the hands of Barak.

Otherwise, there was much joy, amusement and singing in the show, as for instance, when three women (Nyokabi Macharia, Tina Banja and Lucy Wache) made fun of the woman caught in adultery, that is, until they saw she was forgiven by Jesus Christ. That gave them food for thought as it did to us as well.

 

KENYA WOMEN TRIO OF PAINTERS AT KAREN MUSEUM

 WOMEN’S EXHIBITION UNDER KAREN BLIXEN’S AVOCADO TREE

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (published 18 February 2022)

Standing in the hot equatorial sun with their artworks shaded only by the lush green branches of an avocado tree are three women artists who came to exhibit their works at the Karen Blixen Museum.

“We’ve been exhibiting here every year (apart from the last two when COVID kept us at home) since 2011,” says Caroline Mbirua, one of the trio which includes Esther Makuhi and Nayia Sitonik.

Speaking to BDLife, what she also explains is that in previous years, the troika always exhibited on the veranda of the Museum, having maximum visibility. “Often visitors to the Museum would stop first at our exhibition and admire our art,” she adds.

But this year is different. A new rule came into effect just before the pandemic hit. It now restricts artists from displaying their work in the frontal walkways of the Danish writer’s memorial institution.

We were informed of the artists’ situation by a friend who was so affronted by the women’s treatment that he texted me and advised me to go see their sad circumstance myself.

All three women are award-winning Kenyan artists. All are former students of Kenya’s most renowned art teacher and mentor, Patrick Mukabi. And they all insist that their treatment isn’t the fault of the current Museum curator who was out of the office when I arrived.

“It was a tourist who complained that our art was blocking their view of the Museum. They wanted to take photographs,” says Esther. “After that, the new rule was introduced which we found after we’d arrived from Kisarian,” she adds.

Resigned to making the best of a bad situation, the women are definitely disappointed at the way they have been treated. Nonetheless, they have displayed their art as best they can. But the fact that the best shade is under the avocado tree has made the women set up their make-shift displays right next to a ‘Maasai Market’ collection of curio salesmen.

“It’s as if the museum is treating artists like ordinary street venders,” one friend of the trio observed.

The proximity is unfortunate since it might seem that their art is just another style of curio, which it is definitely not. But Makuhi admits she feels their works has been relegated to things of lesser value.

And if being treated like a curio dealer isn’t bad enough, the trio has been challenged by Mother Nature. “It gets windy in Karen, making our paintings fall off their easels and [make-shift] stands,” says Mbirua.

“Plus when it rains we have to rush to get all our art to shelter,” adds Sitonik.

Their plight is palpable, particularly as they have seen that visitors who come to the Museum rarely find their way around the giant avocado tree to look for fine art. “If they do come to the tree, they are normally looking for curios,” says Mbirua.

Fortunately, all three women have brought both framed and unframed paintings with them, making it easier to transport and protect them from the elements.

For instance, Esther has brought postcard-sized paintings by several of her best young students who she teaches for free at her Darubini Centre.

“Both my art centre and myself have won awards at the [annual] MASK art competition,” she says. Caroline has also won MASK prizes for her teaching of art. “In 2014 I also received the Presidential EBS honor of ‘Elder of the Burning Spear’,” she says. “The same year, Nation Media also awarded me with the ‘One Vibe One Kenya’ prize,” she adds.

Nayia may not have won as many awards as her peers. But she has been commissioned to create numerous graffiti murals in places like the Kenya Revenue Authority and East African Leather, the Afri-Can in Uganda, and several walls in Kigale, Rwanda.

All three women paint various subjects, mainly in figurative styles. Caroline, who studied four years at the Creative Arts Centre, frequently paints in oils using monochromic subjects. My favorite are her delicately-drawn acacia trees which sometimes have a dash of contrasting color.

Nayia’s most interesting works are architectural, focused on familiar Nairobi haunts like the Railway Museum where she studied for a while with Patrick Makabi at the Dust Depo Studio. Her portraits of peri-urban cityscapes are also interesting.

And Esther’s forte is painting peasant women whose manual labor, carrying bags of fresh produce literally on their backs, helps to feed the nation.

All the women have kept their artworks affordable. None is more than Sh120,000 and some are as little as Sh5,000.

 

 

 

 

TOSH AND TOTAL DISTRACTION

 https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/lifestyle/art/jilted-lover-fights-back-structure-of-play-confuses-3712944

JILTED LOVER FIGHTS BACK AS STRUCTURE OF PLAY CONFUSES

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (Pbublished online february 10, 2022)

First-time playwright Christine Yohannes took an original approach to her production which was staged this past weekend at the Kenya Cultural Centre.

Ironically entitled ‘Total Distraction’, the show is all about a classic story that is unfortunately universal. It’s about a young woman who has been betrayed by a Casanova whose specialty is cheating every beautiful woman he can find. He first seduces her with sweet assurances of her being his only one, after which he dumps her. In this case, Majida (Sheila Kariuki) has been impregnated by Alandre (Ephantus Kuria) and at eight months, she is close to having the child.

But Majida has no thought for what will become of the child if its mother goes to jail for life. She is only intent on bumping off Alandre for having ruined her life. She is out for revenge, and it’s apparent that she believes she will ‘reclaim her power’ after having lost it due to the duplicity and dishonesty of Alandre.

The story is spiced up by the inclusion first of Alandre’s former financee Clare (Jean Gloria) who takes her time trying to convince Majida she would be making a huge mistake by killing the guy.

The other woman who plays her part in actually amping up Majida’s desire to finish the guy is Mila (Faith Wambui). She is Alandre’s current girl friend who seems well aware of her boyfriend’s cruel technique of collecting women for sexual partnership only to dump them once they make demands, like be faithful, honest, responsible, and caring. Mila apparently knows he is a Casanova, but doesn’t mind playing with his fire.

I don’t have a problem with the central theme of the play or with the acting or the directing. What I couldn’t understand was the role of the narrator. I was told it should be seen as an innovative and new approach to theatre, that it’s a new style of performance. But I still have questions.

This technique entailed the narrator (Peace Khamuli, Sharon Gathigia) sitting at the front of the stage with script in hand and reading all the playwright’s explanatory notes which are normally read, digested by the cast, and dramatized without need for anyone sharing those notes with the audience, especially simultaneously with the performance.

My first question is: Wasn’t this approach, of the acting being echoed by the reading, redundant?

I wonder if anyone was as confused by this technique as I was? I mean narrators have a role to play, for instance, when there is a need to introduce a story, play, film, or drama of some sort. But that type of narrator usually speaks before the story, and steps back for the cast to dramatize the work by themselves.

I initially wondered whether I wasn’t watching the rehearsal of a play, as in ‘a play within a play’? No, that wasn’t the idea.

I wonder if it was to ensure that we the audience knew what was going on. For instance, if you don’t speak Chinese, but you like to watch Chinese movies, you are happy to have sub-titles. Otherwise, if the actors can tell the story with their body language, one may feel there is no need for sub-titles; and so they get in the way of one’s full enjoyment of the action movie.

Perhaps the playwright felt the actors wouldn’t be able to convey the full development of her characters. Perhaps she felt the audience would be lost without having the full text of the play disclosed to them. Perhaps it was meant to be a courtesy so we would understand the depth of her characters’ feelings. Especially Majida’s who was so angry about Alandre’s getting off scot-free after having ruined her life that she was prepared to sacrifice her own.

In the end, we might assume that ‘Total Distraction’ ends as a cliff-hanger since the lights go out, and then three gunshots go off. Yet we can be pretty assured that Majida shot the guy in the end. What is peculiar is that at that point, the narrator should have been speaking, and telling us what the playwright really intended to have happen in those last few moments. Instead, I believe the narrator was silent. When we might have needed her most to clarify what actually happened to Alandre and whether the writer wanted us to feel that Majida had ‘reclaimed her power’ by destroying his.

Either way, we must congratulate Christine for her courage to try something new.

 

 

THEATRE AWARDS GET TOP MARKS FOR PICKING BEST OF BEST

THEATRE AWARDS ROUSE HOPE & HEIGHTENED INTEREST IN THE STAGE

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (published Feb. 18, 2022)

Kenya Theatre Awards (KTA) gave their own premiere performance last night at Kenya National Theatre where the auditorium and outside entrance were abuzz with the newest set of notable accolades to be extended to our up-and-coming local theatre industry.

The theatre was filled with leading local luminaries like Sitawa Namwali, John Sibi-Okumu, Paul Ogola, and Wakio Nzenge, all of whom had been nominated in any one of the 28 categories of awards.

There were also lots of local theatre lovers, many of whom were among the 46,893 who voted for the nominees of their choice.

One big incentive to getting a high online voter turnout was the decision made by the five KTA jurists to give the public 40 percent of the decision-making power over who won and who did not.

“In some cases, that meant the jurists and the public shared a similar perspective as when Ted Munene won the most votes among both groups for ‘Best Break-through Male Performer’ in ‘Blackout’,” said KTA founder, Kevin Kimani who is also the new Program Director at Kenya Cultural Centre. In other instances, the two groups differed as when the public favored Nick Ndeda by a small margin over Paul Ogola for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a lead role.

But what was possibly the most impressive feature of these awards is that all the votes were handled and tallied digitally. No personal bias could be injected into the data since it was all worked out mathematically and digitally. [As a consequence, there were a few upsets, but even more revelations as to the growing interest in Kenyan theatre.]

The biggest issue of the night was, of course, who would win Best Production and Best Musical Production as well as who would win Best Director, Producer, and Playwright? And which university or college theatre troupe would be deemed ‘best’. The issues have lit up local social media for the past two weeks, ever since the voting opened up for the public to cast their votes online for their candidates.

There was also tremendous interest in who would win Best Theatre Company in 2021, a year that, in spite of COVID restrictions, saw no less than 38 shows staged in Nairobi. There was also much anticipation over which university or college theatre troupe had been voted the Best.

Naturally, those results came out after 25 other awards were handed out for everything from Lifetime Achievement (David Mulwa) and the Jury’s Special Award for Outstanding Contribution to Kenyan theatre (Alacoque Ntome) to the World Impact award (John Sibi-Okumu).

 Only toward the end of the show did we find out who won Best Production. But it was worth the wait, especially as the KTA jurists had worked hard to streamline the ceremony and stay close to the central point of who won the awards!

In the end, it went to Simba Bazenga and the Best Musical Theatre Production also went to Simba Bazenga. Xavier Nato of Millaz Productions was voted Best Playwright, while one of the closest contests was for Best Theatre Company which ultimately went to Liquid Arts Productions. In part, Liquid’s win was for its consistency of performance in 2021, even while COVID was raging round the country and the rest of the world. And the Best Virtual Show went to the radio theatre piece, ‘Calls of the Hummingbird’, produced and directed by Ogutu Muraya.

One of the more engaging features of the KTA awards was its inviting so many representatives of foreign embassies, Kenyan universities and even government officials, like Professor Lagat, Director of Culture to attend the awards. In some cases, they were also asked to come on stage and present trophies to the winners. Not all were able to attend. Nonetheless, it brought many new faces into KNT to see the dynamism of our burgeoning theatre industry.

Finally, the one other feature of these awards that gave them a professional touch was the screening of clips from as many of the shows as they possibly could get their hands on.

“Also, by nominating an actor like Mundawarara Sean from Zimbabwe, the awards got international attention from media like the BBC and All Africa,” noted KTA’s Chairman Benson Ngobia. “As it turned out Sean, won Best Male Actor in a Lead Role in a Musical [Subira] which was well deserved,” Nbogia added. The actor didn’t make it to the awards last night, but a representative from the Zimbabwean embassy accepted the trophy on Sean’s behalf.

TABITHA EXPRESSES MOTHER-LOVE IN ART & LIFE

 TABITHA AT HOME REVEALS HER TRUE COLORS

By Margaretta wa Gacheru

She is an artist, a farmer, and according to the late Ruth Schaffner of Gallery Watatu, a ‘Picasso of Kenyan art”!

Tabitha wa Thuku is also a well-travelled, warm-hearted teacher and mother of Wanjiku who lives in a place that she tells BDLife is her ‘palace’, tucked away deep in the hidden heart of Westlands. It’s a place where she not only paints and stores all of her art, that is, when it is not on exhibition either locally or abroad. She also has sufficient space to have a few goats, chickens, rabbits and one faithful furry dog.

“I wanted to create a village-like feeling here since that is how I grew up,” she tells BDLife after we manage to find her gate just a few meters off Waiyaki Way.

Asked if she owns it or is a renter, Tabitha says neither one. “It was given to me by a client who likes me and my art,” she adds, noting that the generous gift of an old colonial home is not for all time. “I’m hoping to one day build my own home, but for now, I’m very grateful,” says the charmed artist as she keeps the land-owner’s identity a mystery.

At 58, Tabitha is one of the first Kenyan women to take up fine art professionally. She’s also among the first women to reach the Polytechnic in the 1980s where she studied clothing and textile design. She’s also among the first women to attend BIFA, one of Kenya’s few fine art colleges. And she is also among the first Kenyan women to exhibit her work in Europe and the Far East.

But as illustrious as her background is, Tabitha is considered the youngster in her current group exhibition at Circle Art Gallery. There she is one of a troika of strong East African women artists taking part in A Retrospective of works by herself, Yony Waite, co-founder of Gallery Watatu in 1969, and Theresa Musoke, the prolific Ugandan painter based in Kampala, but who spent many years working, teaching, and exhibiting in Kenya.        

Sharing the space at Circle Art enables one to see a sampling of all three women’s creativity. But in order to get a clearer perspective on the diversity of Tabitha’s art, BDLife visited her home and studio shortly after the exhibition opened. It was a trip that proved to be revelatory, particularly in relation to her art but also related to the woman herself.

In the past, I had appreciated Tabitha’s semi-abstract approach to painting, a style that’s been described as ‘dreamlike’ and ethereal. But her technique of layering paints often resulted in works that I found so abstract as to be inaccessible and dark. However, at Circle Art, there were several of her paintings that challenged that previous perspective. They were still semi-abstract, but these works seemed to signal a shift in the artist’s use of color and light. But it took a trip to her studio to see that color and light have always been central elements in her paintings. In fact, most of the work that she had stashed away at her place were startlingly fresh, colorful, and energizing, like the woman herself.

But besides seeing her art in a new light, what I also found revelatory was Tabitha’s life story.  I had always known her to be industrious and deeply committed to her art. I also knew she had deep roots in the Kenyan countryside. But I had no idea that she had grown up on a narrow patch of dusty land separating two wattle tree forests. Or that she picked coffee during school breaks to help her family cover the school fees for her and her seven siblings. Nor did I know that she’d gone to Loreto Limuru Girls Secondary as well as Kenya Polytechnic, and BIFA before she launched her art career which has taken her all over the world.

I had seen Tabitha’s paintings in countless group exhibitions, but hadn’t quite appreciated that her art had featured everywhere from Alliance Francaise, Goethe Institute, Paa ya Paa, RaMoMa and Circle Art to ISK, Kuona Trust, GoDown, Village Market, Banana Hill, One Off, and Priory Galleries. It’s also been exhibited in Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, and Zanzibar.

But above and beyond all her achievements and opportunities, the one thing that has been constant about Tabitha is her devotion, not just her art but to her daughter Wanjiku, Ciku who is nothing less than her most important work of art. 

     

HEARTSTRINGS' CHICKEN OR EGG FULL OF FUN AND FEROCITY

 HEARTSTRINGS HIGHLIGHT WAR BETWEEN WIVES AND IN-LAWS

By Margaretta wa Gacheru

Heartstrings came back on stage in fine form this past weekend with ’Chicken or the Egg’ at Alliance Francaise.

Their comedy was classic but it also got mixed with something I’ll call melodrama just because there was a heavy dosage of venom that spewed out of the mouths of mainly the women. It wasn’t pleasant or particularly funny.

But there was a method to this cantankerous madness in that everyone of the foul-mouth characters had their own agenda. When they got disrupted or frustrated, people took it out on others with insults that were understandable but crass.

First came Phyllis (Bernice Nthenya) the house help who’s been working with the Mrs Katana (Makrine Andala) for six years. She’s never nasty, only contrary when given orders she doesn’t want to fulfill. Like being ordered to get back to the kitchen when Katana’s sweet son Kagoe (Fischer Maina) is around.

The comic relief of the show is Uncle Diambo (Paul Ogola) who’s living in his sister’s house while he awaits receipt of his supposed ‘ten million’ shilling golden handshake which hasn’t arrived in the last 17 years. Diambo is either a conman or mooch or both. Either way, he’s family so he can’t be tossed. But Katana would gladly oust her son’s fiancée Rebecca (Adelyne Wairimu) if she had the power to do so. Her hostility towards Becca is palpable. And the reasons are clear. She adored her son and doesn’t want to share him with any woman. That’s contrary to her feelings for her daughter Gechokio (Eunice Muturi), considered the family failure ever since her marriage flopped.  

Katana’s other attachment to her son is business. He has all the fresh, innovative, entrepreneurial ideas which he shares with her. Before Rebecca came on the scene, he was devoted to his mom and happily built up her business which they were apparently meant to share. He provides the ideas and she has the investment capital to get them off the ground. So theirs is also a symbiotic relationship where one depends on the other.

Kagoe is clearly a sheltered young man who doesn’t know much about the wiles of women who can be just as cunning and manipulative as any man. Some would say the mama manipulates her son to live at home so he can run her money-making operations. That’s the mean-spirited argument of Mr. Mundo (Dadson Gakenga), Rebecca’s dad, who is clearly envious of the mama’s wealth and power. Others would argue that Rebecca is the manipulator who is out to destroy the loving relationship between mother and son since she also wants his undivided devotion.

That rivalry between wives and mothers-in-law exists in every culture, including Kenyan ones. So once again we find Heartstrings grappling, with a light touch, with a topic that many locals sadly understand.

Katana is exasperated with all the people that occupy her house, especially her sloppy brother and disappointing daughter. She’s also frustrated with Phyllis. But most of all, she’s infuriated with the arrival of Rebecca in her life.

One positive point I must hand to Heartstrings is the way they swiftly and logically move their script along. By Act 2, we already find Kagoe and Becca married and on their honeymoon. Katana has expanded their business as Kagoe had envisaged. But she desperately needs his aptitude in daily operations of their companies. When he returns early from the honeymoon and finds his mother unwell, he decides to replace the wife with the mom to use the remainder of the Honeymoon holiday so mom can relax and feel better. Rebecca literally explodes at this idea, and suddenly, nobody knows how the chips will fall.

Becca’s father compounds Katana’s problems by arguing on his daughter’s behalf. Seeking to undermine the mom by feeding Kagoe with wicked suggestions about her selfishness, Mundo seems successful in not only demolishing the mother-and-son bond. He also gives his daughter the guts to blast Kagoe for putting his mother first. She abuses him for being a mama’s boy, hands him back the wedding ring, and kaput! That’s the end of their marriage. Now the son is no better off than Gechokio, both having failed in their marriage.

But that’s not all. It’s Phyllis that has the last laugh. She also quits the job and splits with, of all people, the ’10 million shilling man’, Uncle Diambo! That ties up the last loose end, but we’re left with the Kanata household in shock and disarray.

 

MALIZA CELEBRATES PRE-COLONIAL CULTURE

 MALIZA MAKES MASKS HER CENTRAL MOTIF

By Margaretta wa Gacheru

Masks have many different meanings for Maliza Kiasuwa, which is one reason why they are pervasive in her current solo exhibition at the Tribal Gallery in Loresho.

“Masks often had a spiritual and symbolic significance in our pre-colonial African cultures,” the artist told BDLife a few days after her successful January 27^th opening in which every one of her paintings got bought on the spot!

But she adds that there is another reason why she was inspired to paint masks in what she described as a ‘naïve’ style. “I was inspired by my children and the way they draw faces with a kind of innocence and simplicity,” she says. She wanted those qualities to be reflected in her art.

And there is another reason Maliza’s show is focused on masks. It’s because masks can conceal what one is feeling and thinking inside. Paintings like ‘Hide your Fear 1 and 2’ and ‘Fear has many faces’ reveal one more motivation for her bringing nearly a dozen paintings featuring a combination of faces and masks to her first Nairobi show in several years. (She had a major exhibition in Washington, DC in 2021)

The title of her current exhibition, ‘Prima Facia’ is actually a legal term referring to first impressions and the first feeling that one has upon meeting a new person. The feeling is intuitive, even instinctive, and in many cases, that first impression is consistent with later dealings with that individual. Maliza has two paintings entitled ‘First Look’ (or Prima Facia) at Tribal Gallery, one with an avocado green background and turquoise blue face, the other with a blood red background and a face that is pale pastel green. Their facial features are enigmatic, even as Maliza suggests that most elements in these works have symbolic significance.

There’s also an element of humor in all her portraits, whether they represent masked beings or transparent faces. Each one opens up like a picture puzzle having different facial features. All of their mouths are shaped differently. “I think the ones with big mouths talk a lot, while those with smaller mouths are more subdued,” she says with a twinkling smile. Every nose is also different. But it’s the eyes that let you know the artist is intentionally giving each face saucer-shaped wide-eyes to draw you into each artwork.

Maliza’s color schemes also contribute to the apparent simplicity of her work. Painted mainly in acrylics on either canvas, paper or cardboard, her most flamboyant use of color is created in dayglo pink and lime green with spray paint on raffia grass and textile. Entitled ‘Every face is born with a thousand masks to go with it’, the feeling in this painting is frankly psychedelic. It’s the one that could’ve been sold several times.

In Maliza’s previous exhibitions, she has placed emphasis on her use of organic materials. In this one, her four wooly totems reflect that same love of natural fibers. But clearly, she had other ideas to convey. Like conservation and recycling of waste which she reveals in works like ‘Plurifacie’ and ‘Face the Reality’, both of which are painted on upcycled cardboard. “The canvas I use in this show is also recycled,” she adds.

‘Pllurifacie’ is a particularly interesting piece since it’s the only one in the exhibition in which more than two or three faces are drawn and painted on a solid black background. Nearly two dozen different faces in three rows are tightly fitted on what initially looks like a blackboard, the kind that one finds in primary schools.

For an artist who spent most of the last two years in lockdown with her family up in Naivasha, Malisa’s Prima Facie exhibition reminds us of the artist’s fertile imagination given that all her faces and masks are distinct, unique. Not one is a duplicate of another.

Some observers have alluded to Malisa’s art as resembling that of the late African-American graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat whose art is now selling for millions of dollars at international art auctions. There is some truth to that suggestion, but Malisa comes from a completely different background and sensibility. Her mother brought her daughter up in the Rumanian Orthodox Church, which might explain how so many crosses appear in her portraits. Her father was Congolese which explains her affinity for pre-colonial African cultures. And her training was in nursing although art has always played an important role in her life. One thing she and Basquiat share is that childlike simplicity that comes from the heart.     

 

 

 

 

 

 

MIKE AND CIRU JAMES WITH PHILIP MAINA AT MUTHAIGA

 LIVE REPERTOIRE OF MUSIC IS MAGIC

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (written 4 Feb. 2022

There is nothing like a live performance of music to make one’s heart feel nourished and replenished.

It could be rock, reggae, rhythm & blues, or just plain jazz. This Thursday, February 10^th, from 6pm, it will be music for voice, piano, and clarinet playing mainly classical music that will do the magic.

George Gerwin is not classical; neither is the Kenyan composer, Shaka Marko Lwaki, 22. But both of them have works that have been selected by Mike and Ciru James to be included in a marvelous program that they will be performing together with clarinetist Philip Maina this Thursday at Muthaiga Club.

In the interest of exposing a wider audience to their music, the Club is allowing non-members into the trio’s performance which is a one-off affair.

Yet I had the opportunity to attend a rehearsal of this piano, clarinet, and soprano team recently and got a sweet taste of beautiful music performed in a first-class fashion. I don’t know if Kenya has ever produced a high soprano like Ciru James (nee Gecau). But from the moment she began the concert by singing Fernando Paer’s ‘Beatus Vir’ (Blessed is the Man) in Latin, one was assured that the concert was going to be magnificent.

Accompanied by her partner Mike on piano and Philip Maina on clarinet, this lively piece by the 17^th-18^th century Italian composer (who was a peer of Beethoven, both born the same year) will be a heart-warming introduction to anyone who prefers live music to what you see on YouTube or listen to on your mobile phone.

The concert includes an eclectic repertoire of not just classical pieces set in Latin, but songs that Ciru sings in Spanish, French, German, and English. Some are taken from operas like Gounod’s ‘Je Veux Vivre’ (I want to live) which comes from his ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Others are based on poems like Franz Schubert’s ‘Der Hirt Auf Dem Felsen’ (The Shepherd on the Rock) and Arnold Cooke’s ‘Two songs of Innocence.’

One need not feel intimated by the language barrier that one might assume, since not everyone has a command of all half-dozen languages. But all apprehensions are quickly assuaged first by Mike James who gives delightful introductions to every piece performed, and then by Ciru who not only has the voice of an angel but a theatrical quality about her singing so that cultural boundaries are transcended quickly and effortlessly.

In addition to the composers already mentioned, the repertoire includes a piece by Mozart (‘Adagio’) which we were reminded was also in the movie, ‘Out of Africa’. There are also works by George Macfarren, Harmon Bernberg, Isaac lbeniz and Arnold Cooke.

But it’s in the second part of the performance that Shako Marko’s two pieces will premiere in public. From his Song Cycle, the instrumental piece ‘Love’ comes first with just the clarinet and piano. The second was just composed this year entitled ‘Reveries of an Admirer’ in which the trio reveal to be an excellent Kenyan contribution to their repertoire.

Philip has been playing clarinet since he was 12 and got serious about performing after university. Mike studied music in Scotland first at the Aberdeen College of Music and then in Hungary. After that he taught at Starehe Boys for five years and ISK for several more. And Ciru started in both piano and singing at Alliance Girls under the first Kenyan woman to study music in the UK. “Mulindi King was my teacher after herself being trained by Juliah Moss [who also attended the trio’s rehearsal]. She really transformed music at Alliance,” Ciru told Business Daily.

“It was under her that I joined the choir and an eight-person chamber group called ‘The Illuminators’.’ She was also one of the original singers with ‘Musically Speaking’ along with Joy Mboya, Susan Matiba, and Suzanne Gachukia. “But then I left them when I went to do my A-levels in the UK,” she adds. It was there that she was selected to be part of another exclusive chamber choir and began to see the wisdom of pursuing voice over piano. Majoring in singing at Guildhall School of Music where she won assorted prizes, Ciru came back to Kenya after four years and started teaching at Kenton College.

“We met when I needed a high soprano for my production of ‘Viva Mexico’ and she needed a pianist to do ‘Oliver’ at Kenton,” recalls Mike. Their relationship blossomed and after several years, they got married. But then Ciru got a full scholarship to study in New York at the Mannes College of Music. Mike was cool with that as she says she knew she still need to develop her technique.

After that, the two of them went back to UK where they both taught up until 2017 when they finally returned to Kenya. It is their rich experience of studying, working, and performing that their Kenyan audiences now have the opportunity to enjoy.