Monday, 31 October 2022
A FORTNIGHT FULL OF FINE EAST AFRICAN ART
Sunday, 30 October 2022
RWANDAN GENOCIDE SEEN THROUGH CHILDREN’S EYES
By Margaretta wa Gacheru
None of the cast that co-starred in the Youth Theatre Kenya production of Kesho Amohoro late last week had been born by the time the horrifying slaughter of more than a million people, mostly Tutsi, took place in Rwanda in 1994.
Yet that didn’t stop them from dramatizing the passion, pressure, and pain that the youthful survivors must have felt after they’d witnessed the cruel killings of their loved ones at the hand of men who might otherwise have been their neighbors.
The Rwanda genocide horrified the world, including one British woman who couldn’t simply watch man’s malicious inhumanity to men, women, and children without doing something about it.
Lizzie Jago went to the region as a volunteer working with refugees. It is from that vantage point that she was able to see the tragic aftermath of the senseless slaughter. She was especially concerned about the irreparable damage done to families since the genocide generated a generation of orphans, children who had lost one or both of their parents.
It is their story that she, together with her friend Anna Rushbatch, tell in Kesho Amahoro. She first put the musical production in 2010 when many cast members might have at least heard of the heinous crimes against humanity that took place over that brief but bloody period in East African history.
But the cast of over 50 young people who took part in last week’s performance at Braeburn Theatre, Gitanga Road, had only historical knowledge and Lizzie’s vivid script to tell them how to play children very different from themselves.
For Jazz Moll, who cofounded Youth Theatre Kenya with Lizzie, the challenge of directing Kesho Amahoro has given him the task to direct as well, if not better than Lizzie who did it when the musical was initially staged at Braeburn.
Jazz had the good fortune to enlist the Ghetto Classic band who provided marvelous musical accompaniment to refrains that reflect the chief storyline. And that is all about a family of refugee kids whose lives are profoundly impacted by the loss of their parents and the chaotic life in and outside the refugee camps.
Opening with crazy frenetic movement of people running wildly back and forth across the state, the cacophony of sound and light is disturbing to watch. But then, you realize it is meant to disturb since that is comparable to the crazy frenetic atmosphere of the camps.
The play itself is meant to disturb by rousing awareness of that historic moment as well as the plight of the most vulnerable in society who are easily forgotten in time of war but who are often the most traumatized and in need of not just blankets and second-hand shirts but kindness and comfort and care.
Esperance (Tana Gachoka) is de facto head of their little band who vow to stick together for mutual protection and support. But that’s easier said than done, especially as, in the absence of any organized leadership or government, tribal-like gangs have grown up, many of which are made up of criminals. Ishi (Masud Abdullah) is one who gets involved with one criminal gang who eventually catches Ishi taking a cut out of the sales (of cigarettes) that they’d drawn him into dealing.
Ishi is killed violently at the evil order of the gang leader (Dadson Gikonyo) after catching him in the act. That moment when the Boss (Gikonyo) catches Ishi is the scariest moment in the show. For Boss had already threatened Ishi not to cheat them else he suffer the consequences. One could tell this band of Mafia-like boys and girls were not joking. Theirs was a chilling reminder of how dangerous a life in the street can be for the homeless, including orphans like Esperance’s family.
We don’t witness Ishi’s lynching, but we do see his body hanging behind a bedsheet that needed to be fixed before show began, not seconds before all sights would be facing the ‘dead’ body.
In any case, death brought a heavy sense of sorrow and grief. However, the Red Cross and Red Crescent people managed to locate parents of some of the children in the camps, so, a feeling of hope is revived among the children.
“If her parents could be located, then mine could too,” they imagine.
There are many other issues that refugees face which are not resolved in this play. But the show closes with the youth starting to move back home, so there’s hope in the end.
Wednesday, 26 October 2022
WHAT BETTER PLACE TO SHOW ART THAN ONE’S APARTMENT
WHAT BETTER PLACE TO SHOW ART THAN ONE’S APARTMENT
By Margaretta wa Gacheru
The Apartment is a brand-new art venue in Parklands where one can come and see beautiful art ‘by appointment only’.
But once a connection is made between yourself and the Sudanese-Somali filmmaker Azza Satti, it won’t be difficult to find your way to her place where she is currently showing stunning works of art fresh from Khartoum.
She is exhibiting paintings by 14 Sudanese artists, practically all of whom are graduates of the University of Khartoum’s School of Fine Art.
Nairobi is no stranger to Sudanese artists. In fact, right now at Red Hill Gallery, one of the earliest ones to arrive in Nairobi, Abushariaa Ahmed, is having a one-man Retrospective exhibition. Unfortunately, none of his paintings and prints are for sale since they belong to Red Hill’s founder, curator Hellmuth Rossler-Musch who has a special affinity for Abushariaa’s art.
And at Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute, Don Handah and his team selected another Sudanese legend, El Tayeb Dawelbeit, to showcase up until the end of September.
But what makes Azza’s selection of painters quite different is that all the artists in her showcase are based in Khartoum. They are working and exhibiting there. Their art has only come to Kenya by way of a partnership between Azza and the Mojo Gallery in Khartoum.
“I was visiting the city and wandered into Mojo where I met the gallery owners, Yusuf and Mustafa,” she tells BDLife a week after the show opened on Fedha Road.
“My background is in the visual arts so we decided to collaborate. They will send me fresh new works by artists that they like and I’ll select from among them to show here. After that, they send them,” she adds.
Receiving 57 works of art by wildly talented contemporary artists posed a challenge to Azza who currently consults for Hivos and has several other projects going on. But she spent years studying art, in Nairobi at the International School of Kenya as well as overseas, in Brussels and Paris where her diplomat-dad was based at various times in her early years. She also got degrees in the arts from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. So, handling the art of 14 painters is actually one of the easier aspects of her current life.
“I’m just happy to give artists an opportunity to be seen [and sold] in the best space that I have to offer,” she says, admitting that her space is a two-bedroom flat, meaning it is not a mansion, nor a gallery, nor even a four-bedroom house.
“But I do have a private garden where I want to stage an event at the end of the exhibition on October 29th. That’s when we’ll have food and conversation, and jazz from several countries and continents,” she adds.
Tastefully displaying works like Khalib Rahman’s miniature landscapes next to Haytham Almugdam’s purple-powered piece is eye-catching, especially because Haytham’s art is on Azza’s beautiful poster that went out all over social media.
But every corner of Azza’s flat has art that appeals. There are the black and white calligraphic paintings by Jaffar Azzam contrasting Mohamed Faduli’s cluster of bold-colored minarets backed up by a stunning sunset decked in a blend of bright red and orange hues.
Faduli also has elements of calligraphy in his art, only he mixes color with calligraphic curves in a more semi-abstract style that also mesmerizes one’s eyes.
Meanwhile, as Azza shares her paintings with me, I realize that she is a storyteller in her own right. She has stories to tell about every artist. One of the most compelling is the one she calls ‘The Wedding of Zein’ which she explains is actually the name of a wonderful Sudanese novel by Tayeb Salih that I must read. But a wedding is definitely happening in the large painting by Ahmed Elnahas. All attention is centred around the drummer who is ushering in the community to the wedding site.
Tarig Nasre’s ochre-toned work featuring figurative characters is another one that Azza especially likes because the story it tells is about a young girl whose dreams are things she shares, and which then get translated by the artist into a jigsaw puzzle of colors and light.
The diversity of subject matter, technique, and color arrayed in these works are all amazing. What’s even more surprising is that despite her Apartment not being the easiest place to find, people have come there with the intent to see, appreciate, and buy this contemporary art.
Sunday, 23 October 2022
AGEISM DEFIED BY THE KU ‘COUGAR’
By Margaretta wa Gacheru (written September 30,2022, revised 23.10.22)
The Cougar,
which was first staged at KU and came back last weekend at KCC, is all about a
wealthy businesswoman, named Nelly (Joy Kairu) who falls in love with a young
man who coincidentally is the same age as her best friend (Rebecca Chemcutai)
Mary’s son Nun.
Nun (Trevor
Aseri) had never met his mother’s BFF while growing up. And she had never seen
him before her employee Jeff (Ian Wachira) brought him to check out a possible job
in her company (which he did at KU). Once she set her eyes on him, the sparks began
to fly. Apparently, he was attracted to her too. However, he was already
‘taken’ by Calmer (Laureen Wangari), a sweet young innocent who was Jeff’s life-long
friend. (For some reason, their encounter was removed by Cougar director Victor
Muyekwe.)
Jeff is at
the centre of this story since he knows both Nun and Calmer well. He is also a
trusted employee of Nelly. Yet we don’t know much about him. In fact, we don’t know
back stories for any of the characters in the play.
Muyekwe is a playwright who both scripted and
directed The Cougar. He also started his own theatre company, which is
admirable. But in future, he will need to flesh out his characters more.
What we do
know about Jeff from his behavior is that he’s schizophrenic and has horrific
mood swings even when he speaks to Calmer, the girl he claims to love. He
claims he never told her his true feelings for her because he feared rejection.
That anxiety could be the cause of his bottled-up emotions bursting out
abruptly while trying to speak about his feelings for her.
It's the
Cougar that we would like to know better. We don’t know if she had ever been
married or if she has hung out with many men. We don’t know how wealthy she is
or where that wealth came from. Did she inherit it, earn it through her own sweat
or through the sweat of her staff?
In any case,
Nellie has it and wants someone to share it with. Why doesn’t she find someone
her own age, her friend Mary asks after Nellie reveals she’s in love with a
younger man. In principle, Mary is against the whole concept of the older predatory
female cougar. Even before she discovers that Nellie’s lover is her son, Mary
is adamantly opposed to cougarism. She doesn’t buy the idea that she is
limiting her friend’s freedom of choice. To her it is immoral. And besides,
what would other people think? Nellie couldn’t care less.
Another
issue of the character development has to do with Nun. Here is a guy who, one-minute
expresses ‘eternal love’ for Calmer, but the next minute he adores Nellie and
carelessly dumps his campus queen Calmer. Jeff sheds some light on Nun’s
character when he tries to tell Calmer Jeff made a play for her to prove to
Jeff that he had the power to do it.
Part of the
reason we don’t understand Nun well is Muyekwe’s directorial decision to remove
the scene where he and the Cougar first meet.After that, we see no evolution of
their affair so we still wonder about his motivation. We know he’s told Jeff he
was overwhelmed with loving emotions for Nell from the outset. But really, is
it ‘true love’ that he feels or does he simply look forward to enjoying the
security of her money?
The one character
whose intentions are clear is Jeff. He’s been hot for Calmer since childhood
but never dared to tell her so. Now that she confirms his worst fear, that she’d
reject him, he’s convinced he has not choice, “If he can’t have her in life,
then they can be forever together in death,” Victor tells BDLife at KU during
my two hour wait for his show to begin.
There were
two fight scenes at KCC. One in which calmer tries to clobber Nun for robbing
her of her virginity and leaving her like a stray dog. The other is where the
two older women tussle until they are interrupted by Calmer’s dying before
their eyes, having drunk the poison prepared for her by Jeff who follows after
her having suicidally drunk the same stuff as her.
Cougar came
off better in some respects at KCC. But the lost scene which was present at KU
made the show more understandable and complete.
Thursday, 20 October 2022
KIGONDU REVEALED A RANGE OF ROLES IN ONE SHOW
By Margaretta wa Gacheru (wrote October 20th, 2022)
Theatre is not football where you have a big musical bash at half-time or during intermission.
So, to see
the double-dosage of ‘curtain raisers’ perform not just before Martin Kigondu’s
Supernova opened at Ukumbi Mdogo on Mashujaa Day, but again, during the
play’s intermission was unacceptable.
The group may have been good musicians, but their effort to ‘steal the show’ by singing love songs before Act 2 began virtually killed the suspense that Martin had built at the end of act one when the last words we heard were that his baby girl was dead.
Kigondu does an awesome thing in Supernova. By his performances of multiple characters all during one solo show, he convinces that he must be one (if not the) finest character actors in Kenya.
He starts his show as an upbeat radio broadcaster, a talk-show man like the ones who entertain us during our early morning matatu rides to town. The whole show is his character’s conversation with us, his audience. But through that conversation, he travels through time. It’s mostly to the recent (and often painful) past, but he always brings us back to the present.
In the present, he’s initially getting dressed, drinking coffee, and telling us about how delighted he is with his program hours getting extended, and now getting a radio show of his own. All this is engaging as he only drops hints that he’s got problems at home.
He never admits that he might be the source of his wife’s problem. For while she went through her pregnancy, he was always away working. He was never there to support her or make her feel good about having their baby.
In any case, he gives us a magnetic performance. He also reveals how well he can take on two-or-three-characters’ roles at once. He does that, describing a fight he had with Eve, his wife, mediated by Eve’s mother Janet. It doesn’t end well; but now we know Kigondu’s super-charged with metamorphic powers.
The one character that confirms the actor’s skillful ability to get into another person’s skin is when he comes out as Frank’s father. We’ve already heard from the son that Dad is a widower who recently had a minor stroke. But he’s mostly recovered and the remaining aches and pains have been assuaged by the medical marijuana he’s been taking ever since his hired help, Njage, introduced him to it.
Kigondu’s disappearance into the dad’s character is practically complete. From the way he walks and talks to the way he moves his lower lip, you have to admire this old man. If you hadn’t been told the man was the same radio broadcaster, we met in act one, you wouldn’t see Kigondu anywhere in the character of the dad.
It's the dad that helps us appreciate how much pain his son is feeling with the demise of his daughter and departure of his wife. Father and son both attended the funeral service for the baby, but it’s the dad who takes note that Frank walked out in the middle of the service.
We also attended the service when Kigondu opened in act two, playing the insensitive priest who made no mention of the baby’s paternity. Now is when we come to realize this seemingly mind-mannered radio guy has been traumatized by his baby’s death, especially when no one in Eve’s family will tell him what went wrong. Why and how did the baby die?
His inability to get answers leads to Frank exploding with rage leading to his ramming down the door to eve’s bedroom so he can have a heart-to-heart with his wife. But she wants no such thing. She’s finished with the guy for whatever reason, she will not tell.
By the time
he gets back to the humble flat that he’s shifting from, Frank is able to tell
us how his daughter’s death was like a supernova, an astronomical term
referring to the death of a star resulting in a black hole.
For Frank, his daughter was his star and his grief at her demise was taking him to dark hole kind of space.
It’s on that
tragic note of despair that Kigondu leaves his audience. I’m not sure why he
ended the play with him writhing in anguish on the floor in tears except that
we see that men can cry and be just as sensitive as any woman.
Kigondu
scripted, directed, and starred in his one-man show. He pulled it off rather
well.
Tuesday, 18 October 2022
FINE CHINESE FOOD AT THE MACAU
By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted October 18,2022)
When Shang
Liqiang first came to Kenya in 2015 he had no plan to become a restauranteur.
“His thing is real estate,” explained Shang’s friend, Lin Qi.
But once he
was offered the opportunity to become a major shareholder in The Macau
restaurant, Shang gave it a second thought. “Seeing as most [Chinese]
businessmen like doing deals over a hearty meal and a good glass of something,
Shang decided to buy in,” Charlie Yang Chi, another one of Shang’s friends,
tells BDLife. He is also the headmaster
of the school where Shang sends his children.
So, while his
main business deals are related to real estate, most of those deals are
arranged over dinner and drinks at the Macau. Named after the port city on the
southern side of China, the restaurant mainly serves southern Chinese cuisine,
especially fish, be it shrimp, lobster, grouper, or crab.
In our case,
we started by being served Green Tea, followed by a big bowl of Baby Lotus
Roots. The bowl was placed on a large circular plate that whirled around
clockwise and centered atop a larger round table. “We like to come out to eat
in groups so we can share our orders,” Charlie says.
The lotus
roots are considered a delicacy and a ‘cold dish,’ made by one specific chef
who specializes in cold serving. That included the next platter which arrives.
It’s filled with Black Mushrooms (they are called fungus) served with asparagus
leaf lettuce, all heavenly food for vegans and vegetarians.
But as our
friends Lin and Charlie are meat eaters, they are pleased to see the deep-fried
Shrimps arrive, followed by a ‘dim sum’ serving of Spring Rolls made with
pastry that is so light and delicate, I am tempted to eat two or three.
That would
have been a mistake, however. The main courses are just about to arrive on the glass
tray that revolved atop our round table. First, the servers come as two big
platters of fried crab meat and fried crab bones! “We never want to waste any
part of the animal that we’re eating,” Charlie explains. “So once the bones and
shells are removed from the fish, we also boil and fry them separately in
seasoned breadcrumbs. That way we still can savor the flavor of the fish,” he
adds.
After that
comes an even bigger platter filled with Grouper, a white fish very much like
tilapia only slightly chewier but just was sweet. The fish has been grounded
atop a heap of silky-thin glass noodles and seasoned with spring onions,
coriander (dania) and black mushrooms.
What I discovered is you need to make clear to
the chefs at the outset whether you like spice, and whether it’s a little or a
lot, or none at all. Real Chinese food as we are being served is made with
wonderful spices that are not necessarily hot (as in hot pepper). But if you
want hot, you can easily get it.
The four
chefs at the Macau are one of the reasons the restaurant is so special. “They
all had to audition and be vetted before they were invited to come directly
from China to work at the Macau,” Charlie says as he translates for Shang who
doesn’t speak either English or Kiswahili. He explains that even at his school,
authentic Chinese food is prepared, but it is by Kenyans who have been taught.
“They make excellent food, but there is still a difference if you have grown up
with the spices and other ingredients that are essential to Chinese cooking,”
he says.
Lin adds
that there is a Cold dish chef, a Hot dish one, a pastry chef and the man who
specializes in grilling everything from duck and goat to chicken and beef. I
forget to ask which one of them makes the fresh tofu that Shang serves every
day. It literally melts in your mouth. It’s also the perfect mouth cleanser if,
as I did, you accidentally bite into a hot red pepper or take too much wasabi
in the soy sauce.
Finally,
just as we imagine we cannot take another bite because our tummies are full,
Shang sends us Lobster Sashimi which we haven’t anticipated. Lin reminds us
that sashimi is a Japanese term, not indigenous to the Chinese. But since all
cuisine (cooking) is global, we have to take this chance to taste since we may
never get to taste Lobster sashimi dipped in wasabi and soy sauce again.
Beware the
wasabi!
WHAT BETTER PLACE TO SHOW ART THAN ONE’S APARTMENT
By Margaretta
wa Gacheru (posted October 18, 2022)
The
Apartment is a brand-new art venue in Parklands where one can come and see
beautiful art ‘by appointment only’.
But once a
connection is made between yourself and the Sudanese-Somali filmmaker Azza Satti,
it won’t be difficult to find your way to her place where she is currently
showing stunning works of art fresh from Khartoum.
She is
exhibiting paintings by 14 Sudanese artists, practically all of whom are
graduates of the University of Khartoum’s School of Fine Art.
Nairobi is
no stranger to Sudanese artists. In
fact, right now at Red Hill Gallery, one of the earliest ones to arrive in
Nairobi, Abushariaa Ahmed, is having a one-man Retrospective exhibition.
Unfortunately, none of his paintings and prints are for sale since they belong
to Red Hill’s founder, curator Hellmuth Rossler-Musch who has a special
affinity for Abushariaa’s art.
And at Nairobi
Contemporary Art Institute, Don Handah and his team selected another Sudanese
legend, El Tayeb Dawelbeit, to showcase up until the end of September.
But what
makes Azza’s selection of painters quite different is that all the artists in
her showcase are based in Khartoum. They are working and exhibiting there.
Their art has only come to Kenya by way of a partnership between Azza and the
Mojo Gallery in Khartoum.
“I was
visiting the city and wandered into Mojo where I met the gallery owners, Yusuf
and Mustafa,” she tells BDLife a week after the show opened on Fedha Road.
“My background is in the visual arts so we decided to collaborate. They will send me fresh new works by artists that they like and I’ll select from among them to show here. After that, they send them,” she adds.
Receiving 57
works of art by wildly talented contemporary artists posed a challenge to Azza
who currently consults for Hivos and has several other projects going on. But
she spent years studying art, in Nairobi at the International School of Kenya
as well as overseas, in Brussels and Paris where her diplomat-dad was based at
various times in her early years. She also got degrees in the arts from New
York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. So, handling the art of 14 painters
is actually one of the easier aspects of her current life.
“I’m just
happy to give artists an opportunity to be seen [and sold] in the best space
that I have to offer,” she says, admitting that her space is a two-bedroom flat,
meaning it is not a mansion, nor a gallery, nor even a four-bedroom house.
Tastefully
displaying works like Khalib Rahman’s miniature landscapes next to Haytham Almugdam’s
purple-powered piece is eye-catching, especially because Haytham’s art is on
Azza’s beautiful poster that went out all over social media.
But every
corner of Azza’s flat has art that appeals. There are the black and white calligraphic
paintings by Jaffar Azzam contrasting Mohamed Faduli’s cluster of bold-colored
minarets backed up by a stunning sunset decked in a blend of bright red and orange
hues.
Meanwhile,
as Azza shares her paintings with me, I realize that she is a storyteller in
her own right. She has stories to tell about every artist. One of the most
compelling is the one she calls ‘The Wedding of Zein’ which she explains is actually
the name of a wonderful Sudanese novel by Tayeb Salih that I must read. But a
wedding is definitely happening in the large painting by Ahmed Elnahas. All
attention is centred around the drummer who is ushering in the community to the
wedding site.
The diversity of subject matter, technique, and color arrayed in these works are all amazing. What’s even more surprising is that despite her Apartment not being the easiest place to find, people have come there with the intent to see, appreciate, and buy this contemporary art.
Sunday, 16 October 2022
MEKATILILI FOREVER!
By Margaretta wa Gacheru (written 16 October 2022)
Woodcreek School
is only five years old, but from the outset, it was designed with the arts in
mind.
“Our
auditorium can seat 450 comfortably, plus we have music labs, a recording
studio, a room-full of musical instruments, and an art room,” Jairo Abego tells
BDLife on the final day of the school’s performance of ‘Mekatilili wa Menza’.
The producer
of the school’s first major musical doesn’t have time to complete the listing
of all the arts-related activities available at the school. The Sunday matinee
of Mekatilili is about to begin, but he is keen to give me a briefing of his
school’s commitment to training Kenyan youth in the arts.
Abego’s
enthusiasm was magnified in the 92 cast members who took part in the three-and-a-half-hour
musical about one of Kenya’s most important female freedom fighters.
“It was more
than 92. It was more like 125,” says the show’s director Lewis Xavier who adds the
30 dancers that give the production so much color, vibrancy, and joy. Then
there are 33 more in the choir, according to Abego who, as producer keeps tabs
on all those figures for logistical purposes.
The orchestra
pit is also occupied by half-a-dozen more musicians who provide not just the
live music to accompany the choir, but also the audio-atmospherics as when, for
instance, Mepoho (Ann Nyandia) performs her Giriama magic which gives
Mekatilili so much power she cannot die, even after being shot several times by
African home guards.
The aesthetics
of ‘Mekatilili’ are another stand-out spectacular feature of the show. From the
costuming and thoughtful set construction to the props and attractive face painting,
every scene is filled with a blend of beauty, color, and energy. The face paint
has special significance since it dramatizes specific features of the characters,
such as the blindness of the Giriama traitor, Ngonyo (Ivan Wandabwa) who spies
for the Colonizer Hobley (Micah Mumo). Then, there is the strength and
conviction of Mekatilili (Nikita Wakonyu), and the wild cats that lurk in the
no man’s land our heroine has to traverse in order to return home to lead her
people against the British oppressors.
But apart from the impeccable care given to all
these technical features of the musical, it is the remarkable story of
Mekatilili, as interpreted and scripted by Andrew Tumbo, that makes us marvel
that it has taken Kenyans so long to bring her to life on stage.
The only
flaw that I found in the show was the number and length of dances that
stretched out the production far longer than necessary. The dancers were
beautiful as were the costumes, but the story nearly got lost in all the dance
interludes that may have been good for the sake of students’ inclusion, but they
diminished the quality of the performance somewhat.
Otherwise,
what I have always loved about Mekatilili’s story is her militancy, vision,
tenacity, and focused motivation. She is definitely one of Kenya’s most
important freedom fighters. She was a leader and courageous truth-teller who
the British banished from her land because she was such a threat to them.
Andrew Tumbo’s
script also has a fearlessly feminist touch to it. He highlights the roles of
female seers like Syokimau (Ellene Njeri) and Bi Shamsi (Tessie Waruguru) as
well as leaders like Wangu wa Makeri (Sheryl Siako) and Mepoho (Ann Nyandia)
whose psychic powers are so strong that she can share them with Mekatilili who
in turn, is enabled to essentially ‘rise from the dead’ after being shot
severally by a whole squad of African Home Guards.
Mekatilili
was banished to Western Kenya. But despite the hardships and tragedies (including
the violent murder of her son (Victor Githu), she was determined to return home
to lead her people’s struggle to protect not only their land but also their
culture and their religion.
According to
Tumbo’s interpretation, Mekatilili faulters after her son’s cruel demise (her
weeping went on too long) and almost gives up the fight. But she’s consoled and
told to remember her destiny and her people by Bi Shamsi. So she makes it back
but quickly gets grabbed again after the treacherous Ngonyo tells Hobley she’s back.
But before
she gets nabbed, Mekatilili’s new-found powers come to light. For instance, at
her welcome home bash, she becomes a seer who now knows the traitor in their
midst is Ngonyo. And after she’s grabbed and shot, she rises from the dust,
thus confirming the spirit of Mekatilili will never die.
Friday, 14 October 2022
ABDUL’S PASSION FOR PRINTING LEADS TO BUILDING HIS OWN PRESS
By Margaretta wa Gacheru (composed October 14, 2022)
When Abdul
Kiprop made the move from Eldoret to Nairobi, he had no idea that what he would
find was a fascinating career path in the arts that would change the course of
his life.
“I came because
I knew I had things to learn that I wasn’t going to get in Eldoret,” the Egerton
university graduate told BDLife shortly after the Collective’s recent Open
House on October 6th.
But through
friends, he had heard about an artist named Michael Musyoka who was a cofounder
of Brush tu Artists Collective. So, he sought Musyoka out, and the rest, as
they say, is history.
“First came
Thom Ogonga who taught us about woodcut printing. After that, Peterson Kamwathi
shared his knowledge about aquatint [printing], and finally, Wycliffe Opondo
showed us how to do dry-point printing,” says Abdul, remembering the guys who
first opened his eyes to the amazing art of printmaking.
“I also went to Red Hill Gallery and saw some of Jak Katarikawe’s prints which were interesting. I also saw Dennis Muraguri’s woodcut prints first at Circle Art and later at the Nairobi Museum,” adds Abdul, expressing appreciation for all the influences that he has taken to heart.
It has all
been a kind of ‘crash course’ learning experience for him since he first
arrived in Nairobi in 2017. At the same time, he already has a younger
generation of Kenyans asking him to teach them about printmaking.
But the
other major milestone in Abdul’s path to self-discovery was meeting Yony Waite,
the Guam-born Kenyan artist who is based in Lamu at the Wildebeeste Workshop.
In addition to her being a brilliant painter and the co-founder of the now
defunct Gallery Watatu, Yony is a printmaker with a large printing press at her
Workshop.
Abdul has been to Lamu several times since he first went to attend the Lamu Art Festival. Subsequently, he has been twice with his Brush tu artists, once to teach printmaking to orphans at the Anidan Children’s Home, and several times to work at Wildebeeste, learning lots more about the various techniques of printmaking from Yony. “She invited me to an art residency at the Workshop where she let me work with the printing press nonstop,” he says.
Abdul was among
the four Brush tu artists whose works were displayed at the Collective during their
Open Day. Each of the four uses a different type of Ink which is why their exhibition
was called ‘Ink Resonance’. For instance, Peteros Ndunge uses ballpoint ink to
create his meticulously drawn human forms, while Boniface Maina works with acrylic
ink as well as with Wilson & Newton water-resistant ink that he got from James
Mbuthia back when he was running workshops at RaMoMa. And Abdul works with ordinary offset printers ink. “It’s
the main printers ink available in Kenya,” Abdul notes.
But the inks
are only a fraction of what is intriguing about his prints. What’s of greater
interest is that he exhibited large woodcut prints on canvas during Brush tu’s
recent open house.
“This was
the first time I have printed on canvas. I printed them with the press that I made
myself,” he says, adding that he is in the process of making a second printing
press for Brush tu artists to use. The first one he made with his own hands is
up in his Eldoret studio.
Asking him where he learned to build a printing press and why, Abdul says he studied the construction of Yony’s press in Lamu and figured out how it was built. “Then I went and learned welding skills from Kimani Ngaru,” one of the Brush tu artists and a former principal at Buru Buru Institute of Fine Art.
The reason
why he has begun building presses of his own is most likely because he got ‘spoiled’
spending so much time with Yony’s press that he doesn’t want to be without one
of his own.
So, from the
look of things, there is little doubt that Abdul is hooked on printmaking. It
has become a passion and the purpose that this artist was looking for.
Thursday, 13 October 2022
FINAL CHANCE TO SEE NGUGI CLASSIC THIS WEEKEND
By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted october 14, 2022)
Having seen Ngugi
wa Thiong’os and Ngugi wa Mirii’s ‘I will marry when I want’ twice already,
once in English, once in Kikuyu, I marvel that the show – transformed from play
to musical by Nairobi Performing Arts Studio – is still as fresh and relevant
after as it must have been some 45 years.
That was
confirmed last Friday night when the show reopened at Kenya National Theatre to
a full house crowd. The cast was just as rigorous and righteously enraged by
the cruel conduct of the petty bourgeois black landlords deemed watchdogs for
their foreign imperialist bosses. The set design seemed even more impeccable
with its well-painted backdrops placing the peasants Kiguunda (Bilal Mwaura)
and Wangeci (Nice Githinji) deep in the heart of Central Province. It’s a lush
green tea plantation that’s about to be turned into the site of a
cancer-causing chemical factory for foreigners to make products that would
poison the locals while making profits for the rich ‘imperialists’ and their
local lackies.
And the
sound also seemed much clearer now that more microphones have been added to
enhance the clarity of the Ngugis’ message, which was and still is all that the
country needs a revolutionary change in order to achieve the goals of liberty,
equality, and fraternity that Independence had promised to bring but instead
retained the neocolonial status quo. The color complexions of the bosses may
have changed, but the exploitation of the locals had not. The extraction of Kenya’s
wealth in the form of the people’s sweat and blood was still going straight
into the pockets of the few while the rest suffered under even more exploitative
conditions than before.
I will marry
when I want, the Musical was endorsed by Ngugi who sent his greetings and
appreciation of NPAS for reviving the script which had got him jailed for a
year back in 1977 and 1978. The cast, including its principles, Martin Kigondu,
Bilal Mwaura, and Nice Githinji were unmatched.
But after
checking all the boxes to admit the show was like brand new and maybe better
than the first re-stagings of the play back in May of this year, one had to
reappraise Ngugi’s message too. And that is where one had to marvel that the
Kenyatta clique took nearly a month to jail Ngugi after shutting down the
Kamiirithu stage, the original site of the play. For the playwrighters’ message
was plain: Kenya was ripe for revolution!
The
conditions that exploited both workers like Gicaamba (Martin Kigondu) and
peasants like Kigunda, Wangeci and their daughter Gathoni were extreme. The
hardships affected all aspects of everyday life, including the ease with which
a petty bourgeoise boy like Gathoni’s boyfriend could take advantage of her,
and still get away without any recourse for her or her family to fight back.
‘I will
marry’ turns out to be a tragedy in the end when Bilal and Nice lose everything,
even that precious piece of land that Kigunda was tricked into giving up. Even
they were robbed of their daughter’s innocence after she was fooled by the
treacherous lies that lousy lovers make when taking advantage of naïve girls. Indeed,
Ngugi even exposed the way Kenyan society favors boys at the expense of the
lives of girls, thus driving them into trades like prostitution as one of the
few lucrative means of making money to survive.
The truth
teller of ‘I will marry’, Martin Kigondu’s character, Gicaamba, needed the
spotlight place squarely on his final performance as the man who tells us truly
why Kenya needs a revolution. He lifts the whole musical up to heights that
clearly terrorized the Home Guard class of African watch dogs who Ngugi made
clear were and still are greedy buggers who serve foreign interests and enjoy
their protection in the process.
I will marry
when I want’ reflects a raw moment in contemporary Kenyan history when the
country was ripe for revolution once the majority took heed of Ngugi’s advice
to organize and mobilize the people’s power to change the system and bring
about real independence. It was a message that resonated 40 years ago, and it
is still an aspiration that resonates today. It still calls upon Kenyans to
demand a better life for themselves
Bravo to NPAS
for bringing back the show for those who didn’t get a chance to see it earlier
this year. And thanks to Ngugi who deserved seeing his seminal play staged
again for the world to recognize his importance in our country’s and our
continent’s cultural heritage
JUDGING MOLIERE IN ENGLISH
By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted October 13 2022)
When three
different theatre troupes stage the same play, one right after the other on the
same day, same venue, you would think the audience would be bored stiff.
But no way. Not
when Alliance Francaise had organized a theatre competition as a way of
celebrating the 400th birthday of their country’s finest playwright,
the 17th century dramatist Jean Baptiste Poquelin, popularly known
as Moliere, the brilliant satirist whose biting wit and incisive humor sliced
deep into French society. Moliere’s comedies are seen as classics and adored by
the French despite their generating public outcries over the centuries for
their putting a spotlight on the scandalous and socially sensitive.
Alliance
Francaise had already celebrated the French equivalent to Britain’s Shakespeare
earlier this month by collaborating with Nairobi Performing Arts Studio to
successfully stage Moliere’s Mstinji (The Miser). But then, AF’s Cultural Director, Harsita
Waters also called universities to join in theatrical competitions, either to
stage Mstinji in French or The Imaginary Invalid in English.
“We thought
this would be a great opportunity to get Kenyan students more involved with
French literature and language,” Harsita told BDLife. AF has a tradition
of running an annual French Drama Festival. “But this is the first time that we
have invited schools to stage French plays in English and it’s worked out
well,” she added.
Mstinji was
staged by four high schools, Highway, Maryhill Girls, Nanyuki, and M-Pesa Foundation
Academy with Nanyuki winning Best Production.
The
Imaginary Invalid was performed by three universities, KCAU, Technical
University of Kenya, and University of Nairobi. They were adjudicated by four
jurists, Mbeki Mwalimu, Stuart Nash, Larry Asego, and myself.
What was
most striking about this assignment was seeing how radically different one
script could be interpreted. The universities were invited to adapt the
centuries’ old text using present day language and making it relevant. But they
would also be judged by how true their presentation could be to the original
essence of the play.
Moliere’s
style has often been cited as ‘sophisticated comedy’ which is a euphemism for
satire or farce. It also means that not everyone will get the joke. But it didn’t hurt to try. Unfortunately, on
the day of performance there were five universities scheduled to appear, but
sadly Strathmore and Kenyatta University didn’t show, most likely because they
had both recently staged productions that kept them from Moliere.
In any case,
the gist of Imaginary Invalid revolves around the hypochondriac Argan who is
obsessed with his maladies and medical bills. But he is also well-to-do and
wants to find out who among the women in his life truly love him. Does his
daughter Angel truly care? Or should he doubt the devotion of his scheming
second wife, Beline?
Technical
University of Kenya tended to amplify his obsession with finding a cure for his
diseases. It leads to his underlings ripping him off as they find a ‘witch doctor’
who supposedly has the cure.
University
of Nairobi gave a more rational interpretation of Argan, the imaginary invalid
who is obsessed with disease but also with doctors who prescribe too many
expensive pills. To remedy his problem with pricey pills, he decides to marry
off his daughter to a doctor so he’d get free medical care.
And KCA
University’s Argan was less of a frail invalid than UON’s lead. But he manages
to manipulate his apparent invalidism to find out who is truly loyal and loving
toward him, and who is a fraud.
Following
the three performances, students had the opportunity to hear fair criticism
(good and bad) from the judges that was thoroughgoing and sound. One point they
all made was the concern for communication. There needs to be less shouting and
more projecting of actors’ voices on stage. There was discussion of movement
and actor’s intentionality. And there was also the need expressed to pay more
attention to issues of costuming, lighting, and set design. Even an obvious
point like ‘maintaining the plot’ was raised since the interpretation of a
script requires the cast staying true to what’s on the written page.
In any case,
the judges held discussions immediately after the performances so that
selection of the winners could be announced before students returned home. Unanimously,
they voted the Best Actor to be George Githinji, playing Argan from University
of Nairobi; Best Actress being Wendy Jebet, playing Argan’s second wife from
KCAU; Best Director being Sandra Chadota from KCAU; and finally, the Best
Adaptation of the Script and Best Overall Performance was won by University of
Nairobi.
Wednesday, 12 October 2022
HEARTSTRINGS' HOT AIR REVEALS MESSY REALITIES AT HOME
Heartstrings Entertainment has gotten really good at constructing scripts that end with one-liner punch lines that are unexpected, practically unimaginable, and down-right shocking!
Speaking to
the company’s founder-director shortly after his show’s Sunday matinee, Sammy
mwangi told BDLife he wanted to get away from politics in ‘Hot Air’ since we have
had enough of political drama with the national elections over at last.
Yet as we know,
politics and the power games that go with it are everywhere. They are in the
church, in the home, and even in the bedroom as we can see in the latest
Heartstrings comedy staged last weekend at Alliance Francaise.
Esther Kahuha as Mama Morgan best illustrates
church politics as she nearly steals the show, playing the
hell-fire-and-brimstone kind of kinky Christian who is quick to judge and slow
to change her ways.
She’s a
terrible toughie who tells off her laid-back son Morgan (Fischer ) that he’s a
mess. It’s not the most loving message to share with her one son or tell her
husband. But this is her house so she feels she commands the pinnacle of power.
That’s how
she has the confidence to dictate who gets in and out of her domain. It is also
how she deems Morgan’s girlfriend Claire () a devil who is polluting the mind
and body of her son.
Morgan looks
helpless in light of his mother’s moralistic rant. She is freaked out by
girlfriend’s mention of miraa and clubbing. But more concerning is losing
control of the son she hopes will soon give her grandchildren. She is truly
obsessive about his getting a fresh fertile baby-maker. And when she believes
he finally finds one, she apparently doesn’t even care if Morgan gets married
or not. This reinforces the implicit message that Mama Morgan’s brand of
religion is full of hypocritical holes.
The politics
of home are also seen in the quiet, witty patriarch Baba Morgan (Timothy
Ndisii). He doesn’t look formidable except as a cool guy who avoids the hot air
wrath of his wife by not getting riled by her rants. He advises his son to do
the same: Treat your mom with respect but don’t take the noise seriously.
Dad’s ‘rules’
work, even as he watches his wife rudely insists that the demonized claire get
out immediately. She doesn’t want to go since she has karma on her side.
Despite being an active ‘clubber’ and miraa chewer who reveals Morgan’s secret
life to the mom and dad, Claire seems to meditate. She is also convinced ‘the
stars were aligned’ when she met Morgan. Here we have more politics and th. e
clash of religious perspectives. But again, Dad doesn’t get ruffled by any of
this as he as Patriarch is the quiet ruler of the home.
That’s the
message we ultimately discover in the punch line that appears at the end of the
show. The wonderful twist that makes Hot Air of interest to me is when Mama
Morgan’s family friend arrives, accompanied by her spouse and daughter. The
daughter (Bernice Nyethe??) is straight from the village and is to be hired by
Mama Morgan to do one job, namely to clean up the messes made by Morgan who is
messy by definition.
Here we will
see political clashes around the bedroom that go much deeper than merely
mopping and cleaning Junior’s toilet. But Mama Morgan strives to be politically
correct in appointing Bernice not a house ‘maid’ but a house manager who will
get paid relatively well and have that one task.
But then
when Claire comes back to see Morgan, who Bernice has already revealed her
interest in the guy, the new socalled manager is not pleased. Bernice’s
predatory nature already proves that gender isn’t the way to gauge the power of
a person’s intent.
That is why,
in the final scene, when we find a house manager transformed into a
mother-to-be, that’s the first shocker. From being a silly village peasant to
becoming a would-be grand dame who’s about to win the top political prize,
namely the house of Baba Morgan, Bernice’s command of power is just as scary as
Mama Morgan’s was. Only she carries no veneer of political or religious
correctness, She has simply slept with the right man. It was a strategic move
to cement her place in family jigsaw puzzle and allow her to say ‘everybody
out’ except the one who really counts in this political game: it's the
Patriarch, not the son who ultimately rules the day.
Monday, 10 October 2022
AESOP'S FABLES STAGED WITH MINI-BALLERINAS
By Margaretta wa Gacheru (written 10 October 2022)
From day
one, the Dance Centre Kenya has dedicated itself to developing dancers who can
make it on the international stage of entertainment, be it in ballet, musical
theatre, contemporary dance, jazz, tap, or even hip hop.
This has
already been proved with several of its former students finding spots in
professional dance companies and prestigious dance schools in the US, Europe,
and even in the Middle East.
But it has often
meant starting with students who have never danced before, or ever even heard
of something called ballet. When the former professional ballerina Cooper Rust
first came to Kenya, that is what she had come to do. Her concept of inclusion
meant that even before starting DCK in 2015, she was teaching in under-served
settlements of Nairobi. That practice has continued even as the Centre has grown
by leaps and bounds, to the point of currently having aspiring dancers coming
from Karen and Kibera, Muthaiga and Mathare, Kitisuru and Ngong town.
Last
weekend’s production of ‘Aesop’s Fables’ at Braeburn Theatre (Gitanga) also illustrated
just how young Cooper’s cast members can be and how no one could tell from their
performances which side of the city they were from.
“We have
students as young as 2 coming to the Centre,” Cooper tells BDLife, noting it’s
never too young to start taking dance. “I think I was three when I was first danced
in ‘The Nutcracker’, she recalls, noting that same ballet will be coming next
month.
The dancers
performing in Aesop’s Fables were drawn from the Centre’s ‘Junior Company’ and
ranged in age from 7 years to 11. Their mentor-choreographers (the ones giving
them dance steps to perform) were members of the Senior Company and ranged in
age from 14 through 18.
“It’s been a
learning experience for everyone,” Cooper said, right after her students’ morning
performance on Huduma Day. Certainly, that was true for the students, both the
seniors (who got a crash course in choreography from DCK’s Artistic Director) and
the juniors (many of whom had never been part of a public performance before).
It was also
true for anyone interested in seeing how professionally DCK works when its aim
is to create a total experience even for a children’s ballet.
In the case
of Aesop’s Fables, the idea was using the storyteller’s Greek background as the
motif for selecting the music, make-up and costuming as well as the beautifully painted
backdrop.
Even John
Sibi Okumu, playing the wise Greek storyteller Aesop (who was also said to be a
slave) wore a toga as the men of Greece did back then. Born many centuries
before Jesus Christ, around 620 BDE in Delphi, Aesop is said to have composed
over 600 fables, many of which have seeped into our everyday discourse and recognized,
not for their connection with Aesop, but simply as ‘common sense’. Take a story
like ‘The Tortoise and the Hare’ whose moral is simply that the ‘slow and
steady’ (rather than the swift but impulsive) ultimately win the race or the
prize. Or another, like ‘The Boy who cried Wolf’ which implies that liars are
rarely believed even when they tell the truth.
Sibi Okumu
only read eleven out of the 600 plus fables, but they were enough to give the
senior class the challenge of translating a simple but deep concept into
creative activity, even a ballet dance.
It’s true
that a production staged with eight-year-old ballerinas might not have the same
entertainment appeal as, say Heartstrings which was premiering their latest comedy,
‘Hot Air’ last weekend or Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s ‘I’ll marry when I want’ at Kenya
National Theatre. But you can be sure that practically every performance was
staged before a full-house crowd. Of course, most of them were family members
related to the dancers on stage.
Aesop’s
Fables can be measured as a success, especially in having Sibi Okumu star as
the wise old Grecian who shared his wisdom with young ballerinas and boys. But
also, in terms of stagecraft, one must commend Cooper for retaining a Grecian
appeal by including portions of the popular soundtrack from the film ‘Zorba the
Greek’. The costuming was also carefully conceived with support from DCK’s
costume mistress, Antonia Mukandie who must also be responsible for the elegant
masks (no relation to the COVID type) and the makeup as well. The aura of the
Greek islands was also there in the mountainous landscape painting that covered
the entire back of the Braeburn Theatre stage.