TEARS TURN THE WHEEL OF JUSTICE

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (June 1, 2022)

In ‘Tales of Tears’, the one theatre production staged three times at Ukumbi Mdogo during the Madaraka Day celebrations, we have finally seen an authentic product of the Schools Drama and Music Festivals.

Juma Moses Shaban has been winning awards at those festivals from primary all the way up to the time he trained at Kaimosi Teacher Training College where he also won accolades. And since then, everywhere he's been teaching English and Drama, his students have also followed his lead.

“I wrote and directed ‘Tales of Tears,” Juma told The Weekender. “I’m writing plays constantly, practically every day,” says the man as he witnesses the third round of primary school students filling every seat (often with two per seat) in the house just to see his production.

Apparently, this dedicated teacher knows that students would prefer to be active during school holidays rather than to simply stay at home and watch the television with the adults. Indeed, his youthful audiences clearly enjoyed his play in spite of (or because of) the melodramatic violence affected by the man he describes as a “once-upon-a-time Samaritan, Jayden Johnson (Erick Otieno).

What also gave the play accessibility to youthful audiences were the scenes which were short and snappy, simplistic and direct.

Jayden Johnson was a bad man, a villain of the highest order who pretended to be of assistance in taking in the orphan Aliah (Laphenus Kemunto). He told the court he was an uncle, which was true. But he is also the killer of both her parents since they stood in the way of his securing the family property.

The first sign of his opportunism is in the first scene when Aliah’s teacher wants to give her an envelop filled with her teachers’ and fellow students’ collection for her to keep. The uncle jumps in an takes it ‘on her behalf’.

Emotions are amplified throughout the play, starting with Aliah whose fear of Jayden is palpable. She tells him in public that she knows he murdered her parents. This leads to his promising she will suffer assuredly the rest of her days. He vows to make her life hell, and it is these sorts of flamboyant theatrics that grab and engage the audience, especially as such larger-than-life emotive outburst are easily understood.

With scenes being no more than three-five minutes each, no one has time to get bored in ‘Tales of Tears’, especially as Aliah has a sister with similar trials and traumas.

Filah’s (Aliciah Nyambura) father had actually been the one who’d been given the title deed by his father. So, when he refused to hand over the deed to Jayden, he too had to go. This too was the fate of his wife, only she gets strangled, not shot.

The sisters somehow end up together but not before we have spooky-looking witches emerge apparently out of hell. In any case, their job is to escort the dead to their next location, possibly limbo. We are not told.

The sisters want revenge, another black and white emotion that is quashed by Jayden’s wife, Fiona (Linet Achieng) who is quite a threatening character herself. As the girls’ punishment for their flagrant feelings, she sets them to work cleaning. But as nasty as Fiona looks, she still turns on Jayden and calls him names like ‘monster’ and ‘blood-sucker’, not caring apparently that she too could be a victim of her maniac spouse. They reconcile and Fiona plots to poison the girls. Her payback is that her hungry son eats the poison and dies.

Before Jayden’s ultimately fate is determined, we must meet Kwame (Juma Shaban) and his disabled daughter Mela (Netril Achieng) who is another accusing child. She blames her father, who is a Judge, for taking a bribe and ruling the death penalty, leading to the death of an innocent man.

Mela will never forgive her father. Like everyone in the play, she too has a big emotional upset. But finally, she is persuaded to give him a break. Kwama promises never to do it again. He will never rule for the death sentence. She has to remind him of his promise by the end of the play, after Jayden is finally arrested and thrown behind bars, bars which come on stage quickly and taken off just as conveniently.

Jayden knows that Kwame is a ‘corrupt judge’ so he believes he can get off easily. Ultimately, justice is done and the ‘monster’ is sent to jail for life.