BROOKHOUSE STAGES MUSICAL SPOOF ON SLEEPING BEAUTY

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted June 15m 2023) Performing arts are so popular at Brookhouse School that co-directors Joan Aywaya and Warucu Kijuu hosted 99 children in their cast of ‘Sleeping Beauty: The Ugly Truth’, staged this week at the school. The youth, aged nine to 12, did an outstanding job, considering everyone played their part as they danced and sang to marvelous music provided by Daniel Kalule. The Junior Prep’s music instructor played two keyboards throughout the show, one an electronic synthesizer providing a whole range of instrumental sounds, and one the school’s grand piano which offered the musical cohesion to give the story a unifying beginning and a glorious end. Written with a light touch by Andrew Oxspring and Ian Faraday, the musical teaches important moral lessons about what’s really important in life. It’s not so much about whether you are a ‘have’ or a ‘have not’, a beauty or an ugly one, popular or unpopular, all of these superficial assessments of who someone is and what their value is in the kingdom of Bella Vista where the story unfolds. At the outset of the play, we learn that social status and being beautiful are the most important values in Bella Vista. Certainly, King Hugo (Lucas Nardos) and his snooty Queen Maybeline (Nyabiya Syekei) believe as much, and so do all the villagers and the ‘good fairies’ Nip (Brianna Kabiru) and Tuck (Ruby Njeri) who bless the new born Princess Tiffany (Kailani Knopp) with more and more beauty. It’s only the witch Wanda (Emmy Mugendi) who forecasts a dark future for the little girl who, when she turns 21, will prick her finger and fall into a death-like sleep. Fortunately, Tiffany grows up into a sweet, selfless child whose best friend is the humble gardener’s son Alfie (Fatima Ndwiga). But once the media and paparazzi find out about their friendship, the lad is banished and the princess is left alone until the witch’s prophesy comes true. In the process of all this, we meet all the local ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ in the kingdom as well as the cooks who are preparing the banquet supposedly meant to celebrate Tiffany’s christening but actually just an excuse for us to see the superficiality of all of Bella Vista. We meet Ralph (Ethan Mutegi) and Lauren (Mwanaimani Hussein) (a brand name for the American fashion designer) who lead the media to where Tiffany and Alfie innocently meet, and who get a kickback from the paparazzi for taking them to get a scoop in the shallow media world where fashionista and celebs make news. From the beginning, we are assisted in understanding what’s going on in the village by the Narrator-Citizens who were well mic-ed and spoke clearly as they provided the continuity from one scene to the next, dressed in their striking black and red uniforms. In fact, costuming was one of the quality features of this Brookhouse show. Everyone was appropriately dressed, except perhaps the ‘Trees’, young lads who simply wore green ‘crowns’ to identify themselves. We got the gist as to their identity, however, since the trees appeared after Princess Tiffany pricked her finger and fell into a coma-like sleep. Inexplicably, the whole kingdom followed her lead and also conked out for another 10 years. In that time, the forest grew wildly such that no one could see through or make their way into the kingdom. But the rumor was that a spell cast on a sleeping princess could only be broken by the kiss of a princely character whose pure heart and clean spirit would reach her heart and wake her up. That was why four princes arrived and tried to break through the bush to find the princess. But they were defeated by the trees. By ’chance’, Tiffany’s old friend Alfie was passing by and neighbors from the next village suggested that he try to find his old friend. So, he did and he gave her a kiss that woke her and woke up her whole kingdom as well. Thus, everything was now turned around. The superficiality was cast aside as the entire kingdom, including the King and Queen realized they owed their lives to this humble peasant, Alfie who had never stopped loving their Tiffany. Nor had she stopped loving him. So, they got married by none other than the witch Wanda. After that, like every good fairy tale, they lived ‘happily ever after’ and it was a fun show that had a huge choir which stood upstairs on the second level of the stage.