THEATRE NON-STOP THIS WEEKEND

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (February 28, 2023)

Still basking in the afterglow of last week’s Kenya Theatre Awards, it’s a joy to see that 2022’s year of great theatre wasn’t just a fluke. Certainly, the overwhelming numbers of productions in 2022 had something to do with the lifting of COVID constraints and the bursting forth of artists’ pent-up energies. But as of this weekend, we are already seeing a continuity in quality productions with three and possibly four major shows taking place and two having already premiered last night. First, there is the award-winning Nairobi Performing Arts Studio (NPAS) staging Francis Imbuga’s classic drama, ‘Betrayal in the City’ at Kenya National Theatre. Having a star-studded cast, the show features KTA winners Bilal Mwaura, Wakio Mzenge and Martin Kigondu, as well as Raymond Ofula (who hasn’t been on the KNT stage in 25 years, having shifted long ago to TV and film) as Boss. Betrayal is, for NPAS, the second in a series of classic Kenyan plays, the first being Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s and Ngugi wa Miiri’s ‘I’ll Marry when I want’ (Ngaahika Ndeenda) which won Best Production of 2022. The third one is rumored to be Ngugi’s ‘Mother, Sing for Me’ which got censored by the Kenya Government just moments before it was to premiere nearly 40 years ago. So, it will finally get its international premiere later this year when it's staged by NPAS. Meanwhile, across the street from KNT, the group voted Best Theatre Company of 2022 also premiered in ‘Give and Take’ at Alliance Francaise. Sammy Mwangi’s Heartstrings Entertainment maintains its dynamic momentum bringing out new comedies every month and continuing to perform to full-house crowds. Meanwhile, tonight at the Oshwal Junior High Auditorium, Aperture Africa is producing its first Puppet Show entitled ‘The Good, the Bad, and the Wolf’. A show that promises to shatter all stereotypical views of puppets, the Polish puppeteer Kasia Meszaros has trained a team of local actors, including Bilal Wanjau and members of the Kenya Institute of Puppetry in modern techniques of the performing art. She’s even brought onboard the master craftsman who creates the XYZ puppets, Fedelis Kyalo. All three productions will be running through the weekend. It is only Mavin Kibicho’s ‘Caged Bird’, being staged at Nairobi Cinema that is offering just one performance on Sunday afternoon. In any case, that makes four public performances in a single weekend. Last weekend, there were also shows in Kikuyu, Kisii, and Dhuluo. There are also private performances in exclusive settings that we only hear about. The point is, the theatre flame has been lit and was aglow last weekend when the Kenya Theatre Awards identified 37 categories of performance that merited esteem, recognition, and even a trophy. The public’s response that night was as overwhelming as many of the productions were during the year. I always marvel when I see how much trophies mean to the winners. Many an artist that night expressed appreciation to the awards organizers (namely the KITFest Trust, KTA secretariat and judges) for their initiative. “Never in all my years in theatre have I received recognition like this,” said Charles Ouda who won Best Performance of a Male Actor in a Monologue. Ouda’s monologue was one in a series entitled The Manic Monologues. His female counterpart in the same show, Wakio Nzenge also won Best Performance of a Female Actor in a Monologue, and was equally deserving and appreciative. Ouda also won with Nice Githinji for their performance in a two-hander, ‘How to Have an Affair: A Cheater’s Guide’. Theirs was a category that was new this year since there were so many shows having just two cast members, the KTA team chose to add it their awards roster. The other award that was new was for Stage Manager which went overwhelmingly to Mercy Wangui for her management of Ngugis’ I’ll Marry. The Life-time Achievement Award went to Annabel Maule who just turned 100 so her trophy was received by Philip Coulson, who’s an actor (and prominent lawyer) in his own right. But it was the Ushirika Award which went to an entity entitled Creative Arts Spaces in Kenya that I found most noteworthy. In fact, behind the name is the French Embassy which funded the refurbishing of theatrical infrastructures in five locations in Kenya, Nairobi, Nakuru, Kisumu, Mombasa, and Lamu. It was an exceptional gift to the Kenyan theatre community and merits our applause. Without doubt, theatre is on the rise in Kenya and we have high expectations for 2023.

PARAMOUR TRANSFORMS BIBLICAL TALE INTO MODERN-DAY DRAMA

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (composed 19.2.2023 but published 26.2.2023) Son of Man’s production of ‘Paramour’ is among the first straight plays of 2023 that I found impressive at so many levels. Taking place recently (February 19, 2023) at Ukumbi Mbogo’s tiny stage, one felt such an explosive set of subjects being dealt with in Mavin Kibicho’s [discerning] script merited more space. Yet the minimalist approach to addressing such topics as corruption, infidelity, economic sabotage, and blackmail gained intensity by being played out in the living room of Dave and Abby, one of the two married couples that are the focus of Paramour.

Young, ambitious, and equally handsome and beautiful, both couples, including Haroun and Beth, are best buddies as well as the men being business partners as they each are lawyers working at the same law firm. The firm is actually Dave’s so the moment the two arrive Dave’s home, one gets the feeling that it is Haroun who looks up to his friend for his genius legal skills. Yet what we also learn at the outset is that Dave is a hustler intent on getting ahead by any means necessary, literally. Dave may look like an amiable guy, but Jeff Omondi plays this complex character with a not-so-subtle shrewdness that will finally reveal his true character as being sociopathic.

But we don’t see it clearly at the outset. Nor do we immediately take note that Dave is a shortened form of David and Beth is short for Bathsheba, two Old Testament characters with a shocking story of their own. Beth’s husband is Haroun which is somewhat similar to the name of Bathsheba’s first husband Uriah, a man whom King David had murdered so he could marry the dead man’s wife.

Once it hits you that Paramour is something of a morality play, you have to appreciate Kibicho’s way of modernizing and indigenizing that Scriptural story. It’s embellished with an angry wife of David (Leila Kare) who early on detects that her spouse is unfaithful, but she doesn’t know with whom. The relationship between Dave and Beth also is ignited, not by his seeing his future wife in the bath, but by hearing the beautiful singing voice of Beth and interpreting her charm as a come-on to Dave.

Speaking to the playwright after the play, we spoke about the hot affair between Dave and Beth. Kibicho told BDLife that we both may recall Bathsheba wasn’t wholly innocent in her involvement with David. And Naomi Wairimu makes that subtle point clear in the way she also plays with Dave before he seduces her in his home while Abby is away. In the first act of Paramour, Dave is already revealed as a corrupt character who bribes a financial officer to obtain confidential information that enables him to win his legal case for his client. But he is a dirty player from the start. So when we see him lying to his wife, luring another woman into his bed, and even advising her to abort his baby rather than be exposed as the father of his best friend’s child, we are not surprised. But then when Dave goes on to plan the poisoning of Haroun, (just as David devised a scheme to ensure Uriah would die on the battle field), we agree that Dave is a sociopath who doesn’t care for anyone but himself. I’ve always marveled at how forgiving David’s God was after he’d stooped so low on the morality grid. But God did forgive David. Not so Dave’s women. Beth had genuinely loved her husband and we felt the depth of her painful shame as we watched her weep while Haroun died in her arms. Abby had already informed Dave that if she found out he was cheating, she would slice him into little bits. But he was hardly threatened by her indignant outbursts. And even after she caught him on tape as he confessed that he had impregnated Beth and murdered Haroun, his counter-threats felt far more sinister and authentic.

That is why, after Beth found his poison, she and Abby agreed that finishing him with the same stuff that he used to finish Haroun was fair. This is where Kibicho breaks out of the Biblical mold and shifts into the modern-day revenge felt by women who have been scorned. These two had previously looked like they were satisfied with being simply wives of ambitious men. But as it turns out, they both felt justified doing away with a man whom they saw as the Satanic embodiment of evil and sin.

PUPPETRY TO DELIGHT CHILDREN AND ADULTS ALIKE

Kasia Meszaros has been playing the part of an ambassador’s wife since she arrived in Kenya in 2015. She had left behind a professional acting career in Cracow, Poland, to try on her new character as wife and mother. But she couldn’t leave her acting for domesticity entirely. So, in less than a year she was staging a puppet show that illustrated the tumultuous history of her country during the 1950s. “It was an emotional show, and our puppets were life-sized,” Kasia tells BDLife just a few days before she is set to direct her second puppet show in Kenya at the Oshwal Academy Junior High Auditorium.

“But what I discovered is that Kenyans have a very different concept of puppetry from what I studied as a masters degree student,” she continues. That difference between what Kenyans know as puppetry and what Kasia and her cast will illustrate when they present ‘The Good, the Bad, and the Wolf’ next weekend from March 3rd -5th will come as a pleasant surprise. Produced by Aperture Africa, and directed by Kasia who also scripted the show, the cast itself will be all Kenyan with puppets designed by Kasia’s Polish friend but constructed by Fedelis Kyalo, the same craftsman who creates the XYZ puppets.

Described as a family-friendly production, Kasia says that as a young mother, she has been reading scads of children’s stories, including Little Red Riding Hood and Three Little Pig. “In both instances, the villain was the wolf. But every time, before he succeeds in doing his [dirty] deed, he gets caught. So, I have married the two stories, but you will have to come see the show to find out how the story goes,” she says. The main difference between Kenyan puppetry and hers (which she says is what is now the newest perspective on puppetry in the West) is that previously, the puppeteers were always invisible and only the puppets are the actors on stage. But now, the puppeteers are part of the experience. “We call puppeteers ‘animators’ since they animate and give life to their puppets,” she says.

She assures us that we will need to see what she means in order to understand how she has been taught that the ‘animator’ or puppeteer can infuse life into any object, not only a puppet. “I can make a cup into a living thing,” she explains, essentially describing what an imaginative mind can do if it is focused on enlivening a physical object of any kind. In any case, Kasia has been teaching Kenyans the style of puppetry that she learned at the Theatre Academy of Warsaw and in the Department of Puppetry. At the same time, she has included puppeteers like Fedelis and Victor Otieno from the Kenya Institute of Puppet Theatre in her classes and in her cast.

Aperture Africa has brought together some of the Kenyans who have made many of their previous shows a success. They include Bilal Wanjau and Andrew Tumbo as well as Chandaya Vaya, Doanna Owano, Fedelis and Victor. “All together we will have six puppets, four masks, and one surprise,” says Kasia who adds that one of the joys about working with puppets is that they can create new dimensions in a production. They can exaggerate a character when a human actor couldn’t carry the same exaggeration off well. The masks, she says, provide another dimension in a puppetry production. “The mask serves similarly to a puppet in that the person wearing the mask [which is just a half mask] creates another character with the mask.” That way a character like Bilal can play several roles depending on which mask he puts on. Kasia also explains that there is a lot of choreography involved in puppeteering since there are always issues of rhythm and timing, both of which require self-control and discipline, qualities which are not easy to cultivate unless one is fully committed to his or her craft. ‘The Good, The Bad, and the Wolf’ may be based on children’s bedtime stories. But Aperture Africa’s venturing into puppet theatre is bound to bring a fascinating as well as a fun experience that both children and adults will love.

ONYIS’S RETROSPECTIVE REFLECTS MULTIPLE LESSONS LEARNED

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (composed 25.2.23) Onyis Martin didn’t tell anyone he was putting up a retrospective exhibition of his art in the main hall at Kobo Trust. “I see a few people coming by, and that is fine, but I basically put it up for myself,” the artist tells BDLife as we sat together last week. “I wanted to see where I had been and where it felt like I would go next,” he continues, noting he had only put up his collage ‘wall’ works, 17 in all. They spanned from 2016 when he had won the Manjano competition up to the end of 2022. Recalling that 2016 was a busy time for him, he said it was also something of a turning point since Manjano wasn’t the only award he’d received that year. There was also the Absa ‘Atelier’ prize which took him to Johannesburg for a three month artist’s residency at the acclaimed Bag Factory. He was the only Kenyan there that year and he says he took full advantage of all the opportunities made available to him. He went to galleries and museums, attended artists’ talks, and visited their studios. He also discovered so many art books and magazines. So basically, it opened up his mind to the limitless possibilities in the arts for the artists. Previously, Onyis had never been formally trained in the arts, although he nearly went to study at Kenyatta University. “But at the last minute, I changed my mind. And I have never regretted that decision,” he adds. In any case, Onyis had been drawing since childhood. “I’d take my big sister’s text books and copy the illustrations inside,” he recalls. But he also had an excellent mentor in the art teacher who was in charge of his school’s drama club at St Thomas Aquinas. Onyis has been experimenting with various techniques, materials, and ideas all his life. But the art form that earned him recognition both at Manjano and at the Absa Ateliers was the collage. His collages are meant to reflect aspects of everyday social life, so he would go and collect posters from off public walls that had been papered over with the same posters that he’d use in his collages. He would even take some of constraining commands from off the public walls, as if to mock their meaning. That is why one will see phrases like ‘No Posters’, ‘Beware of Conmen’, and ‘Do not stand in front of the gate’ in paintings he sometimes calls ‘Talking Walls’. Onyis says that his time in South Africa awakened a political awareness in him that he previously hadn’t had. “It was after I’d been to Jo’burg that I started including images of Dedan Kimathi and Steve Biko in my paintings,” he said, noting that those painting are technically still evolving. But the other thing he gained from traveling and spending time down south was his learning the importance of speaking about his art and learning how to do it. But soon after those three months were up, he got a call to come to Australia to celebrate at their Sanaa Festival and also exhibit his art. So Onyis went and has been back to Sydney several times since. Onyis has also been featured in several Art Fairs, especially during COVID. “Otherwise, very little was happening with us during those COVID times,” he says. He has also taken part in several group exhibitions, one in Wales, another in Barcelona, and several right here in Nairobi, at Circle Art Gallery, the Chilean ambassador’s residence, and at Kobo itself, curated by Gravitart. But one feature of Onyis’s exhibitions that he has included since 2016 but isn’t included in his retrospective, are the doors. These are doors Onyis has used to symbolize both the opening up of new possibilities as well as the shutting down of options and represent limitations and misfortunes. Onyis’s doors and window frames are a whole other set of recycled items or ‘found objects’ that have evolved significantly since 2016. “I’m in contact with companies that get paid to demolish old homes, so I keep track when they are getting set to demolish a place. I get to the site before the doors get taken away by guys who plan to turn them into firewood,” he says. His doors get a good wash and polish, and then they become ‘frames’ for his drawing of enigmatic men who have stories to tell, stories we’ll eventually hear from the artist himself.

NAOMI FINDS ART GIVES HER PEACE OF MIND

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 2.25.23) The pedigree of Naomi van Rampelberg is purely artistic. With a mother like sculptress Chelenge and a father like fine furniture maker Marc, one could hardly not expect Naomi to display an imaginative talent like what we saw last weekend at One off Gallery where her third solo exhibition opened and is on until March 19th.

Yet one has to wonder why she would entitle her show ‘Anxiety: My Muse’. “I get antsy if I let a week go by without working on my art,” Naomi told BDLife on the opening day of her show. “Drawing my circles gives me a peace of mind that nothing else can,” she added. Yet something has dramatically changed since her last solo exhibition at One Off in 2019. That was just before the COVID lockdown came and crashed much of the dynamism in the local art world’s thrust.

No longer is she painting on glass, painting in meticulous and delicately detailed designs on everything from wine goblets to glass chandeliers. She has transferred all that attention to detail and refined focus from acrylic paint to pen and ink on paper. Admitting that part of the switch had to do with the inaccessibility of art materials during the pandemic, Naomi was also prepared to make a change. She had already begun to branch out and cultivate skills in ceramics, photography, and collage. She had even experimented with textile techniques, including knitting, which is a skill she learned from her Belgian Grannie as a child and is now developing it into a fine art. This one will see when you visit One Off and find that there is a whole room dedicated to Naomi’s textile art. In effect, it’s a textile installation in which she’s hung (from the ceiling to the floor) more than a dozen multi-colored scarves. Each is hand-knit by Naomi and each is rich in various hues, all blended in a riotous range of the color wheel.

But as soothing as Naomi finds knitting, it’s the drawing of tiny circles (all similar in size to the dots she used to patiently paint on glass), that gives her the greatest feeling of relief. Working with fine colored pens on paper, she finds a sense of fulfillment in blending colors and creating incredible designs. “My art is therapeutic,” she says. “It has a calming effect on my whole being.” What is fascinating about her drawings is that one sees the same intensity and attention to detail in her pen and inks on paper as in her glass art. One might assume that it is easier to draw on paper than to paint on glass. But either way, Naomi sets such a high standard for herself that one can easily get lost in any one of her ink drawing because she has hit on what contemporary art is all about. Her works may be called Abstract, even conceptual. But what is ultimately appealing is the same delicately detailed alignment of lines and curves that somehow stay connected. Often her shapes are geometric, but not necessarily. Otherwise, they can look like delicate embroidery, yet that’s an optical illusion. There is one that looks exactly like a stained glass window, but of course, it is not. Finally, one has to marvel at the work she has done since one can hardly imagine one human being doing it by hand.

There are also several drawings that could be deemed ‘feminist’ since they look exactly like fallopian tubes, shape-wise. They are displayed as a quartet, yet no one is exactly like anothers, especially color- and texture-wise. Naomi has a way of drawing that makes her colors come alive, often pulsating with the energy that she has infused in her art as she’s released her angst emotionally into specific works. There are two that are bright pink and gold and veritably vibrate with life. They look like either the inside of a geode rock or the inside of a woman’s genitalia. Either way, Naomi leaves her art to your imagination to interpret her intense drawings as you see fit.

What she has done is create abstract designs that expose the power of imagination that Naomi was given at birth. What I appreciate so much about her current work is that it is far more accessible to the every day person who may not understand the beauty of hand-painted glass, but can easily enjoy the marvelous drawings that anyone can find awesome and beautiful.

KYALO’S MATHIOYA EXPLORES LIFE ON THE STREETS

By Margaretta wa Gacheru Mike Kyalo is the real deal. In his current exhibition entitled ‘Mathioya Tales’ at Banana Hill Art Gallery, he paints Kenya street life in its earthy actuality. Okay, it’s true that he doesn’t go into people’s bedrooms or behind their mabati walls in the informal settlements to see what people do when nobody’s supposed to be looking. But he reveals the various economic activities that engage and sustain a wide array of street people, people who used to be known as ‘jua Kali’. It’s a subject matter that quite a few local artists are also focused on, but Kyalo has his own take on the topic.

“Mathioya isn’t just a village in Nyeri county,” Kyalo tells BDLife. “Mathioya is a fictional character who for years was mainly telling stories about boda boda taxi drivers. But he has now moved on and has seen lots more of Kenya’s busy street life,” he adds. For instance, it’s apparently Mathioya who is intrigued by the many guys selling sugar cane of the street. But like so many jua kali workers, these men are not just selling sugar cane. They have long sticks of cane that they slice before our eyes, and then shave off the skins so they can sell bite-sized pieces to those who love munching on those tough, crewy morsels filled with fiber and sweetness. “Those bites are so much healthier to crew than costly candy bars and cakes,” Mathioya seems to say.

Food is another topic that Kyalo and his character Mathioya tackle in a work like ‘Outdoor catering’. Usually situated just across from big classy malls like the ones in Lavington and Westgate, these open-air restaurants, (called kibanda’s by the locals) sell everything from omena (small fish), greens and ugali to mukimo (a mashed potato mix) and cabbage to ndengu, chapati, and greens. But again, part of the charm of such places is not just the prices, (which allow locals to eat hearty meals), but also the fact that the cooks who make the food are present as they prepare plates for the public to eat.

Kyalo’s ‘Outoor Catering’ is of special interest because it is one of two pieces in the show that were painted with molten colored plastic that Kyalo used in place of acrylic paint. “I was painting during the COVID lockdown, but didn’t have the means to buy more acrylic paint. So that’s when I had friends collect plastic bags from the nearby dump sites for me,” Kyalo explains. “After that, I burned the bags and used the melted material as if it were paint,” he adds. Both ‘Outdoor Catering’ and an untitled piece featuring a bicycle transporting stacked crates have been painted, not on canvas but on plywood. And both tell stories in bold colors and thick brush strokes that convey a message of ingenuity, imagination, and expressionism.

The other topic that is often repeated in various forms in Kyalo’s solo show is the problem of water. Mathioya is deeply concerned about the water shortage that is threatening the whole country. It’s also a topic that Kyalo explores, often featuring men with their big yellow containers which they use to deliver water to the needy. But in his series on Water shortage, we see that even the water venters are at a loss for where to find water. Kyalo also paints a few idlers in his show, but most of his characters are busy. There’s the bicycle man, (the early version of a boda boda) transporting a young woman, a man hawking his bananas to a passing matatu on the chance that a passenger might need one, and local construction workers putting up their stone bricks in a row along the roadside.

But two of Kyalo’s most intriguing paintings are of men overloaded with towels or plastic buckets or other assorted things. You must have seen them on the streets, often walking between cars during Nairobi’s perennial traffic jams. These are the ‘mali mali’ men, the guys who barter items but don’t buy or sell. If you frequent certain sides of Eastlands, you will hear them early in the day in the estates, singing ‘mali mali’ to announce that if you’ve got something to exchange, please come out and see him there and then. The other feature of Kyalo’s art that gives it fresh appeal is his use of bright, bold colors, sunshine colors that correlate with the city’s clear blue skies.

His show runs till the end of the month, but it’s being extended an extra week.

SPOKEN WORD POETS AND SONGSTERS SPARKLE AT NATIONAL THEATRE

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (composed 2.21.23)

Two spoken word poets gave performances this past weekend. Both were at Kenya Cultural Centre. But beyond that, they were very different as were the curtain raisers that preceded their shows. Both gave their programs titles that only insiders and fans of their art would have known what they were planning to stage. Matarania was the title Timo GK Maina gave to his showcase at Ukumbi Mdogo on Saturday night for one performance only while the Mainders Mineday: Pillow Talk star, Kevin Maina put on his show Sunday on the main stage of Kenya National Theatre. He too performed just once for a house-full crowd of mainly females, most of whom had apparently attended Maina’s previous shows. Presumably, they had also watched his daily spoken word musings shared on his YouTube channel. Coincidentally, both men are Maina’s yet Timo was clearly more comfortable performing in Kikuyu and Kiswahili while Kevin felt more at ease speaking English and wearing satin pants with his matching gold kimono jacket.

Timo also wore a kimono, only his was cotton, covered in geometric designs and finished with West African kente cloth, giving his stage presence a more indigenous style as he told stories while blending Kikuyu and Swahili with just a tidbit of Kizungu. One slick and charming, Kevin was a gentle lover-boy who had a smooth, soothing way of wooing every woman in the house who had ever yearned for a man who was tender and sensitive yet strong, wise and understanding. That was the aura that Kevin projected by the time he’d come out and spent some quality time with the ladies. He stood alone (but for his guitarist in the background) on that vast KNT stage, yet his way of sharing his life story made us feel the stage and all the ladies’ hearts belonged to him.

Timo GK also had a charisma of his own, only he was addressing both guys and girls as he wove his web of words in a cool, sagacious style. And he too held his audience in the palm of his hand as he had a way of speaking gently only with a sharper style, punctuated with issues of social concern. Timo performed first with a saxophone George Mutito introducing his show, and then Mutito returned as bass guitarist to enhance the upbeat quality of the night. Other than the instruments and DJ Muthoni’s turn-tables that kept the sound cool and low, Timo hadn’t bothered with set construction. In contrast, Kevin had invested in a backdrop that included cloud-like replicas scattered all across the back. They were connected with strings of bright LED lights which I guess were meant to represent a starry sky, ripe for romance and Kevin’s story about losing his mom at age nine and being raised by women, mostly aunties.

“It is women who have been the constant feature in my life,” he told us on Sunday as we lapped up his words and felt so sorry that he hadn’t had the mother-love he’d so deserved. Anyway, both Maina’s shared the stage with at least one female vocalist. Timo gave us two, and the most memorable of them was his first singer Muringi, who warmed up initially singing in English. But then, she began to sing in her mother tongue, and she made us weep for joy at being among the first to hear this angelic sweetness lifting us to the stars with her effortless singing a high soprano and a low alto. Muringi’s final number was a Gospel song that got the audience singing in Kikuyu along with her. I was fulfilled for the night after that. But we were subsequently introduced to one more woman songstress. A bit older and more down to earth, Zaituni Wambui was nonetheless an awesome storyteller-lyricist who, like Muringi, wrote her own music. She too reeled us into her world despite her sharing a sad love song. It was a beautiful story about a love that blossomed for decades but sadly faded and ultimately broke her heart. Timo didn’t seem to mind that his female vocalists stole the night. He already knew he was giving away his spotlight to beautiful talents who I trust will both go far musically speaking.

Meanwhile, Kevin’s female vocalist Camilla Okongo, only sang briefly, and then gave him back the stage. The problem with his show was it was overshadowed by the commercial focus that took away too much attention from the 5th edition of Kevin’s Pillow Talk.

FESTIVITIES AT CLOSINGS AND OPENINGS ON NAIROBI ARTS SCENE

By margaretta wa gacheru Sun, Feb 19, 1:37 AM There were festivities and celebrations all around Nairobi this past weekend but one. It was a time to celebrate new beginnings as well as new endings. The two most prominent venues to witness these contrasting festivities were first, the three-day festival at the Goethe Institute where a two-year hiatus was ending with the re-opening of a newly renovated GI that was opening its doors for the first time in many months. The second celebrations were happening at the new Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute (NCAI) where their first major exhibition entitled ‘Mwili, Akili, na Roho: 10 Figurative Painters from East Africa’ was closing. At the same time, the Institute was celebrating the launch of two new publications and a talk by the leading professor of East African Art History, George Kyeyune. No less than five of the 10 artists feeatured in the exhibition were affiliated with Kenya, namely Sane Wadu, Meek Gichugu, Elimo Njau, Jak Katarikawe, and Theresa Musoke. The rest are mainly affiliated with Makerere University and the Margaret Trowell School of Art. Even Jak and Theresa, being Ugandan by birth, have bonds with what many consider to be the birthplace of East African art. It was a point that Professor Kyeyune did not contest during his talk last Saturday. The biggest crowd of well-wishers were at the Goethe from Friday night when the new Director of the Institute, Lilly.. was on hand, together with the Deputy German Ambassador … The Chairperson of Maendeleo ya Wanawake, .. was also there to recall the 40 years that the Goethe has been a friendly tenant in Maendeleo’s house just off of Waiyaki Way and University Way. What was also being celebrated at GI was the 60th anniversary that the Institute shared with the Kenyan nation. “Kenya is turning 60 this year as is the Goethe Institute, so we are proud to say, the German Government was the first to recognize the independent state of Kenya, and we have been working together ever since,” said Deputy Ambassador…. Speaking about the various types of exchange programs that have been conducted from the beginning, he noted that everyone from scientists and scholars, students and entrepreneurs had been involved in cultural and economic exchange programs. This led to talk about what was covering the walls of the main auditorium where the festivities were centred. ‘The History of Vinyl’ was a bit of a mystery to young people who had never heard of vinyl records. But as Aghan Odero explained, Kenyan music during its heydays in the 70s and early 80s was listened to either through the playing of the juke box, which Aghan said was ubiquitous, in every single bar in the city, during that golden era of vinyl. People spun their vinyl disks on record players, several of which were part of the exhibition. To clarify how important vinyl records were to the rise of the music industry in Kenya, Aghan together with TICAH’s Eric Menya co-curated hundreds of vinyl record ‘jackets’ and hung them on the exhibition hall walls. Filled with names that had once been commonly known in Nairobi and other urban centres, the record jackets were for everyone from Franco, Tabu Ley, and Orchestra Mangelepa, popular Congolese artists to Orchestra Virunga, Les Wanyika, Simba Wanjika, and even David Amunga. “We thought that since Goethe Institute was celebrating 60 years of history, the inclusion of Nairobi’ popular music history would elicit good memories,” Aghan said

STAND UP COMEDY ENSEMBLE BLASTS OFF INTO HILARIOUS INFINITE SPACE

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted February 17, 2023) Because you said so is stand-up comedy like you’ve never seen before. That is, unless you are a fan, which is what most people become once they attend even one of the shows this organic ensemble of creatives has staged since they first came together back in 2018? BYSS is a marvelous team of artists who perform something few have heard of called ‘improv’ theatre, short for improvisation. That means they have no script and no rehearsal time. All eight members come for different backgrounds, yet they know each other well so they can intuit each other’s movements and moods. They can empathize with their feelings such that when they came on stage last Friday night at Braeburn Theatre Gitanga Road, they immediately took off like a rocket, guided only by one conductor, Yafesi Musoke, who suggested ‘segments’ that they had loosely planned. From there, the team would take off into an uproarious trek into all forms of theatrical antics. They went from rap to role play, theatre of the absurd to lip syncing their favorite love songs especially in light of the upcoming Valentine’s Day. And through it all, their audience was fully engaged. From the moment they asked for names of audience members who’d be part of their first rap session, many shouted out names like ‘Brenda’, ‘Tasha’, and ‘Anita’, each of whom saw all seven throwing themselves into rapper-mode as they swayed and swung into snappy word-games that delighted the house-full crowd.

So much so that when two volunteers from the audience were requested, Anita and ‘a guy’ rushed up on stage, only to become objects incorporated into BYSS’s next segment on ‘attending an art gallery.’ I who do that same thing often was particularly impressed when two by two they’d come and critique the ‘abstract art’ that the volunteers had become. It was even more hilarious when Anita and Kaguy began to mirror the two critics, following them around as if they too could improvise just as well as the team. Some segments met with more success than others, but all combined physical comedy and in some cases, acrobatics as when Justin Karuguru (who is not a small guy) would role and flip, or when June Gachie made her point plain by literally lifting her partner onto her back (like a good mama tea picker) and walking him off the stage like a potato sack. Picking segments that most people could identify with included BYSS’s ‘Back to School’ journey. It was a time when someone among them would pick up the theme, become ‘Mwalimu’ and give a mini-monologue. The school got named by K1 Kevin Maina. He called it ‘Cheers Baba School’ for some silly reason. Then each member stood up and give an even funnier, more absurd perspective on the school until Patricia Kihoro praised the school to the hilt. Graduating from Cheers Baba was proof of absolute genius. But then, the next segment got even crazier. Musoke pulled out a box of gadgets and deemed them technological devices, but they were nothing more than throw-away objects like bath room plungers and rusty tripods. What was required to enjoy BYSS was imagination, an ability to join in on their improvised journey and to enjoy the absurd humor that mixed up charm and charisma with splendid jokes and wit, spontaneity and theatrical talent that brought together artists like Mugambi Nthege, Jason Runo, Elsaphan Njoro, and Patricia Kihoro with June Gachie, Justin Karuguru and Kevin K1 Maina.

When the segment on Super Gonorrhea came up, BYSS cast went hyper-hilarity, using those odd ‘gadgets’ as magical rods and plungers as magical means of eliminating the abhorrent disease. June Gachie’s suggestion was especially outrageous. But then, as we approached the finale scene, the cast dashed off stage to change for their performances of their favorite song to be sung in karaoke styled lip-sync. Yafasi was first and performed the most impassioned display that combined perfect timing and expression with such graceful movement you might’ve mistaken him for a contemporary dancer.

Then came Mugambi with a fierce display of fiery love that brought him down into the audience and making Anita almost faint! Such freedom on the part of everyone in the BYSS cast is why you must admire them for not just their physical comedy but their lively imagination and capacity to play off one another and swing into such surprising moves and moods that everyone should know this is improvisation at its best. Because you said so is stand-up comedy like you’ve never seen before. That is, unless you are a fan, which is what most people become once they attend even one of the shows this organic ensemble of creatives has staged since they first came together back in 2018? BYSS is a marvelous team of artists who perform something few have heard of called ‘improv’ theatre, short for improvisation. That means they have no script and no rehearsal time. All eight members come for different backgrounds, yet they know each other well so they can intuit each other’s movements and moods. They can empathize with their feelings such that when they came on stage last Friday night at Braeburn Theatre Gitanga Road, they immediately took off like a rocket, guided only by one conductor, Yafesi Musoke, who suggested ‘segments’ that they had loosely planned. From there, the team would take off into an uproarious trek into all forms of theatrical antics. They went from rap to role play, theatre of the absurd to lip syncing their favorite love songs especially in light of the upcoming Valentine’s Day. And through it all, their audience was fully engaged. From the moment they asked for names of audience members who’d be part of their first rap session, many shouted out names like ‘Brenda’, ‘Tasha’, and ‘Anita’, each of whom saw all seven throwing themselves into rapper-mode as they swayed and swung into snappy word-games that delighted the house-full crowd. So much so that when two volunteers from the audience were requested, Anita and ‘a guy’ rushed up on stage, only to become objects incorporated into BYSS’s next segment on ‘attending an art gallery.’ I who do that same thing often was particularly impressed when two by two they’d come and critique the ‘abstract art’ that the volunteers had become. It was even more hilarious when Anita and Kaguy began to mirror the two critics, following them around as if they too could improvise just as well as the team. Some segments met with more success than others, but all combined physical comedy and in some cases, acrobatics as when Justin Karuguru (who is not a small guy) would role and flip, or when June Gachie made her point plain by literally lifting her partner onto her back (like a good mama tea picker) and walking him off the stage like a potato sack. Picking segments that most people could identify with included BYSS’s ‘Back to School’ journey. It was a time when someone among them would pick up the theme, become ‘Mwalimu’ and give a mini-monologue. The school got named by K1 Kevin Maina. He called it ‘Cheers Baba School’ for some silly reason. Then each member stood up and give an even funnier, more absurd perspective on the school until Patricia Kihoro praised the school to the hilt. Graduating from Cheers Baba was proof of absolute genius. But then, the next segment got even crazier. Musoke pulled out a box of gadgets and deemed them technological devices, but they were nothing more than throw-away objects like bath room plungers and rusty tripods. What was required to enjoy BYSS was imagination, an ability to join in on their improvised journey and to enjoy the absurd humor that mixed up charm and charisma with splendid jokes and wit, spontaneity and theatrical talent that brought together artists like Mugambi Nthege, Jason Runo, Elsaphan Njoro, and Patricia Kihoro with June Gachie, Justin Karuguru and Kevin K1 Maina. When the segment on Super Gonorrhea came up, BYSS cast went hyper-hilarity, using those odd ‘gadgets’ as magical rods and plungers as magical means of eliminating the abhorrent disease. June Gachie’s suggestion was especially outrageous. But then, as we approached the finale scene, the cast dashed off stage to change for their performances of their favorite song to be sung in karaoke styled lip-sync. Yafasi was first and performed the most impassioned display that combined perfect timing and expression with such graceful movement you might’ve mistaken him for a contemporary dancer. Then came Mugambi with a fierce display of fiery love that brought him down into the audience and making Anita almost faint! Such freedom on the part of everyone in the BYSS cast is why you must admire them for not just their physical comedy but their lively imagination and capacity to play off one another and swing into such surprising moves and moods that everyone should know this is improvisation at its best.

ROTARY REPORT 2022-2023

Report on Programs of first half year, 2022-23 By Dr Margaretta wa Gacheru --A hybrid transitioning term when having zoom and in person increasing. Shift to Capital club: --Focus on mental health, doug kierieni and dementia; --Empowerment of women and girls : Rajiv Arora --Celebrations: Diwali, Dr Manu at 93 receiving the Carnige Award in New York and lauded by his Rotary club at Serena Hotel, at Red Ginger, and online zoom; Arun’s gift meals at Red Ginger --DG spoke to us. Also celebrated her Imagine Rotary Art Exhibition and Auction --Our scholar Dr Sigei spoke --Our members spoke: Dr Bea, Justice Joyce --Arts: Stuart Nash on theatre, Dr Zippy Okoth on careers in the arts, Peter Mudamba on film EXPECTATION OF LAST HALF TERM Joe okelo on Transition from Education to Agro-business Irungu Houghton on Amnesty International in Kenya Tim Bromfield on Tony Blair Foundation Members: -Susan’s Traveling telescope -Mike Eldon on Leadership and careers - management consultancy -Justice Joyce on Rugby, S. Sudan and good governance -Prof Mike Hopkins on Sustainability etc

MICHAEL AND THOM BACK IN THE CITY WATCHING THE LIFE

BY Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted February 15, 2023) How much more can Michael Soi tell us about ‘Sex in the City 5’ that he hasn’t already shared in the last four iterations of the same topic?

As it turns out, quite a lot as we discovered last Wedneday, February 15, when we slipped into the Alliance Francaise exhibition just before the crowds came in for Michael’s and Thom Ogonga’s joint celebration of the stories they have eye-witnessed in the shadier sides of Nairobi. Some of them must be drawn from hearsay since they are quite intimate. But no matter how graphic Michael’s stories get about the girls that entertain the guys at night when men’s wives and girlfriends are not around, he never quite crosses the borderline between pornographic and evocative. One always knows that Michael’s visual stories are illustrative of what’s really going on in certain circles of the city. But whether explicit as when guys are only at the flirting stage, as in the painting entitled, ‘Economics of Love 3’, or when the scenes are more explicit about the things men wouldn’t want their wives to know, either way, Michael handles his scenes with a touch of humor and irony.

Some of his paintings are hilarious, as in the one to which I just referred. One thing that I believe is new is that several of his paintings contain full conversations (using Swahili and English). In Economics of Love 3, there are five people apparently seated at the same bar. At one end, there’s a chubby white woman being embraced by a young African guy with dreadlocks. She speaks to him: ‘So you fancy me?’ she asks as he apparently fondles her breast. ‘Yes’, he responds in letters that look like a Japanese Yen, a Euro sign, and an ‘S’ with a line through it so it looks like an American dollar sign. Obviously, the lad is seeing money to be made in this potentially amorous exchange. And on the other side of the young rastaman is an African woman, possibly a sex worker who doesn’t appreciate the white woman’s competition. She makes a disgusted noise, ‘Mscheew’. But next to her are two more young guys who are jealous of rastaman for grabbing the white woman aka Ms. money bags. “Lucky chap” says one. “Yup” says the other.

At times I hear people suggest that Michael Soi is more of a cartoonist than a visual artist. But I don’t know why he cant be both. He’s not the first artist to include written words in his art. But in his case, I haven’t ever seen him carry on wordy conversations in his paintings before. But he has often painted images of young African men with their white ‘Visa” girlfriends. The girls don’t seem to have a clue that they are being used. But then there is probably some kind of quid pro quo in which she also benefits somehow. Either way, his art is illustrative of that kind of mutual exploitation in which neither side seems to feel exploited in the least. She may well be his passport to the West, but he is also her nightly comfort, a guy who gives her the attention no man may given her back home.

Michael places no judgement on any of the characters he represents, not in this show at least. In the past, his satirical paintings have stirred the ire of the people he lampoons. That was the case with his series on the Chinese in Africa. His focus in the Chinese in Africa series was essentially the re-colonization of the continent by China, and his illustrations were graphic and their message was quite clear. So much so that it is said an contingent of Chinese came to his studio and demanded—or strongly suggested—that he stop painting about them. I don’t know exactly Michael’s response but he wasn’t going to be bullied or censored or scared but their words, even if there was an implicit threat in them.

Meanwhile, Thom Ogonga paints many of the same women as Michael, it would seem. But Thom is more subtle and gentlemanly. He’s never as explicit as his partner pal. Nor are his ladies undressed. That’s a big difference between them since Michael loves to create super-shapely ladies with big bottoms and boobs, often with very little on except a thong or a skin-tight, low-cut dress. But the two compliment each other well as they share their stories of sex in the city for the fifth time.

5 LENSES CELEBRATES FIVE WOMEN ARTISTS

By margaretta wa gacheru (posted Fbruary 14, 2023) 5 Lenses is a fascinating, multifaceted exhibition happening since last night, February 15th, in the basement of Westlands Mall. A venue that is fast becoming a convenient site for quirky, unusual, and surprising new shows, 5 Lenses meets that criterion. Curated by artists April Kamande and Yvonne Nyawira, the show features five women artists, each representing a different genre of the arts, each seeing the world through a different ‘lens’ as it were.

There’s the painter, Victoria Thuo aka Blaine, the photographer, Adikinyi Kondo, the digital artist, Lynn Atieno, the sculptor, Elnah Akware, and the British writer Ozioma Ihersiene who is based in UK. “I was originally going to be the one painter out of the five. But then I realized I was needed to see the project through to completion, so I invited Blaine to come in instead of me,” April tells BDLife. She wisely chose to relinquish her space in the show since she’s the one who designed the project in the first place. “I had just left my job as the Arts Manager at the British Council, and had decided to apply for a [BC] arts grant which I was surprised to get,” she continues.

Admitting that the goals of the project are derived from issues that have arisen in her own practice, April says those issues can best be seen in the five themes that undergird the exhibition. Each theme reflects an aspect of the journey that she and countless others have taken during and after the COVID lockdown. They include first, ‘self-identity’, implying a process which has called on each artist to reflect on her own identity artistically.

Then comes ‘solitude’, a theme that she together with Yvonne decided was a subject every artist needs in order to stay focused on the work they need to do. After that comes the issue of ‘mental health and healing’ which evolved as a topic that’s essential to address in order to ensure the artist is on a journey that is constructive and deeply rooted. Finally, comes the theme of ‘growth’, a topic we expect to see through the artist’s practice following their journey the other lenses have taken them through.

The fifth theme addresses the collaborative aspect of the show and pairs off the painter and poet, digital artist and photographer, and the sculptor singularly creating a universal woman in wood to greet you as you enter the exhibition. Otherwise, the pairs address the environmental theme of animal versus man, understanding that both are near extinction at the rate that human beings are going. Yet the ambience at 5 Lenses is entirely upbeat and life-affirming. The work itself revealing women in command of their medium, young, positive, and admittedly ‘emerging’. But thanks to April’s initiative, the arts grant has enabled the artists to create the works they wanted, nearly all of which were produced specifically for this show.

“We’ve been working on this exhibition for the last six months,” April says. In fact, the show is also a multidisciplinary installation thanks to Yvonne’s tracking down Sunshyn Siteiya, the imaginative set designer who created five separate spaces inside the large room the women hired up until March 4th when the exhibition will close Each room is dedicated to one of the five themes with each artist contributing a piece to all five installations. It’s almost like attending five different exhibitions since they all reflect different aspects of each artist.

You can also see the journey that each one has taken as she’s sought to convey the essence of each theme, as seen through her lens of knowledge and experience. One more thing that I appreciate about this show is its construction. The panels that separate almost every room are pure glass from top to bottom. This enhances the sense of freedom one feels as you move from one room to the next.

The first one, for Self-Identity is filled with mirrors, some hanging from the ceiling, others situated all around the room. The centrepiece would seem to be Blaine’s colorful self-portrait. But then there is Elnah’s female sculpture standing tall and grabbing our attention as well. Meanwhile, as you move from Solitude to Mental Health and then to the glorious green room for Growth, one hears a voice of the poet, quietly reading the verses she composed especially for 5 Lenses.

In all, the exhibition is a rare combination of artistry and commitment to transcending boundaries so that women can share and generous convey a sense of unity in diversity that is unique.